The Ten Commandments: God’s Gift for our Renewal

Lenten Devotional Series Day 2. Today’s meditation comes from Exodus 20:1-2.

Have you seen the interview with the politician who’s fighting to have the Ten Commandments posted throughout the land, but can only name 3 out of 10? (His press secretary says he got 7!) I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Would the world be a better place if the Ten Commandments were displayed everywhere? Perhaps. But the problem with the Rich Ruler wasn’t that he didn’t know them. He knew the Commandments, but he still lacked one thing: he had no relationship with the God who gave the Commandments to him.

Lent is a time for spiritual renewal, and meditating on the Ten Commandments is a means to this end. The end goal, of course, is not getting 10 out of 10 from memory when interviewed (though it might be a positive outcome, especially for future politicians). The reason we meditate on them is so that, by the Holy Spirit’s power, the Commandments might have their intended effect upon us: a flourishing, intimate relationship with God.

I get the impression that most people think of the Commandments in precisely the opposite way. That is to say, people often see them as a means for gaining access to God, rather than as God’s gift for our renewal. Such a mistaken and distorted view comes from taking the Commandments out of their biblical context.

The introduction to the Commandments assumes relationship. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” God saved his people, and then he gave them the Commandments, and not the other way around. The prologue to the Commandments is a reminder of the Gospel!

Think about it in terms of wedding vows. In Christian weddings, the bride and groom make public, lifelong promises of fidelity to one another in the form of wedding vows. Their vows aren’t the means of gaining access to one another; rather, they specify what will be necessary to maintain their relationship. If they fail to keep their vows, then the only hope for a restored relationship will be acknowledging their failures and renewing their commitments to these wedding promises.

As Christians, we meditate on the Ten Commandments in order to see ourselves as God sees us, so that we might confess our sins and reaffirm our faith, in order to renew our relationship with God.

Today in prayer, ask God for the grace to see yourself as he sees you, and confess your sins to him. Then ask him to fill your heart with love for him, so that your relationship with him might flourish as it was intended. Then conclude with the Collect of the Day.

The Collect of the Day. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing that you have made and forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, we may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.