Two is Much Easier than Ten

A conversation at work the other day was about the Ten Commandments. Some guys were trying to figure out all ten of them. As I joined the group, I was excited because this was something that actually interested me. However, when it was my time to shine, as the Bible College graduate, by naming them, I failed. Five or six of them were my max. Yes, I could explain that four were about God, six about relating to others, that eight were stated in a negative sense and two were in the positive. But darn if I could put a full list together.

I guess the reason why I wasn’t able to name them all, was because my focus had been on a conversation Jesus had with an expert of the law. In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus gives us just two simple commands, “Love God… and Love others…” Remembering and following that is much easier than comparing our lives to the big ten. As Christians, I believe that we need the Ten Commandments, but maybe they aren’t as important as we were taught as kids in Sunday school. (I know that I am not the first to make this argument.) We should use the Ten as guide to fill in what Jesus commanded, but more than that we need to add our own convictions to the list to make it easier follow Jesus’ Two. Jesus did come to abolish the law, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use what we have in the Old Testament as a good starting point for showing our love for God and others.

Now, as I reflect on the greatest two, I have to ask myself am I living up to them. Am I doing all that I can to show my love towards God? Do people realize that I love them… even if they are annoying? Jesus made it really simple, but why am I naïve sometimes and let my self fall in meeting these two…. Where do you stand?

Even though I am still single, I have been loved and seen love many times. Whether it is the love from my mom and dad or the love that Matt Groening has created between Homer and Marge, love has a special power. My mom and dad’s love has the power to make me feel good and inspires me to do great things. The love Marge has for Homer has a power that keeps them together, even though the not-so-great ideas of Homer. Beyond cartoon love and even beyond the love from my parents, is the love we find from God. God’s love is beyond any power and God’s power is beyond any love.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” The love we have for God is going to make us want to follow all of the commands. More so, the love from God is going to help us to follow and obey

Well that’s my first official blog. I wrote all of that to be able to say, don’t worry if you can’t name all of the Ten Commandments. Basically it’s all about love.

Check it out at Bible Gateway
Matthew 22:34-40
The Ten Commandments
2 Corinthians 5:16-18