How do the Ten Words relate to the New Testament?

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the ten words of life. So uh in the last uh episode I talked some about how uh law functioned, um, the Torah uh functioned in the Hebrew scriptures, how creation is kind of the base, like God's purposes for creation, God's covenant, his choosing of covenant people, making a covenant with people uh to restore his purposes in creation, and how the law, the instruction, was meant to guide his covenant people as they restore uh the purposes in creation. And how um I think that same pattern carries forward into the New Testament. Um I think that still applies to us as followers of Christ today. But there is a question specifically about how do we think about um uh because we recognize not all the instructions of the Torah, not all the laws, the commandments of the Hebrew scriptures still apply to us as New Testament, uh, as followers of Jesus. Um and this episode is not going to explore all the nooks and crannies of that. How do we know which parts of the Torah do apply and don't apply? I'm really gonna focus today just on the ten words and how we see that those ethical principles are carried forward. Um I'm gonna really narrowly focus on that because I think by and large they are. And I mentioned this off-handedly in the message on Sunday, that we see these reaffirmed um in uh the New Testament. And I think uh, and I think it's part of you know God's heart. Uh, like God really does, He wants to form us into a people of moral goodness. Um, you know, um historically we've people have said there's two ditches. Like if Christians are walking down the center of the road, one ditch is called legalism, the other ditch is called um antinomianism. And the legalism is uh that we we we make it all about following rules and we earn our way into God's love. That's not true. We're rescued in Jesus. To trust in Jesus is to be a rescued person, to be adopted into God's family. But the other ditch is this um anti-nomianism, this idea anti uh is against gnomos is Greek for law, and against the law, which basically is like there's no law, like we're free in Christ, we do whatever we want. Like it's like you those rules, those ethical rules, those are for you know the Pharisees, like no, it doesn't, you know, it's just grace. And and using the term grace as kind of a cover for doing whatever you want, really. And that also, I think, uh, well, just any honest reading of uh the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus, um, clearly um God wants to form a people of moral goodness as individuals, as families, as a church, um, as a people. So we see this uh we s and we see the uh the ten words reaffirmed in the New Testament as part of how God is forming his people. And um I'll just talk, you know, on Sunday I said, hey, we see almost all of them reaffirmed. I'll just talk about this real quick. Um you know that the uh where do I want to start? I'll just I'll just run through the ten um because I think that's that may be the simplest way to do it. You know, first of all, God um you know, the uh the ten words starts and he says, You should have no gods before me, and you shall have no idols. Um, and so you know, a passage like 1 Corinthians, and I'm gonna name a bunch of verses here, and so you might do your own little Bible study um later on. Um, but uh 1 Corinthians 10 14, therefore, my dear friends, free from flee from idolatry. Um, you know, and in fact, regularly in Paul's letters, he's talking um to uh the New Testament followers, Jesus, about the dangers of idolatry, of pursuing other gods. Um you know, those first two commands are very there's a lot connecting them that they'll be um you have no God uh but the living God, and you'll have no make no idols. And um and I think both of those are carried, like we can see those all over the new all over the New Testament. Like, you know, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Like he is the one God that you know, the triumph of God is the one God we're called to worship. Um, you know, uh flee from all kinds of idols. So that that those are clearly um carried forward into the New Testament. Um do not use God's name in vain as the third word of the ten words. Uh I mean, you think about the Lord's Prayer, uh, the way it starts. Like um, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Like the the the like we the the prayer disciples' prayer starts with like um desiring God's name to be hallowed, to be honored, to be glorified, um, which is the opposite of of uh using it in vain, of discrediting, um, of abusing, of using the name of God uh for for for wickedness, right? So uh carried forward. Um honor your father and mother. I mean, you see these in um a lot of the uh kind of the what they're called household codes um in the New Testament. So like Ephesians, here I'm just trying to um uh Ephesians chapter 6 uh is where it's really clearly reaffirmed. Instructions to Christian households, and then you know, um, you know, Ephesians 6, 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with the promise. I mean, there, you know, um, so that it may go uh well with you, that you may enjoy long life on earth. I mean, Paul is just picking up um that commandment and carrying it straight forward um to New Testament households. Uh, you know, do not murder, uh clearly picked up, and and then Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, he intensifies, and oftentimes this is what Jesus does. He intensifies, he gets to the heart of it. So he says, you know, you've heard it said, do not murder. I say, you know, anyone who gets angry um at his brother or sister and says, You fool, um, right? This like Jesus says, hey, it's not just have you avoided literally killing anyone, but do you have the spirit of murder in your heart? Um and so clearly Jesus is carrying this uh command forward. Similarly, do not commit adultery. Jesus does the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 again. Um, you know, anyone who looks lustfully um at a woman, um at someone they're not married to has committed adultery in their heart, right? The the uh the even if you don't haven't literally committed the act, the spirit of adultery uh can be within a person. And so Jesus is intensifying, getting to the heart of these uh of these 10 words. Um do not steal. I mean, this gets reaffirmed a number of different places. Where's one? Let's see, um, that I've got right here. Uh Ephesians 4.28. Anyone who's been stealing must steal no longer, but must work. Um that that's where, you know, Ephesians 4.28. Um, do not lie. Again, picked up in the New Testament. Um, Colossians, where's that one? And these are multiple places. I'm just picking, do not lie to one another. Colossians 3 9, since you've taken off your old self with its practices. Um there Paul's associating lying uh with the old self. Um, stuck in sin. Uh coveting, James, uh James 4.2. Um, let's see, James. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Do not come from your desires that battle within you. You desire, but you do not have, so you kill, you covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. Um, coveting, you know, James seeing it as a root of conflict. So the point being, over and over again, we see these picked up uh by the New Testament, by the Jesus movement, and saying these ethical uh instructions from God, they still guide us um in our life today. A few things we noticed. Um, one, uh, that Jesus intensifies them, he gets at the heart of them. Um, two, you may have noticed I draw I didn't touch on the Sabbath one, because even in the sermon on Sunday, I said, hey, that's the one that seems like there's some more question around that one. Because it does seem like for the New Testament authors, some of that there seems like the Sabbath may be closer to some of the ceremonial laws, at least the literal 24-7 observance of it. And so, you know, in uh in Colossians um two, um, you'll see Paul will say something like, Where's that, 2.16? Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. Um, and in Hebrews it talks about the true Sabbath being in Jesus. And so I think, and I'm not gonna do it in this one, but I do think there's some more, uh, there's some more questions to be asked about what does that look like exactly for uh for followers of Jesus. But by and large, these these the ten words are carried forward as guidance for worshiping the one true God and ethical living into the New Testament. If anything, they're intensified. Um and um and I think a really helpful uh, you know, a really helpful word on this actually comes from Romans uh 13. Uh, you know, I made the comment Sunday that you can really say that part of these laws point are are ways that we love God, and part of them are the ways that we love people, love God and love our neighbor. And in Romans 13, um, I think this is, you know, Paul essentially is saying something just like this. Romans 13, beginning in verse 8, he says, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another. For whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, and now he lists specifics from the ten words, the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Uh, love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And so I think you can say love your neighbor sums up those commands, and I think you can flip that, and you can say these commands unpack what at least some aspects of loving our neighbor looks like. And so um, by studying the ten words, um by meditating on them, I do believe we are fundamentally meditating on ways that we can uh love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself. And that's what we're about, as Father of Jesus. So grace and peace. See you next time.