The Ten Commandments

      The most misunderstood part of the Bible are the Ten Commandments. They are referred to as "The Law." However, they are only part of The Law. The remainder of it was not written by God's own "finger" but by Moses according to God's dictation. The Ten Commandments were written on stone for perpetuity. They are still The Law and the very Will of God. Why do so many preachers teach against obedience then? Because they do not understand what Paul called "the mystery of God."
      Look again at the commandment that God said was greatest:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Mat 22:36-39).

      "Commandment" above is rendered from the Greek entole meaning "prescription." The Commandments are not arduous. God merely prescribes righteous living. Like any good medicine, the intent is to heal. Why should the "Commandments" be kept? "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" (Deut 5:29). First note that the prescriptions were forever! The "heart" implies a willingness to do these things. It was written that the Israelites, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked." (Deut 10:16). In the New Testament Paul explained that a little better: "Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter."
      That means that it's not the Law which is the prescribed Will of God, but the willingness to please God by obedience.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)

      A circumcised heart, then, is why Christians are to use God's prescribed way of living. They are the Way to salvation. "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live..." (Deut 5:33). Thus, the Commandments are the Way to live forever because that is how Christians demonstrate love for Jesus. (Yes, it was Jesus whose finger wrote the prescription.) They "heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire" (Deut 5:26). That "Voice" was "The Word" which we know from John chapter three was God in the flesh, namely Jesus! Of course, the Way to salvation is loving Jesus for redeeming mankind. Why be a commandment keeper? To demonstrate appreciation for God's Flesh dying in our places. That is validated by the Third Prescription: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Deut 5:11).
     "Take" not "say." The Lord's Name is called Jesus. His purpose was dying for mankind. Christians are not to take Jesus's purpose vainly, for the Third Prescription was the Way for eternal "healing." "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved" (Jer 17:14). Healing and saving are used interchangeably in scripture. When Jesus made whole and healed he saved those people for eternity!
     In Deuteronomy 5:29, "commandment" was transliterated from the Hebrew mitzvah and means ordinance or precept. An "ordinance" is a practice and a "precept" is a principle. Perhaps "commandment" is too harsh in that implies coercion. In fact, the early Hebrews in Moses's time felt as if God cursed them because The Law was too difficult. They preferred to go back to Pharaoh because his commands were easier!
     Were the Ten Commandments (Prescriptions) a new thing? Not at all; God's Will in His Covenant with Abraham had one condition, to wit: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deut 6:5). Where have we read that before? Matthew 22:37 above. Jesus said it again! Why "again?" Because that is what The Voice told Moses!
     The condition for the Abrahamic Covenant which was forever, of course, was the Greatest Commandment. To the Greatest Commandment was appended: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets ( Mat 22:40). Jesus pointed out that The Law (The Ten Commandments) was the Greatest Commandment. How can that be? The first four are ways to love God, and the last four, the ways to love others.
     How is it known that the Ten Commandments were the conditions for the Abrahamic Covenant? "And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone" (Deut 4:13). The Mosaic Covenant was the Abrahamic Covenant as both had the same promise: "That ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it" (Deut 4:14). Of course, that is the same as the Abrahamic Covenant which promised the same possession.
    The Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants were one and the same, and the same as the Covenant of Grace since possession of Canaanland was forever. Because New Jerusalem will be transplanted to Jerusalem (Rev 21:2), the actual promise was the heavenly Paradise whereon the Garden Paradise once sat. (Jerusalem was its "foundation."). Not only did God's "Finger" (Jesus) write the Ten Prescriptions for healing, but wrote them on stone to be forever! They are ways to demonstrate love for Jesus's redemption of our dying souls, and meant the same to Abraham and Moses as they do to Jesus and Christians. That is the rest of the story. Commandment-keeping is righteous living.