Basic HTML Version
exercised in daily life. So, despite
the over 600 fence-laws, The Law
was stiU constan tiy broken by all.
In addition, there are other laws.
Laws of sacrifices. Laws rega rding
going to war. Laws regarding di –
vorce and remarriage. Laws dealing
with all aspects of life you and 1
face. A law designating wha t to do if
your ox ge ts out and gores the
neighbor's ox. Many, many laws, so
perhaps Sam's ques tion was under–
standable in tha t he sa id , "Which
commandments?"
J esus' answer was specific and un–
mistakable: " Don ' t murder, don ' t
commit adulte ry"- now, " Tho u
sha lt not kili" is number 6, and
"Thou shalt no t commit adultery" is
number 7. J esus cont inued : " Don' t
stea l. do n ' t bea r fal se witness."
numbers 8 and 9, and then Jesus
added , " Honor your father and your
mother" which is number 5- Jesus
was not giving any particula r o rder.
but a nswe rin g con ve rsa tiona lly,
then summing it a ll up with thc gen–
eral law: "Love your neighbor as
yourself."
An lntegrated Whole
This Jesus was the One. remember,
who spoke these Ten Command–
ments from Mount Sinai to Sam's
anccs tors. The same One who. in a
unique experience. told a who le na–
tion His laws. Jesus gave the Ten
Commandments from Mount Sina i
in a specific o rder, which began
with , "Thou sha lt have no o ther
gods before me": He was the One
who brought the Israelites out of
bondage in Egypt and redeerned
them, and He insisted they worship
Him only! Then He added restric–
tions against ido! worship, taking
His na rne
in
va in and required the
observance of the seventh-day Sab–
ba th. Four specific laws governing
man's relationship to God- then
carn e the law: "Honor your fa ther
and your mo the r," beginning six
laws governing man's relationship
with his fellowman.
I'm sure J esus hadn' t forgotten
the o rder. But in His answer to Sam,
He left out altogether the first four,
mixed up the o rder of the last six
and left out one of them a ltogether:
"Thou shalt not covet." But then, as
He later inspired James lo write, if
you break any one of these com-
30
mandments you are guilty of break–
ing them all. They a re an integra ted
whole. They are a cornpact one .
They a ll deal with !ove: the first four
with Iove toward God, the las t six
with !ove toward fellowman.
Well, Sa rn listened to aU of those
J esus quoted . They were very famil–
ia r to him. He had thern printed.
undoubtedly. on the door post of his
home as the custom of his people
dictated. The o rde r of the com–
mandrnents over his door was the
same as when God spoke it the first
time, wrote it in stone two separa te
Sam didn't have
the same problem some
people have who feel
that any commandment
which Jesus did not
specifically reinstitute in
the New Testament
is no longer in effect just
because it was
in the Old Testament.
times for Moses and inspired Moses
to record it twice, in Exodus 20 and
Deuteronomy 5.
Sam recognized
1he
Ten Com–
rnandments.
Sam didn' t have the same prob–
lem sorne people have who feel that
any commandment which Jesus did
no t speci fically REinstitute in the
New Testament is no longer in ef–
fect just because it was in the O ld
Testament. lf that were so , then we
would assume a t this particular
po int tha t it's perfectly all right to
have as many other gods before the
true God as we want, because Jesus
didn' t mention tha t law. We ca n
have ido ls and icons filling our
houses, our churches and places of
worship if we want because J esus
also left that law out here. We can
curse the air blue a nd carry the
name of Christ a round on our T–
shirts in vain and get away with it,
because Jesus didn' t tell Sarn: " You
shall not take the na me of the Lo rd
thy God in va in." And of course we
cou ld break the Sabbath law with
impunity, beca use J es us le ft tha t
one out too!
l ' m sure you and 1 don' t have any
problern with reasoning like tha t
any more than Sarn did- we know
tha t J esus' a nswer to Sam didn' t
g ive anyone license to break the fi ve
of th e T en Cornma ndments H e
d idn' t specifically mention.
Seven Leagues Ahead of Job
Unfortunately fo r Sam, his smug
and self-righteous response to Jesus
was, " Look, l 've kept a ll these from
my youth up. That's simple. Yo u
know, I've never murdered a ny–
one- I've never sto len so much as a
single penny!" Of cou rse no t. Sam
didn' t have to kili or be killed: he
was living under Roman Law. He
didn' t have to stea l
an~th i ng,
be–
cause he was a wealthy person. He
had never lacked for anything a ll
his life, food , clo thing and shelte r
be ing more than adequa te. Neithe r
was bearing fa lse witness necessary
to maintain his style of living.
Le t's face it: Sam was PERFECT–
in his own eyes!
Sam knew he had kept these com–
mandments. He knew he was per–
fec t and upright. He kncw he was
seven leagues ahead of Job. He
knew he was fa r beyond the heart of
David. He knew tha t he was ta l–
ented beyond a ll human be ings, and
was God's gift to mankind! Sam
knew he was a ll of these swe lling
things of vanity tha t his answer ob–
viously proved he felt he was.
But Sam was wrong, because in
his heart and mind he wasn' t keep–
ing the commandments even if he
were in the ft esh, the le tter of the
law. He certa inly wasn ' t observing
the heart of it , the spirit, the intent
and the purpose-and that's wha t
Jesus was ge tting a t, isn' t it? We a re
to worship Him in spirit and in
truth- we are to keep the hearl and
essence. the core. direction, mea n–
ing, purpose of those laws which He
ca lls the T en Comma ndments–
those two grea t laws which direct
!ove toward God and !ove toward
mankind- tha t ONE
LAW:
LOVE!
Keep the Commandments
Even though there were only .fiv e
laws Jesus mentioned, Sam knew
He meant Sam to keep ALL TEN.
The
PLAIN TRUTH October-November 1977