My Unusual Journal 47

My Unusual Journal

My Unusual Journal 47 - Saturday, November 05, 2011, 5:46 PM

Which of the Ten Commandments Are Binding on Us Today?

The Law, of which the Ten Commandments were the core, was strict and demanding. There were many cases in which a person could become unclean and there were many remedies for the uncleanness, if the offender would avail himself of them. The Law with its harshness and its merciful side was intended to accomplish at least the following points of view among the Israelites:

1.             Strongly emphasize man’s filthy state in light of the total righteousness of God.
2.             Make the Israelites aware that they were a different people from all other nations.
3.             Highlight the love and mercy of God, and
4.             Point to the coming Ultimate Sacrifice in Jesus Christ, who by His suffering and death would fulfill all the demands of the Mosaic Law, thus making void all the Mosaic Law.
   1. Not one of the Ten Commandments or numerous rituals of the ceremonial law was binding on New Testament believers if it was not repeated in the New Covenant (Testament).

It is interesting to note that men in Old Testament days were allowed to have a plurality of wives and concubines. (Humorous note: If a man can’t handle one wife, why on earth would he want more than one?) That would be outright sin today. God suffered the practice for centuries even after the death of Jesus, but, bit by bit, showed men what He really wanted along that line. Meanwhile, the Old and New Covenants forbade mistreatment of a wife, even to demanding that each wife be given her full marital rights. There must have been numerous kings who couldn’t meet that demand because they had many wives and concubines. For example Solomon had 300 wives! There is no way he could have given them all their marital rights.

The New Testament continued and strengthened the OT demand that a man treat his wife with “due benevolence” (“give to his wife her conjugal rights” – RSV). Furthermore, if you are a student of Church history, you can see, if not the outright ban on a plurality of wives, an inclination toward that end in the years following Jesus’ crucifixion. This inclination would eventually become a firm prohibition against polygamy for a Christian man.

It does not appear that any of the Apostles had more than one wife although some of the other men in the early Church still did; but it was a fading practice. When Paul and Peter – who is the only other Apostle to give his views on the marital state – mentioned marriage, they used only the singular form in reference to a man’s marital companion. As Paul commands,

“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church [singular], and gave himself for it ...” (Eph 5:25-27)

After taking more than a cursory look at the Old and New Testaments, I draw this conclusion:

For anyone who needs evidence that the God (Jehovah) of the Old Testament is the God (Jesus Christ) of the New, the proof practically flies in your disbelieving face. Of ten well-known commandments given in the Old Testament, nine are repeated in the New. The main points of variation between the two covenants lie in 1) the manner in which they were enacted; 2) the complete omission of the Sabbath observance in the New Testament; and 3) the generous infusion of grace (which is undeniably present but not as plenteous in the Old Testament) in the New Covenant/Testament.