A New Understanding of the 10 Commandments

[Molearner]

This might appear to be a senseless topic because the 10 Commandments are so familiar that we are confident in our own understandings and might be unsettled by anything that disturbs our equilibrium. Nevertheless, I attempt to do this very thing.....bring a new understanding.

God, IMO, used ingenious ambiguity in wording the commandments. Maybe ambiguity is not the right word......maybe veiling would be more correct. My premise is based on the use of one little word. It caught my attention and made me think. That word is "shall" or "shalt"(archaic). He did not say you must not do, you are not allowed to do, you cannot do, etc. All or any of these seem more appropriate to a command because of their definitiveness. On the other hand, "shall" is more ambiguous. It has a connotation of something in the future and this future is unspecified in time. What? now? tomorrow? 3 months from now? It is from this viewpoint that I consider the 10 Commandments as being promissory and predictive in nature. That at some unspecified time one shall not do any of these things.

We accept that the word of God is true and that it is impossible for God to lie.
These 'promises' or 'predictions' must come true. It is painfully obvious that these commandments are continuously broken and there is no reason to believe that this will be otherwise. So for me this implies that it will be in a new world.....heaven, if you will.....or the kingdom of God and/or Heaven. This is a great promise and serves as the first genuine indication of eternal life. Now we know that the Commandments were perceived as law(as opposed to my conception of promise or prediction). We also are told in the Bible that the law brings death. The Apostle Paul talked at length about this. So if this is true(the original understanding) then we must ask ourselves....If God brought the law and the law is death is God then a god of death? This is hard to accept but then, personally, I conceive of God being a God of Love...a God of life. This perceived fierceness and unforgiving and punitive portrayal of God has seeped into the consciousness of mankind. It provided the fuel for misguided evangelism and continues to do so today. Witness the many postings on this very forum that assault us with all manner of terrible outcomes. IMO this concept of God as a God of law and death must be morphed into that of a God of love and life.

How did this all happen? One need look no further than the creation story of Genesis. In the very beginning man was created in the likeness of God and the constitution of man was that of body, soul, and spirit. Then Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit. This was despite God having warned them that they would die. Once again, God does not lie. So what died? It was the third part of their constitution.....their spirit. Without spirit man cannot communicate with God because God is spirit. They were banished from the Garden and cut off from God. Man was dead to God with the exception of the elected remnant(see Romans 11:4-8). In that passage note that God gave mankind 'a spirit of stupor so that they could not see or hear'(things of the Spirit).

It became necessary to write in stone the law so that chaos would not reign in that unspiritual world. Now what happens in the Bible? Look to the new covenant that Jeremiah related. Jeremiah31:31-34. God promises...."I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.....no longer will a man teach 'Know the Lord' because they will all know me....I will forgive and remember their sins no more"(shortened version). What does this mean? It means that God will restore His spirit to man. Think of the Gospel of John that describes how the Spirit will teach all things. This new covenant was a prophecy.....it did not happen the next day. It happened on the day of Pentecost with the outpouring of the Spirit. Salvation happened when Jesus was crucified.

It was from this time that one can legitimately say that 'hope springs eternal'...….the return of the Spirit to man...…..the sacrifice of Jesus. To conclude I have attempted to present my thoughts on understanding the 10 Commandments. If it causes even one person to reconsider then I will be satisfied. I know as I finish this I will regret omitting relevant points that have either slipped my mind or have now come to my consciousness.