How Then Shall We Live?

Q #92: What is God’s law? A: God spoke all these words: THE FIRST COMMANDMENT “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” THE SECOND COMMANDMENT “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of their parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” THE THIRD COMMANDMENT “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his hame.” THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the client resident in your town For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.” THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you.” THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not commit murder.” THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not commit adultery.” THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not steal.” THE NINTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or dox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Q #93: How are these commandments divided? A: Into two tables. The first has four commandments, teaching us how we ought to live in relation to God. The second has six commandments, teaching us what we owe our neighbor. 

The two questions and answers today introduce the decalogue, or “ten words” given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. We commonly refer to them as the Ten Commandments. Our catechism reading today is straightforward enough. QA92 contains all ten of the commandments, and QA93 simply tells us that they are divided into two tables. It also describes those two tables—the first (with the first 4 commandments) deals with our relation to God, and the second (with the remaining 6) dealing with our relation to our neighbor.         Over the next few weeks the catechism and our devotions will be diving into each commandment in greater detail. But today it might be worth a moment to think of them as a whole. It is especially important to remember the structure of the catechism overall and where we are in it. No matter which words you want to use to describe the threefold division of the catechism—guilt / grace / gratitude, sin / salvation / service, or something else—we encounter the Ten Commandments in the third and final section. That is, the catechism’s treatment of the law occurs in the section that describes our grateful living in response to the gracious salvation granted to us in Christ. As we have seen throughout the catechism, our good works are the result of our salvation in Christ—not the cause of it. We don’t accomplish our salvation because of our success at keeping these commandments. Our salvation was accomplished by Christ on the cross, and these commandments teach us how to live as redeemed people of God.  The Ten Commandments have often had a prominent place in Reformed worship, and their usual placement in the worship service emphasizes this same purpose of God’s law in the Christian life. Typically they are read after the prayer of confession and assurance of pardon. That is, after the congregation confesses its sin and receives a reminder of the assurance of our forgiveness in Christ, then the law is read in order to shape our grateful response to that grace.  May the Spirit guide us over these next few weeks as we explore each commandment, looking deeper into what God’s will is for us. And may he grant us the sanctifying grace to more faithfully live into that will, expressing our gratitude for salvation in Christ.  ~Pastor Matt