The Ten Commandments


“Hear O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

This passage, from Deuteronomy 6 is known as the Shema (from the Hebrew “to hear”.) It comes after the commandments themselves and acts as a summary. Indeed, when asked what the greatest commandment was, rather than picking one of the ten, Jesus quotes from the Shema, arguing that all the commandments flow from this.

So, what does it tell us, what context does it provide?

‘Hear O Israel’
As Moses reminded them, they went into Egypt as seventy persons, but by now outnumber the stars in the sky. Israel had become a vast multitude, yet God was addressing them as one nation. From the disunity of twelve tribes had come the community of one people.

‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one’
In the same way, God, who had begun to reveal Himself as three persons through the ‘First Book of Moses (Genesis), is nonetheless one. God, John tells us, is love – a love so perfectly expressed that three become one.

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.’
In the same way, you being created in God’s image, are heart, soul and might (spirit, soul and body); three that become one as love abounds.

In each of the statements, we see that the message of the Shema, the context for The Law, is that wholeness (shalom) comes when that which is many, in love, becomes one. The purpose of the law, of the Ten Commandments, is to provide a framework for that unity: between people, between God and people and, at a personal level, within the spirit, soul and body of the individual.

In truth, after the Fall, this extraordinary unity has been rarely seen. Adam and Eve accused each other, Satan and even God. Within one generation Cain had killed Abel and in order to redeem, Jesus would leave the Father and The Spirit, ultimately crying out ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ Today, the signs of brokenness are all around and within.

The Shema gives us hope, pointing to a means by which we can be reconciled to God, to one another and healed as individuals. Not by meticulously keeping rules, but by loving God. The healing comes, not as we focus on fixing the brokenness, but as we focus everything we have on God. If we seek to line up our human relationship with each other, we might sort out some, but only at the expense of others. If we seek to realign our minds with our bodies, our spirit misses out. But if we love God, with everything we are, reconciliation and healing become possible.

The context then, for the commandments, is not that we might know how to behave in order to pacify an angry God, but that we should learn how to love in order to be one with Him, with ourselves and with each other. No wonder then, that Jesus insists that the two greatest commands are rooted in the Shema: that we should love God, love our neighbour and love ourselves. All the rest flow from these. 

As we look through each of the commandments during Lent, this is the key thing to give up - not chocolate or alcohol of Facebook or TV. No, let's give up a legalistic, fear-driven view of God and allow the love of God to truly transform us.

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