Notes From Day Seven: Preparing for death: The Eleven Commandments (Part 2)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the
Eleven Commandments. This is a little like
turning a guitar amp up to 11.
As I mentioned in the earlier article, Jesus, living about 2,000 years ago, being a welleducated young Jewish scholar of the faith of his people, would have had the Ten Commandments branded into his consciousness. But he had his own take on them, not to diminish them, but to amp them up. One of his biographers, Matthew, narrates how Jesus, teaching a crowd on a large hillside, a “mountain,” gave a series of teachings that many like to call the “Sermon on the Mount.” That “sermon” is largely made up of his treatment of the Ten Commandments and, depending on how one lays it out, contains 11 or more commands.
One of the things people commonly feel about Jesus is that he came to found a new religion. This is not true. He was Jewish through and through and came to advance Judaism, to move it forward so that it would become available to all people. He did this by drawing on the building blocks of Jewish faith — that it is the one true approach to life for all people, and that the mission of the Jewish community is to bring the blessings of their God to all the world's communities.
Thus, the Ten Commandments, which had been in play for a long time in the Jewish community up to Jesus' time, had had their day. They needed some reworking, a fresh restating, to help make God's commands more understandable to people all over the planet. Jesus' strategy in doing this worked.
Here are the last five of what I call the Eleven Commandments.
Seven. Pray, but pray with simplicity. Some people think they need to make their prayers long, complicated, flowery or religioussounding. They are mistaken. Keep them respectful, simple and from the heart. God already knows what you need, anyway. Were you expecting him to be different? Pray for what's important: the Kingdom of God, and for you to live in step with it. This is what the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught is all about.
Eight. Don't focus all your attention on food, money, clothing and so on, but focus on God and his Kingdom. He will work out the rest for you, anyway — and then some!
Nine. Don't judge others for what you see as their “failures.” Remember that if you walk with God, whenever you condemn others it will come back like a check from behind. God will see that you are judged in the same way as you judge others. This is why it is extremely important to judge others graciously. Judge others generously and that's how God will judge you! Wake up and don't be sleepy about this. As far as judging anyone goes, just look in the mirror. You'll find lots of things to improve on.
Ten. Count on God. Ask from him. Seek what's good with his help. Knock on his door. There will be disappointments. But the way forward in life is to stay with God.
Eleven. Remember this really big law of God: treat others as you want to be treated. That pretty much captures a great number of the old laws in the Jewish writings. Love your neighbour as yourself. Put that into practice and you'll have all your bases covered with respect to interacting with others as far as God is concerned.
Jesus concluded his discourse on the commandments by saying something like this: Don't be like a stupid house builder who tries to take shortcuts, especially the shortcut of not building on a good foundation. Be smart. Build your life on my commands. They won't steer you wrong. You'll live a life that will be a credit to God — something he will not forget. And when you die, even other people will say, “I'm glad I knew that person!”
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
As I mentioned in the earlier article, Jesus, living about 2,000 years ago, being a welleducated young Jewish scholar of the faith of his people, would have had the Ten Commandments branded into his consciousness. But he had his own take on them, not to diminish them, but to amp them up. One of his biographers, Matthew, narrates how Jesus, teaching a crowd on a large hillside, a “mountain,” gave a series of teachings that many like to call the “Sermon on the Mount.” That “sermon” is largely made up of his treatment of the Ten Commandments and, depending on how one lays it out, contains 11 or more commands.
One of the things people commonly feel about Jesus is that he came to found a new religion. This is not true. He was Jewish through and through and came to advance Judaism, to move it forward so that it would become available to all people. He did this by drawing on the building blocks of Jewish faith — that it is the one true approach to life for all people, and that the mission of the Jewish community is to bring the blessings of their God to all the world's communities.
Thus, the Ten Commandments, which had been in play for a long time in the Jewish community up to Jesus' time, had had their day. They needed some reworking, a fresh restating, to help make God's commands more understandable to people all over the planet. Jesus' strategy in doing this worked.
Here are the last five of what I call the Eleven Commandments.
Seven. Pray, but pray with simplicity. Some people think they need to make their prayers long, complicated, flowery or religioussounding. They are mistaken. Keep them respectful, simple and from the heart. God already knows what you need, anyway. Were you expecting him to be different? Pray for what's important: the Kingdom of God, and for you to live in step with it. This is what the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught is all about.
Eight. Don't focus all your attention on food, money, clothing and so on, but focus on God and his Kingdom. He will work out the rest for you, anyway — and then some!
Nine. Don't judge others for what you see as their “failures.” Remember that if you walk with God, whenever you condemn others it will come back like a check from behind. God will see that you are judged in the same way as you judge others. This is why it is extremely important to judge others graciously. Judge others generously and that's how God will judge you! Wake up and don't be sleepy about this. As far as judging anyone goes, just look in the mirror. You'll find lots of things to improve on.
Ten. Count on God. Ask from him. Seek what's good with his help. Knock on his door. There will be disappointments. But the way forward in life is to stay with God.
Eleven. Remember this really big law of God: treat others as you want to be treated. That pretty much captures a great number of the old laws in the Jewish writings. Love your neighbour as yourself. Put that into practice and you'll have all your bases covered with respect to interacting with others as far as God is concerned.
Jesus concluded his discourse on the commandments by saying something like this: Don't be like a stupid house builder who tries to take shortcuts, especially the shortcut of not building on a good foundation. Be smart. Build your life on my commands. They won't steer you wrong. You'll live a life that will be a credit to God — something he will not forget. And when you die, even other people will say, “I'm glad I knew that person!”
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
