Question from the textbook \"From Christ to the world\" by Boulton, Kennedy, and

Question

Question from the textbook "From Christ to the world" by Boulton, Kennedy, and Verhey

Exodus, Matthew, and Galatians

1.   How do the early commandments (also known as the first table, describing a proper human relationship to God) relate to (the second table, i.e.) the way we treat other people (by implication)? (185)

2.   How do all the commandments evolve from the first one? (185)

3.   Does Matthew 5 express a new Law or new ways that God gives us in Jesus to be part of God's reign beginning now? (186) Explain.

4.   Is perfection too high of an ethical standard for humans? Why or why not?

5.   Do Paul's statements about the law contradict the value of the Ten Commandments for Christian Ethics? (187)

Thank you

Explanation / Answer

All the ten commandments can be substituted by only two commandments. Love your Lord your god with all your heart and love your neighbour as you love yourself. First commandments relates with the human relationship with god and the second commandments tells the relationship with oneself and other people. The second commandment relates to the first commandment because, god himself has said, if you cannot love your fellow brother, who is next to you, how can you love God who cannot be seen with the normal eyes. So only if you follow the second commandment you can follow the first commandment.

All the commandments evolve from the first one. Only if you love God, you can love others and can follow the other commandments. Grace to love others follows from the love of God. If you dont love God, you will not get the grace to love others. So all the other commandments evolve from the first commandment only.

In Mathew 5 it is said, blessed are those who possess all the weak qualities, and many of those weak qualities has been listed out, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God reign begins with the people, who does not possess any of the great qualities, to do great things. The meek, poor, low hearted, are all the entrants into the kingdom of God. God makes new reign through that.

Everybody strives for perfection. But Jesus himself says, nobody is perfect except for the heavenly father. He also says, " As the father is perfect, you also be perfect". So striving for perfection is the continous process within us. It has no end. We just have to make ourselves worthy of the kingdom that is made for us.

St. Pauls says, grace of the Lord, over rules all the law. The ten commandments are just the guidelines to check ourselves in the living process in the world. If everybody is being judged by the law, nobody will enter the kingdom of heaven. Grace nullifies all the laws. St. Paul does not contradict the law, rather he says that grace of the Lord is more important than the law.

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