APPENDIX II
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHRISTIANS
IT has been noticed above in the exposition of St. Matt. v. 21–48 that different moral principles are brought out by our Lord in His treatment of the different commandments. Thus in His treatment of Commandment VI (vv. 21–24) the moral requirement is deepened in its application below the act to the words of the lips and the thoughts of the heart. In the treatment of Commandment VII, not only is the outward scope of the sin of adultery enlarged by a stricter law of marriage (vv. 31–32), but also the deliberate intention of sin is shown to be, without proceeding further,the moral equivalent of the outward act of sin[90] (vv. 27–28); from the recognition of which principle there follows the need of an augmented moral discipline (vv. 29–30). In the treatment of Commandment III, starting from the prohibition to violate any oath made in the name of Jehovah (v. 33), our Lord augments the prohibition by forbidding oaths generally (vv. 34–36), and turns the requirement from the negative to the positive andfrom the occasional to the universal (v. 37), by simply enjoining truthfulness or sincerity in all utterances.
In His treatment of the prohibition of unrestricted revenge (vv. 38–42), and the principle of limited love (vv. 43–48), the same two principles emerge—the transition from negation or prohibition of evil to injunction of positive good, and from the partial or limited duty to the universal and perfect.
These principles admit of general application to each of the commandments. Thus—
I. Thou shalt have none other gods before [or beside] me. Whatever be the original limitation of this precept, it becomes, and indeed in the teaching of psalmist and prophet which prepared for the Christ had already become, a universal injunction upon men to recognize the one true God in every faculty of their being, in every act and moment of their lives. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart (or will), with all thy soul (i.e. with thy whole sum of faculties), with all thy mind (or intelligence), and with all thy strength (i.e. with a vigorous and active service).” This includes (1) the recognition of God’s supremacy and fatherhood; the putting Him first in all things; the acknowledgement that our life with all its faculties is a trust to be made the best of, for His honour: (2) humility, considered as the recognition that we are utterly dependent upon God; that our only wisdom and happiness lie in correspondence with Him;that any claim of independence of God, or vanity on account of His gifts entrusted to us, is not only wickedness but folly:[91] (3) the glad acceptance of His disclosure of Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit; the acknowledgement and public confession of His name both in speech, conduct and worship.
II. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, etc. This negative commandment becomes the positive injunction to worship God aright, as He has revealed Himself to us, “in spirit and in truth”; or in other words, according to the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer and of the Eucharist, which are of Christ’s institution; or in the spirit of His own worship. This involves earnestness and effort of will in prayer: reasonable method, and use of the body with its faculties or instruments: the action of the intelligence meditating on the word of God so that we may have right ideas about God: systematic prayer for others—the Church, humanity, various classes and individuals—as well as for ourselves: public prayer and private: adoration and thanksgiving, as well as making requests—i.e. a life of worship of which the two hinges are the Eucharist (St. Luke xxii. 19) and secret prayer (St. Matt. vi. 6). This positive injunction involves negatives. Thus though the old prohibition to make any visible representation of God is modified by His incarnation, it still remains a duty which the Church has often neglected to guard against idolatry. It is idolatry to let our worship (1) be directed towards persons lower than God, as mediators, because they seem easier to approach and less awful; or (2) rest upon circumscribed objects so as to imperil the omnipresence of God; or (3) be moulded by false conceptions of God, as when the worth of prayer is estimated by the place where it is offered, or by some measure of length, contrary to the principles expressed in St. John iv. 21 ff., St. Matt. vi. 7.
III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. This limited prohibition of perjury becomes the positive and universal injunction of truthfulness, i.e. the injunction to live and therefore to speak as in God’s presence, so that our words represent the reality, so far as we can know it, whether those words be promises, or statements (a) personal, (b) historical or scientific. This duty of truthfulness extends into all regions of life, political, commercial, controversial, as well as the private and domestic sphere, i.e. we are never justified in deceiving others for our own interest or that of our Church or party.[92]
This commandment, as deepened by our Lord, also prohibits all other kinds of speech which by their character ignore the reverence we owe to an omnipresent God, i.e. blasphemous or unmeaningoaths and expressions derogatory to God’s honour, irreverent or “foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient,” etc.
IV. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
This commandment lays down three laws for human life.