The Ten Commandments Re-Framed

In a discussion, I heard, “the Ten Commandments aren’t really commandments.  They’re just suggestions.” That is probably not a direct quote, but the general message is right (as in it agrees with the intent of the speaker, I think).  I do not agree with the speaker’s words, however.  Despite that, it did cause me to think about the 10 Commandments, and how we view them, or, more particularly, how we don’t view them in their entirety.

I’ve been thinking about writing this for a while, but, frankly, it is a rather large undertaking for such a theologically-challenged person as myself, and I don’t want to speak out of turn.  However, in the midst of my MIT studies, I read a paraphrase of John Wesley’s “Means of Grace”.  As John Wesley is, in most regards, the theological father of the Church of the Nazarene, such statements by him must be taken seriously by Nazarenes.  One of John Wesley’s “general” Means of Grace is: keeping the commandments.

I took it as a challenge to actually attempt this.  This is no theological treatise, so don’t take it as such.

1 comment

  1. The 10 commandments are as valid now as they ever were. The commandments were given by God to us to show us what Christian life looks like. They show us that we cannot perform them, but the flip side is that they show us what Christian life and living with God is like.

    Love tops all, but the commandments show us some of what love looks like.

    J. Robert Ewbank author “John Wesley, Natural Man, and the ‘Isms'”

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