Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them."
Critics love to poke holes at the congruency of the Bible, saying that it contradicts itself. Here is a prime example of the Bible saying one thing in the Old Testament and then something else in the New Testament!
To better understand this, it helps to go back to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy... too much? Indeed, there’s a lot in there. But this was ‘The Law’. It contains the 613 mitzvah (rules/commandments/law/words) that every Jewish child needs to learn when they become sons and daughters of the law (bar/bat mitzvah) and take on the responsibility of following GOD. The 10 Mitzvah in Exodus 20 are known as The Ten Words.
As a Christian, I was only taught ten commandments at Sunday School, not six hundred! And right there, under the guise of sweet innocence, our foundational teachings in the Christian faith skew our perceptions and understanding of our relationship with GOD. Instead of us viewing these commandments (10 or 613, doesn’t actually matter) as a checklist to chastity, we should see them as a profile for what life should look like when we love our GOD with all our heart, mind and soul.
To better understand this, it helps to go back to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy... too much? Indeed, there’s a lot in there. But this was ‘The Law’. It contains the 613 mitzvah (rules/commandments/law/words) that every Jewish child needs to learn when they become sons and daughters of the law (bar/bat mitzvah) and take on the responsibility of following GOD. The 10 Mitzvah in Exodus 20 are known as The Ten Words.
As a Christian, I was only taught ten commandments at Sunday School, not six hundred! And right there, under the guise of sweet innocence, our foundational teachings in the Christian faith skew our perceptions and understanding of our relationship with GOD. Instead of us viewing these commandments (10 or 613, doesn’t actually matter) as a checklist to chastity, we should see them as a profile for what life should look like when we love our GOD with all our heart, mind and soul.
However, instead, we draw pictures and learn the 10 off by-heart, believing that we are now better, somehow closer to GOD. The flip side is that we feel terrible and worthless when we can't keep them. The problem: we will never be able to keep them all. The solution: Jesus Christ - Grace.
