WHY ALL THE FUSS ABOUT THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?

I have long said that Christian schools can be the worst influence on a young Christian kid.  If course, that should never actually BE the case, but it was in our case and in talking with others, it is pretty common.

Why do I say that?  First, most Christian schools do not really believe the gospel.  They believe in RULES.  If you obey the rules, you have favor.  If you don't you don't.   No matter what they say in chapel, the bottom line is that it is a works-based faith.

The sad part is, so many of the rules are man-made and of no value against fleshly indulgence.  Dress codes that stifle all creativity.  Endless rules.   My son was given demerits for looking down at his shoes.  Another son was given multiple detentions for chewing gum on his way in the door of the school.  He was the soccer goalie, and tried to serve detention but it was filled to overflowing (that should tell you something).  His coach said he would take care of it and my son went to the game which was in the rain.  In the spirit of Christian charity, the other team took the better side of the field and had tents for their players while ours slipped and slid and almost caught pneumonia.  Ah, no rules about THAT.

All over our nation, there are battles over the Ten Commandments even though Christ nailed those to the cross.  Some try to say that the Ten are the moral law and the rest are the ceremonial law and we still need to observe the Ten.  A lady in one of my wife's prayer groups is very contentious about this in terms of the Sabbath.   Funny thing is, the two GREATEST commandments that Jesus gave aren't even in the Ten!   The first is, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your  mind."   The second is to love our neighbor as ourself.

It is hard to go into a church that doesn't teach tithing, even though no church I have ever been in actually practices it the way the Jews did (23.3% of the food grown) and even though when the church was established, it was never given to the Gentiles as a requirement.   What is the fascination with cherry-picking commandments???   The forced-tithe crowd don't follow any of the other ceremonial laws and ignore the clear New Testament teaching to NOT give under compulsion but as EACH MAN
determines in his own heart.  The ones that swear by the Sabbath and who would never say "Gee-Whiz" because that is swearing (it is, actually, and I still abide by a strict following not to swear which is also in the New Testament.  Minced oaths do count!), do NOT love their neighbor as themselves.  In fact, they pretty much ignore their neighbor, figuring they are a heathen.   We encourage people to know their neighbors and pray for them and where possible gather together with them.   We get together with our next door neighbors almost every week.  We try to love them as ourselves.  

I believe if we truly understand the grace of God, and follow New Testament guidelines, which are basically that the law is written in our hearts and goes far beyond the Ten Commandments or any of the other Old Testament laws.   We must now love our enemies as well as our friends.  We must not even think about adultery.   We are called to be holy as God is holy.  The rich young rules obeyed all the 10 yet went to hell because he would not sell everything he had and give it to the poor.  A lot of legalistic people sure don't like those portions of scripture!

I hate to see the Ten Commandments or ANYTHING to do with God disrespected.  However, we must be steadfast in our preaching that the answer to our nation's severe decline is not in obeying the Ten Commandments.  The Jews who had a theocracy could not do it and Christ has to come to save us.  The law and the Ten Commandment are unable to save us.  Only Christ an save us and we must preach CHRIST and not laws.   May God bless you!