Tag: freedom

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Ten Commandments by He Qi

Then God gave the people all these instructions:

“I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

“You must not have any other god but me.

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands.

“You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

“Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

“You must not murder.

“You must not commit adultery.

“You must not steal.

“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.

“You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.”

When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the ram’s horn, and when they saw the flashes of lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.

And they said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us, or we will die!”

“Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, and so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!”

As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. (New Living Translation)

Since relationships are important and necessary, we need a way to be in community together so that everyone can get along and thrive as human beings. It’s very helpful to have a few simple rules to live by in order for all persons to relate to each other (and God) with integrity, care, and justice.

Whenever I take my wife’s pooch to the dog park, he knows he’ll need to stick some basic rules. Although he doesn’t need the leash and is free to roam, he understands not to bark at people, or approach them and other dogs without my permission. Those expectations are for both his well-being, and others.

We are free to live our lives as creatures in God’s image. The Lord has just a few basic rules for us to live by to honor both divinity and humanity, as well as to protect others and ourselves. Most folks know them as “The Ten Commandments.”

Statue of Moses and The Ten Commandments, Lodz, Poland

The Ten Commandments (The Decalogue or The Ten Words) were given to the ancient Israelites nearly 3,500 years ago. These words have stood the test of time and continue to be understood as a universal standard of morality and relational interactions.

There are hundreds of commands in Holy Scripture – approximately 613 in the Old Testament, and 437 in the New Testament – a whopping 1,050 total commands throughout the entirety of the Bible. So, what, then, makes these Ten so special?  Why do we stick to the ten basic instructions?

The reason The Ten Commandments have endured is that they are foundational commands. Following the Ten Words in the Old Testament are a string of specific commands from God to Moses and then to the people (Exodus 21-23 and Deuteronomy 6-26). Those commands are all a fleshing-out of how to live the basic Decalogue in the Israelites’ context of entering and being in the Promised Land.

In fact, every single command of Holy Scripture can be ethically and morally tied back to The Ten Commandments in some way. Whereas many Old Testament laws were given to the Israelites in their ancient Middle Eastern socio-economic culture, The Decalogue was designed to be universal and flexible for every culture and society everywhere, for any time, and every generation.

Therefore, we need to distinguish between The Law (capital “L”) and the law (little “l”). God’s fundamental and foundational ethical Law has always existed and continues to exist – and it is encapsulated in ten short and simple commands which everyone everywhere can obey, whether they are at their jobs, at home, church, or out having fun.

In fact, these ten basic commands are so important that Jesus restated them for us in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Christ got down to the heart of the commands and let everyone know what it truly means to hold, keep, and obey The Ten Words. For example, Jesus said concerning the seventh command:

“You have heard that it was said to our people long ago, ‘You must not murder anyone. Anyone who murders another will be judged.’ But I tell you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be judged. If you say bad things to a brother or sister, you will be judged by the council. And if you call someone a fool, you will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22, NCV)

It had become easy over the centuries for people to think everything was jim-dandy if they didn’t physically kill anyone. Yet, Jesus knew that well before any person is murdered by another, anger has been nursed through bitter grudges toward another. 

The Ten Words are the very heart of God’s desire for all humanity, and this is precisely why it’s important to know and obey them in their full intent. They contain how to relate to God (Commands 1-4); and, how to relate to one another (Commands 5-10).  Jesus would later say, in response to what is the greatest command of all:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NCV)

The Heidelberg Catechism, a Reformed Confession crafted by Protestants in the sixteenth, addresses a significant issue in question-and-answer 115:

Q: Since no one in this life can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly, why does God want them preached so pointedly? 
A: First, so that the longer we live the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness. Second, so that we may never stop striving, and never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed more and more after God’s image, until after this life we reach our goal: perfection.

When all is said and done, grace will have the last word. None of us will ever perfectly live-out and embody The Ten Words all the time. Yet, the grace of God in Jesus Christ does for us what we cannot do for ourselves: deliver us from the realm of sin, death, and hell.

Embrace The Ten Commandments. Know the Decalogue. Memorize the Ten Words. Understand how to relate well with God and others. Seek to practice these ten basic rule for living so that you can enjoy all the freedom of God’s big world.

Changing the System (Philemon 1-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
A mosaic of Philemon’s slave, Onesimus

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever—no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back—not to mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. (New International Version)

Orthodox depiction of Saints Apphia, Philemon, and Archippus

Tucked away near the end of the 66 books of the Holy Bible is the little letter of Philemon. Many Christians have neither heard a sermon preached on it, nor ever discussed it. Yet, there it is, contained as part of the New Testament canon. So, it could use some attention from us.

The letter is an appeal to Philemon concerning his slave Onesimus – who fled from his master and subsequently ended up converting to Christianity through the Apostle Paul’s influence.

At the time, Paul was imprisoned and Onesimus attended to his needs. Although Paul desired to keep Onesimus with him, he sent the slave back to Philemon. The Apostle was wanting the master to receive the slave as a beloved brother in the Lord, and not just as a servant. Then, Paul hoped Philemon would send Onesimus back to him, thus smoothing out the master/slave relationship and having his own needs met, as well.

The bottom line of the letter is that Paul very much desired that Onesimus be freed from his servitude by Philemon. He didn’t want to pull rank and twist Philemon’s arm to do it. Even though we don’t precisely know what happened in response to Paul’s letter, it’s likely that Onesimus was freed, since the appeal was included in the New Testament.

Christianity, ideally, is meant to transform lives, to change social relationships, to establish a truly egalitarian society in which the status of humans owning other humans would be done away with. Men ought to become brothers with one another and not highly stratified and separated with gross power inequities between them.

Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28, ERV

Sitting where we are now, a few millennia later, we might find it curious that Paul and other biblical writers didn’t simply call for the outright abolition of slavery altogether. And yet, slavery was such an ensconced part of the ancient world (some places in the Roman Empire had up to 70% of the population as slaves) that to do so immediately would have likely brought such shock to the system that more harm than good may result.

In Paul’s experience, he continually went about the business of agitating for change by proclaiming a gospel of grace for all people. And the places where he did so saw great societal transformation – which is why Paul got so much pushback from so many authorities who benefited from keeping others under their feet.

In the household of faith, all persons are sisters and brothers and useful servants of one another and of the Lord.

The healings by Jesus in the Gospels not only restored one’s physical health but also restored the individual back to the community. The leper’s social stigma was lifted; the woman’s isolation due to bleeding was done away with; and stereotypes of those born with disabilities were overturned.

No one is inferior in the kingdom of God. Everyone is inherently worthy and has a vital purpose in God’s new society. Since the cross of Christ has erased all barriers, Christian community is to be realized through respectful equality, mutual love, and caring fellowship.

That’s how the system is changed.

Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth. May our earthly pilgrimage be always supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mary’s Song of Praise (Luke 1:46b-55)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Magnificat, a woodcut by Sr. Mary Grace Thul

Mary said,

“My heart praises the Lord;
    my soul is glad because of God my Savior,
    for he has remembered me, his lowly servant!
From now on all people will call me happy,
    because of the great things the Mighty God has done for me.
His name is holy;
    from one generation to another
    he shows mercy to those who honor him.
He has stretched out his mighty arm
    and scattered the proud with all their plans.
He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones,
    and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
    and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has kept the promise he made to our ancestors,
    and has come to the help of his servant Israel.
He has remembered to show mercy to Abraham
    and to all his descendants forever!” (Good News Translation)

It strikes me that Mary, instead of being full of worry and afraid of the future, and as an unmarried teen with child, is full of the Spirit and faith. Mary neither complained nor fretted for the nine months of her pregnancy; she praised God and was clear-headed about the grace shown to her.

Mary’s canticle gives us insight into the mystery of the incarnation: God chooses the weak, those of low esteem, and the powerless.

Mary was rather ordinary. She had no wealth. She possessed nothing which would cause anyone to pick her out of a crowd. Yet, she is the one chosen by God. And her wonderful response to grace demonstrated that there is so much more to any person than what we can see with our eyes and perceive through our earthly glasses of high positions and strength of personalities.

The mother of Jesus had the wisdom to discern that her situation typified the Lord’s egalitarian work of leveling the field. Mary’s pregnancy normalized the needs of all people. Her son, the Deliverer, would carry this understanding into his own life and ministry – declaring good news to the poor, comforting the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom for captives, telling those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.

Mary’s is the kind of song that has been sung by people of faith throughout the ages. It’s not only a song of faith but a declaration of resistance, in defiance of all evil powers which ignore the poor, such as Mary.

It was not a completely new sort of song; it’s in harmony with songs that other faithful followers of the Lord have sung in past generations.

Moses and Miriam sang a song to the Lord of freedom from powerful Egyptian bondage and oppression:

“I will sing to the Lord, because he has won a glorious victory;
    he has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.
The Lord is my strong defender;
    he is the one who has saved me.
He is my God, and I will praise him,
    my father’s God, and I will sing about his greatness.
The Lord is a warrior;
    the Lord is his name.” (Exodus 15:1-3, 21, GNT)

Hannah, unable to conceive and have children, endured a long stretch of affliction from her rival – that is, until the Lord stepped in and opened her womb:

“No one is holy like the Lord;
    there is none like him,
    no protector like our God.
Stop your loud boasting;
    silence your proud words.
For the Lord is a God who knows,
    and he judges all that people do.
The bows of strong soldiers are broken,
    but the weak grow strong.
The people who once were well fed
    now hire themselves out to get food,
    but the hungry are hungry no more.
The childless wife has borne seven children,
    but the mother of many is left with none.
The Lord kills and restores to life;
    he sends people to the world of the dead
    and brings them back again.
He makes some people poor and others rich;
    he humbles some and makes others great.
He lifts the poor from the dust
    and raises the needy from their misery.
He makes them companions of princes
    and puts them in places of honor.
The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord;
    on them he has built the world. (1 Samuel 2:2-8, GNT)

Stained glass window of Hannah offering her son Samuel to the Lord by Phil Watkins

The psalmist declares his song about the Lord who turns the tables on the unfortunate and brings them privilege:

He always keeps his promises;
    he judges in favor of the oppressed
    and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free
    and gives sight to the blind.
He lifts those who have fallen;
    he loves his righteous people.
He protects the strangers who live in our land;
    he helps widows and orphans,
    but takes the wicked to their ruin. (Psalm 146:6b-9, GNT)

God’s people throughout history have faced oppression. And, when in the teeth of that adversity, they have sung God’s songs of resistance against the evil powers of this world.

Along with Holy Scripture, let us also in these days of Advent just before Christmas Day, sing our traditional songs of resistance, deliverance, and hope:

“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”

By Charles Wesley

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.

“It Came upon the Midnight Clear” (vs.3-4)

By Edmund Sears

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (vs.1, 4, 6)

By J.M. Neale

O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o’er the grave.

O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
and bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
and turn our darkness into light.

Christ came to stand against sin, death, and the power of the Devil.

God is full of grace, mercy, and power to the powerless and the needy. The Lord has our backs. Perhaps if we all, both individually and corporately, continually used our words to identify and declare the great things God has done we would realize the consistent blessing of the Lord. 

As we near the night of our Lord’s birth, take some time to reflect on the ways God has been good to you in this Advent season, and like Mary, offer praise for each act of mercy. Mary exhibited no helplessness but had her heart calibrated to detect the grace of God when it was present – and to resist the injustice of this world.

Soli Deo Gloria

Slave or Free? (Galatians 4:21-5:1)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,
    you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
    you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
    than of her who has a husband.”

Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (New International Version)

Get your hermeneutics together, man

First of all, I want to say that I have little tolerance for Bible readers who insist on an exclusive literal interpretation of Scripture – because it’s downright nonsensical.

Today’s New Testament lesson is one of many biblical passages which really ought to put a wooden stake to the heart of such a misguided hermeneutic. The Apostle Paul himself uses an allegorical or figurative approach to interpreting an Old Testament story.

Holy Scripture interprets itself in many ways. It is, at the least, hubris to believe one has the corner on biblical interpretation through a single mode of literal Bible interpretation; and it is, at the worst, damaging to other’s souls to restrict them in their reading and reflection – not to mention destructive whenever a literalist (who is typically also a legalist) brings their judgmentalism forward to condemn the other approaches.

Okay, I feel better now, getting that off my chest. But, unfortunately, we’ve still got to deal with legalism – which is what Paul set out to do with his writing to the churches in the region of Galatia.

Let go of the legalism

There can be something oddly comforting about law. Having clear black-and-white no-nonsense rules can give a sense of security. You always know where you stand. You’re either in or you’re out, either pure or sinful. 

Yet, here’s the score on the law: it is meant for the immature and is designed as a guide to lead us to maturity. 

If we live by law, we are bound by law. Law can only take us so far in our walk with God. A slavish commitment to rules must, at some point, give way to the greater virtues of grace and love. 

The Galatian churches wanted a religion they could see and hold in their hands. But Paul would have none of it; he was dogged about the devotion to a life of grace. Since Christ has set us free, we are truly and really free. So now, we are to embrace the freedom and never go back to being slaves to the law again – which is closely akin to relapsing into spiritual immaturity. 

We (hopefully) expect a kid to be a kid. When the kid grows up and is an adult with adult responsibilities, we expect him to speak and act like an adult, not a kid.

What’s more, we ought also to expect the adults in the room to treat one another like adults. Layering a bunch of rules and regulations on grown-up people is nothing more than handling them like they’re kids. It’s a nonsensical approach to dealing with each other.

Embrace your freedom

Freedom means that we have no obstacles in expressing grace, love, and hope to others. We are free to bask in the forgiveness we possess in Christ. 

If our Christianity is reduced to a point system or following a list of juvenile rules, then we have missed what the law was all about in the first place. The law is meant to lead us to Christ, and it must, at some point, give way to the larger law of love.

The law has its place. Yet, if we are perpetual slaves to it and never outgrow it’s intended purpose for us, then we need to move onto maturity and embrace the freedom we have in Christ. 

To live in freedom doesn’t mean we can simply do whatever we want, as if there’s no consequences to our words and actions. It’s not “anything goes.” Rather, Christian freedom is a life attuned to the Spirit; an awareness of living for Jesus through the fruit of the Spirit. It doesn’t break laws; it fulfills them. 

All Christians must grow up and become spiritual adults. That means leaving childish ways of the law behind and embracing the freedom of the Spirit. 

So, where are you in your Christian life? Are you a slave to Law or a free person to Love?