"Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?" (Matthew 19:16)
The Lord answers the young man who asked him this question first of all by reminding him that it is necessary to acknowledge God as "the only Good" , as the chosen Good and as the source of all good. Then Jesus said to him: "But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments", and then he lists the commandments related to love of neighbor to his interlocutor: "Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother!" Finally, Jesus Christ summarizes these commandments by stating them positively: "Love your neighbor as yourself!" (Mt 19:16-19). This first answer is immediately followed by the second: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. "Then come, follow me." (Mt 19:21). This second response does not cancel the first. Following Jesus involves keeping the commandments. The law is not abolished, but man is called to find it again in the person of his Master, who is its perfect fulfillment. In the three synoptic Gospels, the call of Jesus to the rich young man to follow him in the obedience of a disciple and keeping the commandments is close to the call to poverty and chastity. The evangelical counsels are inseparable from the commandments. Jesus took over the Ten Commandments, but in their letter he manifested the power of the Spirit at work. He preached a "righteousness" that surpasses "the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees" (Mt 5:20) or of the pagans. He set forth all the demands of the commandments: "You have heard that it was said to the ancients, 'You shall not murder...' But I say to you, 'Everyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.'" (Mt 5:21-22). To the question: "Which commandment is the greatest of all? "Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" (Mt 22:36), Jesus answers: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment; and the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Mt 22:37-40). The Ten Commandments should be interpreted in the light of this twofold and one commandment of love, which is the fullness of the Law: "Truly, 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not kill,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not covet,' and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to your neighbor. Therefore, the fullness of the Law is love." (Rom 13:9-10).
The Ten Commandments in the Bible
The word "Decalogue" literally means "ten words" . (Ex 34:28; Deut 4:13; 10:4) These "ten words" were revealed by God to his people on the holy mountain. He wrote them "with his finger" (Ex 31:18) unlike the other commandments that Moses wrote. They are the chosen words of God. They were handed down to the people in the Book of Exodus and in Deuteronomy. Since the Old Testament, the holy books have mentioned these "ten words" , but it was not until the New Testament in Jesus Christ that their full meaning was revealed. The Decalogue is understood primarily in the context of the Exodus, which is the great liberating event of God at the center of the Old Covenant. Whether the commandments are expressed as negative provisions, prohibitions, or as positive commandments, e.g. "Honor your father and mother" , these "ten words" indicate the conditions for a life free from the slavery of sin. As such, the Decalogue is the way of life: "If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, to love him, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, you will live, and the Lord will multiply you." (Deut. 30:16). This liberating power of the Decalogue is shown, for example, in the commandment about Sabbath rest, which applies to foreigners and slaves: "Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." (Deut. 5:15). The "Ten Words" summarize and proclaim God's law: "The Lord spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain, from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice. He added nothing to them, but wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me." (Deut. 5:22).
That is why these two tablets are called "the Testimony" (Ex. 25:16). Namely, they contain the conditions of the covenant that God made with his people. These "tablets of the Testimony" (Ex. 31:18; 32:15; 34:29) had to be placed in the "Ark" (Ex. 25:16; 40:1-2). The "Ten Words" were spoken by God in a theophany - "The Lord spoke to you face to face on the mountain out of the fire." (Deut. 5:4). They belong to the revelation by which God reveals himself and his glory. The gift of the commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. By revealing his will, God reveals himself to his people. The gift of the commandments and the Law is part of the Covenant that God made with his people. According to the Book of Exodus, the revelation of the "ten words" was given between the offering of the Covenant and its conclusion, after the people had committed themselves to "do" everything the Lord had said and to "obey" it (Ex 24:7). The Decalogue is transmitted exclusively after the Covenant is recalled: "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb." (Deut 5:2). The commandments take on their full meaning within the Covenant , and according to Scripture, man's moral action takes on its full meaning in and through the Covenant. The first of the "ten words" recalls the first step of God's love for his people: Since man, as a punishment for sin, had come from the paradise of freedom into the slavery of this world, the first sentence of the Decalogue, i.e. the first word of God's commandments, speaks of freedom: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." (Ex 20:2; Deut 5:6). The commandments in their true sense come second place; they express something that is included in the belonging to God established by the Covenant. Moral or virtuous behavior is the response to the first step of the Lord's love. It is an acknowledgment, an expression of respect for God and a grateful worship. It is cooperation with God's plan that God carries out in history. Another testimony to the Covenant and the dialogue between God and men is that all the commands are pronounced in the first person "I am the Lord ... " and addressed to the second person "you" . In all of God's commandments, the personal pronoun in the singular indicates the addressee: God reveals his will to all people and at the same time to each individual: the Lord commanded love for God and taught us about justice towards our neighbor so that man would not be unjust or unworthy of God. Thus, by means of the Decalogue, he prepared man to become his friend and to be of one heart with his neighbor. The words of the Decalogue remain valid for us too. Far from being abrogated, They reached full meaning and development with the coming of the Lord in the flesh.
The Ten Commandments in the Tradition of the Church
Faithful to Scripture and in accordance with the example of Jesus, the Church's tradition has acknowledged the fundamental importance and meaning of the Decalogue. Since the time of Saint Augustine, the "Ten Commandments" have occupied a prominent place in the catechism of future baptized persons and believers. The Ten Commandments express the demands of love for God and for one's neighbor. The first three relate primarily to love for God, and the other seven to love for one's neighbor. Just as there are two commandments of love, on which hang the whole Law and the Prophets, as the Lord said, so too were the Ten Commandments given on two tablets. It is said, indeed, that three were written on one tablet, and seven on the other.
The Unity of the Decalogue
The Decalogue is an inseparable whole. Each "word"
refers to each other and to the whole; they are mutually conditioned. The two tablets illuminate each other: they form an organic whole. To break one commandment is to offend all the others. One cannot respect other people without blessing their Creator. One cannot worship God without loving all people, who are his creatures. The Ten Commandments unite the supernatural and social life of man.
refers to each other and to the whole; they are mutually conditioned. The two tablets illuminate each other: they form an organic whole. To break one commandment is to offend all the others. One cannot respect other people without blessing their Creator. One cannot worship God without loving all people, who are his creatures. The Ten Commandments unite the supernatural and social life of man.
The Ten Commandments and Natural Law
The Ten Commandments belong to the Revelation of God. At the same time, they teach us true human humanity. They emphasize essential duties and, therefore, indirectly, fundamental rights linked to the nature of the human person. The Decalogue is a privileged expression of the "natural law" : From the beginning, God planted the precepts of the natural law in the hearts of men. Then he was content to recall them to their minds again. These are the Ten Commandments of God. Although they are accessible to reason itself, the precepts of the Decalogue were also revealed. Sinful humanity needed this revelation in order to have a complete and reliable knowledge of the requirements of the natural law: It was necessary to fully expound the precepts of the Decalogue in the conditions of a sinful state, in which the light of reason is darkened and the will is diverted from the right path. We know the commandments of God through the revelation of God that comes to us through the Church, and through the voice of moral conscience.
Obligation of the Decalogue
Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments, in their essential content, declare heavy obligations. They are essentially unchangeable, and bind always and everywhere. No one could be released from them. The Ten Commandments were engraved by God on the heart of the human being. Obedience to the commandments also includes obligations that are, in themselves, light. Thus, for example, insult inflicted by words is forbidden by the fifth commandment, but it will not be a grave sin, except because of the circumstances or the intention of the one who inflicts it.
"You can't do anything without me"
The Lord Jesus Christ said: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Indeed, apart from me you can do nothing." (Jn 15:5). The fruit of which he speaks is the holiness of life, which is made fruitful by union with Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ, when we share in his mysteries and keep his commandments, the Savior himself comes to love his Father and his brothers, our Father and our brothers, in us. His Person becomes, through the Spirit, the living and interior rule of our conduct: "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you." (Jn 15:12).
The Purpose of God's Law
"These are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances which the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mayest fear the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, all the days of thy life, that thou mayest prolong thy days. Hear, O Israel, and keep and do them, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest increase in the land that floweth with milk and honey, as the LORD God of thy fathers promised thee." (Deuteronomy 6:1-3)
Love for God is the essence of God's Law
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes; and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
The Holy Scriptures show that with lightning and thunder on Sinai, God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, which clearly state what the great Commandment of love contains. The first three commandments say that man should love God, and the other seven that he should love his neighbor and himself. In other words, the first three commandments contain man's duties towards God, while the other seven his duties towards himself and his neighbor.
Since they express man's basic duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments, in their essential content, declare heavy obligations. They are essentially unchangeable and binding always and everywhere. No one can free man from them because God has engraved the Ten Commandments in the heart of every human being. All people are obliged to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his holy Church, and after knowing it, to accept it and remain faithful to it. This duty arises from the very nature of people. The duty to show true worship to God concerns man taken individually and socially. This is the traditional Christian teaching about the moral duty of individuals and societies towards the true religion and the one holy Church of Christ. By constantly proclaiming the Gospel to people, the Holy Church strives to ensure that they completely fill the mentality and habits, laws and structures of the communities in which they live with the Christian spirit. It is the social duty of Christians to respect and cultivate in every person a love for truth and goodness. He asks them to introduce their neighbors to the worship of the only true religion that exists in the holy Christian and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. The Holy Church thus manifests the royal authority of Christ over all creation and especially over human societies.
"When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, saying, 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?' He answered him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)
In this part of the Gospel, the Pharisee asks the Lord a question, not with malicious intent, but wanting to hear Jesus' opinion on the matter, which was a subject of discussion among the Israelites at that time. In his answer, the Lord designates love for God as the first and greatest commandment, and immediately after that emphasizes the importance of love for one's neighbor, equating it completely with love for God. These two loves intertwine and form the great Commandment of love that contains the Law and the Prophets. After that, the Lord asked the Pharisees: "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" (Matthew 22:41), and they answered: "David's." (Matthew 22:42).
As such, their answer was quite good because the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man through his mother Mary, was a descendant of David. With this question the Lord wanted to teach the Pharisees that he was not only a man but that he was also God and Man. Therefore, he asked them: "How then does David, moved by the Spirit, call him Lord, saying, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet'? If David then calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" (Mt 22:43-45). The Pharisees did not know the answer to this question and therefore preferred to remain silent.
The difficulty that Jesus Christ is also God, if they wish, can be easily resolved by today's believers because, according to the holy Christian faith professed by the holy Church, which is the only true, holy and divine, they can be taught that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who in the fullness of time, through the Holy Spirit, took on human nature from the Virgin Mary and is at the same time God and Man. In this knowledge they should be ahead of the Pharisees who did not know the fundamental truths of the holy Christian faith.
Given this fact, one can rightly ask what the life of today's 'believers' is like, is it better than the life of the Pharisees, or do they keep God's commandments better and more accurately than they did? Unfortunately, today's 'believers' must admit that in this respect they are no better than the Pharisees! Many of them believe in what God has revealed, but do not keep what He commands, or rather, they often break His commandments and forget that eternal salvation does not depend on faith alone, but on keeping all Ten Commandments.
There are also a large number of those who do not believe at all in what God has revealed and at the same time do not do what He commands, thus violating His commandments, they do not live their life mission and are on the path to eternal destruction.
There are also many who have left the Holy Church and belong to other, i.e. godless and pagan religions, thinking that they are correct and given by God. In their delusion, they do not want to leave them, return back and live only the true, holy and divine Christian faith professed by the Holy Church of Christ.
As such, or rather, some, others, and others forget and do not care about the Lord's words to the rich young man: "If you want to enter life, keep the commandments!" (Mt 19:17). Amen!
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