Do the 10 Commandments still hold relevance in our lives today? While rooted in the Old Testament, they continue to shape moral and spiritual discussions. Let’s explore their significance in a modern context.
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Do the 10 Commandments Still Apply To Us Today?
Today more than ever! 
This may go to the Sabbath discussion but how about the commandment about keeping the Sabbath?
The Ten Commandments are any society’s moral compass. In some aspects, these same codes of conduct are reflected in all societies across history. Failed societies can be tied directly to failed codes of conduct. Yes, the Ten Commandments are as important today as when Moses brought them down from Mount Horeb. The difference is, that under the New Covenant, believers fulfill them by “loving God with all your mind, heart and strength, and loving your neighbor as you love yourself.” These fulfill all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40
The commandment to keep the sabbath was for the Jews only (Read Exodus 31:12-17). This law doesn’t apply to us New Testament believers (Romans 14:5).
This doesn’t make much sense to me, doesn’t it mean we’re obeying part of the old testament and neglecting part? Okay, bluntly how relevant is the old testament to a Christian?
Yes, If everyone followed them this world would be a much better place.
The ten commandments are impossible to follow. That’s why Jesus abolished them by dying on the cross and thus becoming an atonement for our sin. Therefore, we are no longer under the ten commandments. Besides, the ten commandments were instituted to show us that we couldn’t keep them and that we needed help.
The requirement to follow the ten commandments was nullified through Jesus Christ. But this doesn’t mean that we are free to walk in sin (Romans 6).
Jesus didn’t “abolish” them, He fulfilled the requirements when he was crucified in our place. Under the new covenant, we are to love God and our neighbor as ourselves.
Is it loving to steal, lie, or sleep with your neighbor’s wife?
In other words, as we live we are to become more Christlike by the power of the Holy Spirit living within us. Kind of like WWJD😎
I agree. The Ten Commandments are the very essence of God’s morality for humans - they weren’t oddball rules for the ancient Israelites. It’s absurd to think that Jesus, a dyed-in-the-wool Jew, would have viewed his message as abolishing or nullifying them. His Sermon On the Mount explicity incorporates them. The notion that they were nullified or abolished is pure Pauline theology - and Paul was bitterly at odds with James and the Jerusalem community, who continued to be ultra-observant Jews. Jesus “fulfillment” of the Law was to emphasize that all the commandments are overlaid by common sense and must be interpreted and applied according to their intent. “Keeping the Sabbath holy,” for example, doesn’t require fanatical adherence to the vast number of rules the Pharisees had come up with in their attempt to interpret it (and they were more liberal than the Sadducees).
Totally disagree. I should have answered the question that was asked. No we don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments. It is by faith you have been saved and not of yourself lest any man boast.
If we boast in our righteousness then we believe we have something to recommend ourselves and actually deserve salvation. You wish to boast on your goodness and you will then be judged by the law and that is dangerous position to be in as you will need to be perfect in your adherence.
Your mention of the Sermon on the Mount is misinterpreted by many. Jesus was speaking to Jews who felt they were justified by their being children of Abraham and their performance as law keepers. Jesus took the murder and adultery commandments and said “you have heard” and said “but I say to you” and proceeded to push them so far out of sight that no flesh could be justified. If you’re not convinced, He said at the end of that passage, “Therefore be perfect as your Heavenly Father is.” He pushed the law so far out of sight that they were left with the only solution; Jesus.
Remember he told those who were casting out demons and doing all kinds of good things and, in effect, trusting in their own righteousness, “depart from me, I never knew you.”
Having said all that, I choose to live in freedom and will do my best to love God and my neighbor as myself through the power of the Holy Spirit. No guilt in life no fear in death. Thank you Jesus!!!
Ah, but you DID answer the question that was asked - do the Ten Commandments APPLY to us today? OF COURSE they do, because they are God’s moral code for humans.
Now you’re off on a different tangent - are we JUDGED by compliance with the Ten Commandments? I would still say yes, at least in the way the Orthodox and Catholics believe, but most Protestants would say no.
I don’t actually disagree with your analysis of the Sermon On the Mount and have said as much here. Jesus was the equivalent of a Jewish Zen Master who said outrageous things and set humanly impossible standards. But the point was not to make people laugh at the absurdity (not the point of a Zen Master, either) but to push them toward real holiness in the attempt.
As I have now said repeatedly, James and the ultra-observant Jerusalem community - those who actually knew, heard and walked with Jesus - are the best clue to his real message. It is grace and mercy, but it is also righteousness. The Pauline message of grace alone and freedom from the Law is not one the historical Jesus would have recognized AT ALL.
As the Orthodox say, “You’ll know you’re saved when you die and God says you are.” THAT, I believe, is the reality and a theology much more likely to produce the sort of Christian life Jesus was actually talking about.
IMHO, of course.
We have no righteousness. “Your righteousness is like filthy rags.” “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
I choose to be more Christ like not because I have to but because I want to because of His great love shown to me.
I choose Jesus and not some hope in my performance. Trusting in my performance sounds very religious and Pharisaical. Not something Jesus spoke kindly about.
Interesting that God chose Paul to write most of the NT and gave James one book. Just sayin’.
Also IMHO
You miss the distinction that the early Jerusalem Christian community recognized and that the Eastern Orthodox and Catholics continue to recognize. In Pauline theology, justification and salvation occur at a moment in time and it’s all “freedom in Christ” from there. This is certainly one prominent, albeit entirely Protestant, position. I, who am neither Orthodox nor Catholic, don’t find it theologically plausible or biblical and don’t think it was the message of the historical Jesus. As one who once believed as you do, I studied the Bible and theology extensively and arrived at the conclusion that my former Southern Baptist position was simply but dramatically wrong and that the Orthodox and Catholics are basically correct.
As James taught, and the Orthodox and the Catholics teach, “faith in Christ” is a lifetime journey, not an event that occurs at a moment in time. Salvation is not determined by any quality or quanity of post-conversion “works,” or by whether our post-conversion lives rise to the level of righteousness (which they never do), but simply by whether we continued in the faith - as determined by God at the end of the journey. As James wrote, works are not earning merit with God but demonstrating that our faith is real.
Some serious study of Christian history might serve you well. There are clear historical reasons why James’ and the Jerusalem community’s understanding of Christianity is so thinly represented in the NT and why the Gospels, Acts and Paul’s letters are so oddly pro-Roman, anti-Jewish and Hellenistic. For the same reasons, the Epistle of James - not written by James, but consistent with his views - was highly controversial, with Martin Luther questioning whether it should be included at all.
One key point NO ONE can deny: James and the Jerusalem community were those who had known, heard and walked with the historical Jesus. Paul never saw or heard the historical Jesus and was bitterly at odds with James. Just sayin’.
Ok. I’m enjoying the back and forth.
When the gentiles began getting saved and receiving the Holy Spirit, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem and met with James and others, see Acts 15, with the question of circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses. It was determined that they did not have to. They gave them direction for not drinking blood, fornication, eating meat sacrificed to idols. No mention of the Ten Commandments, circumcision, or any of the other laws of the old covenant. I believe even these things shouldn’t have been itemized as now the “list” starts.
The Jews of the early church had big problems with this new freedom and liberty and sent delegations after Paul to try to undermine the gospel. ie the circumcision party.
I believe this blending of the new covenant with the old is what Jesus was talking about when he said not to put new wine into old wineskins as you ruin both.
My favorite scripture, 1John 5:11-12 And the witness is this, that God had given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
When you receive Christ, you have the life immediately, sealed by the Holy Spirit. It’s not a process. I think once we accept Christ and His sacrifice, there is something in us that says, ok now I’ve got to earn it. Show me the list and I can grit my teeth and I can do it. When I think I’ve done enough, now I deserve this salvation. A dangerous position that ends in self righteousness.
As Jesus said on the cross. “It is finished.”
Thanks for your time. I’ve enjoyed it.
Yes, it’s just two entirely different understandings, and never the twain shall meet. It really shouldn’t affect anyone’s Christian walk since we are presumably all doing our best to follow a path of righteousness.
Many scholars do think the Gospels and Acts are written from a decidedly pro-Roman and anti-Jewish perspective (because being Jewish immediately after 70 AD was extremely risky) and that Acts and Paul’s epistles minimize and distort the actual conflicts with James and the Jerusalem community, but certainly if one takes the NT at face value the once saved always saved position has support.
Unity in the brotherhood. Thanks for the discussion. It was fun.
The Sabbath commandment foreshadowed Christ. We now have Sabbath rest with His death and resurrection freeing us from works unto salvation. This is pretty clear in Scripture. Jesus fulfilled the Law of the Sabbath becoming our eternal rest.
Well said! Thanks!
People should read Matthew 11:28-30 and pay attention to what it says.
