Quote:
Originally Posted by livingbygrace
Christians haven't got ten. they have got two
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your body, with all your mind and with all your strength
Love one another as yourself
And its a good job we are not under law, because we so often fail miserably to keep them
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In fact, those two commandments are just a
summary of the law. Thus, Jesus goes on to say, "On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40). This means that the other commandments are applications built upon these "laws" of love.
And those two commands can be collapsed even further:
“For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are
summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ” (Romans 13:9)
This squares with Jesus satement in light of the following: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love... If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:8,20)
So it seems to me that, technically speaking, to say "We haven't got ten" is a misapplication of Jesus' (and Paul's and John's) statement. The ten commandments (indeed, all the commandments) are simply examples of what love looks like. That's why "love" is the summary or foundation of the law. So it makes no sense, to me, to try and say that we can do away with the other commandments (without careful qualification).
If I were giving a speech to a group of cops and said something like "Okay, fellas, your duty is to stop speeders, catch thieves, break up disputes, and serve as witnesses when necessary in a court of law. Basically, promote justice."
Would any of those cops think "He said 'basically promote justice.' that must mean that I don't have to stop speeders..."
No. That would be absurd, right? The fact that I summarized those things with the term "justice" hardly excuses any of the cops from carrying out those particular instances of justice that I specified. So I don't see how the fact that Jesus' pointed to two commandments as laying the foundation for the others frees us from the others. Nor do I see Paul's summary of all the commandments into the heading "love" frees us from doing what the commandments specify as love.
Consider this: if you are only commanded to "love" you might wonder what love looks like. Homosexuals maintain that their relationships are loving. But that doesn't square with the biblical definition of love. A Muslim believes that their treatment of women is loving. But, for
some Muslims, this doesn't square with what we consider loving. This is why a summary of the law cannot possibly be a replacement of the law. The Bible commands us to love and what is loving is defined in terms of the law.