by Steve Preston

In the state of Georgia, controversy erupted recently over the public display of the Ten Commandments. Lawsuits have been brought against individuals in positions of authority, challenging the posting of the Ten Commandments in government buildings and schools. This apparently has become an issue of separation of church and state.

What I find really interesting is that people, even those who have long studied the Scriptures, seem to consider the Ten Commandments as applicable to us today (they are not, Romans 7:4, 6; Colossians 2:14). What is also interesting is that, of the commandments that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ called the greatest, neither is found among the Ten Commandments.

In Matthew 22:36, a lawyer asked Jesus this question: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" As with most questions asked of Jesus, this one was a test to see if He would answer "correctly."

Our Lord gave this reply: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:37-39).

These two commandments are of such great importance that Jesus stated that "on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (verse 40). Why is it that people today want to cling to an old law that can do nothing for us and yet ignore the teaching of the Saviour in Matthew 22? (This teaching is also found in Mark 12:28-31.) Even if we concede that Jesus lived and died under the Old Testament law, which included the Ten Commandments, it is clear that God intended all people for all time to adhere to the two "great commandments."

Why can I state this? Because in Mark 12, when the person asking about the greatest (or first) commandment agreed with Jesus' answer, our Lord replied, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34). Undoubtedly, then, one must love God with one's whole being and love one's neighbor in order to be a part of the kingdom of God.

In the Scriptures, the kingdom and the church are identified with each other, so the great commandments apply to us today as well as to the men and women of the Old Testament.

The greatest commandments were indeed part of the old law, but they are also part of the new law. We cannot be pleasing to God unless we love him with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Display the Ten Commandments if you wish, but it would be better to display the greatest commandments in our lives every day.

Steve publishes the Bible Talk list, from which this article was reprinted, with his permission: ttp://www.topica.com/lists/list_BibleTalk