10 Commandments

We're reviewing the Ten Commandments tomorrow in MIni Bible class.  I spent a little time mulling them over this morning.  Here are a few thoughts.  If you had to come up with the ten most important rules for living your life what would they be?  Or, put another way, if you were to look at your life and list the ten principles or rules that you live bythe closest, day in and day out, what would those ten important guidelines or principles be?  I think that God gave us the ten most important rules to lead us through our days in the Ten Commandments.  One thing that stands out is that there isn't a whole lot of focus on "self fulfillment", achievement, "self actualization" or ambition.  In fact the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20 seem to guide our thinking and actions away from self and toward God and others.  It seems to be all about key relationships...our strong orientation and focus on God is to be number one and this takes up the first four commandments.  Then we have instructions relating to the other important relationships: our parents, our spouse and our neighbors.  It seems to me that the commandments show that God understands our human tendency to put self at the center and the commandments seek to help us reorient that focus first to God and then to others.  Our worship of the Lord anchors us and our faith so that we are secure and content in our relationship with our parents, our spouse and those we live with.   So, a life that is properly aligned upward and then properly aligned outward will likely be the most fulfilling and pleasing inward.

Matthew 22:³⁴ But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ³⁶ "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

³⁷ Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

blessings,

Rob Smith