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By Donald Sweeting
Media outlets have been ablaze with arguments for or against displaying the Ten Commandments in public classrooms. I’m actually more concerned about churches posting the Ten Commandments in their own buildings and classrooms.
Last week when Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed legislation requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in his state, it set off a passionate debate about the place of those commandments in our schools. I thought to myself that before we get all hot and bothered about the place of these commandments in our nation’s schools, how about getting all hot and bothered about placing them in our churches? If I were the head of a denomination, I’d first double down on requiring every church to post the Ten Commandments. After all, churches are supposed to be a light to the world. Yet how many churches post these commandments, let alone post them in a prominent place, or use them in their worship services and liturgies?
The sad reality is that many churches don’t, and for various reasons. Many Protestants and evangelicals have forgotten their confessional heritage. Many have stopped intentionally catechizing their children with teaching tools that use the Ten Commandments. Some have slipped into antinomianism theologies that have no place for law. And rare is the church that refers to them on a Sunday morning, unless, perchance a pastor is preaching through Exodus or Deuteronomy. Consequently, many sons and daughters of the Christian church have lost both their ethical framework and distinctiveness. So, are we really going to insist that our secular school system does what we are not doing?
Previously, I have argued the case elsewhere for posting the Ten Commandments in our schools. I believe there are good reasons for doing so, but my first concern is the Church. This very suggestion will raise some objections from various Christian traditions. Here are the two most common ones: “In suggesting this, aren’t you a legalist? After all, we are under grace not under law.” Others will add, “You are promoting moralism in the Church instead of the Gospel.”
My response is simply, no, I’m not a moralist. The Gospel should always be front and center. And, no, I’m not a legalist either, because the Gospel by which we are saved does not render the law meaningless. Did not Jesus say of that law that he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17)? Did not Paul say that the law is holy and good (Romans 7:12) and “I delight in the law of God” (Romans 7.22)? Does not the New Testament echo or repeat each of these commandments, with the exception of the sabbath command which was replaced by the Lord’s Day (although the principle of working six days and resting on one still holds)? Have we forgotten what the Ten Commandments are? They are a summary of God’s moral law, reflecting His righteousness and the moral grammar of creation. They are a gracious gift from the Almighty to humanity that describes the order that serves to sustain his creation and our social world.
The Ten Commandments were not only for Israel but for all. Historically they were adopted by the Christian Church. In fact, just about every Christian tradition employs the Ten Commandments in their official teaching tools (catechisms). This is true of Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists, Anglicans, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox. That is because the Ten Commandments are considered the foundation of Christian ethics.
How were they to be used? As a Presbyterian, my own tradition helpfully speaks about “the threefold use of God’s moral law.” There is a redemptive use — these commandments are something like a mirror that reflects the righteousness of God and a hammer, which shatters our own self-righteousness and drives us toward Christ. The Law itself cannot change human hearts, but Christ can. There is also a civil or political use — these commandments are a guide to society promoting civil or external righteousness. In this sense, they offer a standard to make life in society livable and act as a guardrail or fence to restrain evil. Finally, the law acts as a kind of family code for believers showing us how to please God in the Spirit as we live out our respective vocations doing everything for His glory. This moral law is summed up in the two great commandments, that we are to love the Lord with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The bill that the governor of Louisiana signed into law last week recognizes the political or civil use of the Ten Commandments that promote moral sanity. What I am suggesting is that the Church also seems to have lost some of its moral sanity and should refamiliarize itself with these commandments as well.
Near the end of his life, the German Protestant Reformer Martin Luther said, “Though I am an old doctor of divinity, to this day I have not got beyond the children’s learning — the Ten Commandments, the Belief (the Apostles Creed) and the Lord’s Prayer.” As an old man, he felt the need to return to the basics. My contention is churches have not “got beyond the child’s learning” either and desperately need to return to the basics as well.