By Margie Littell
People tell me to “keep the commandments”. This command leaves me a bit uncertain, so let’s be specific: which commandments? Old commandments or new commandments?
I ask this question because in John 13:34, Jesus told His disciples that He was giving them a “new commandment”: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
Is this new commandment the one I am to keep?
Perhaps I am to keep the royal commandments? These are found—with subtle differences in wording—in Matthew 22:37, 39, Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev. 19:18, and James 2:8. These royal commandments, as quoted from Matthew 22:37, 39, say this: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Are these the commandments I should keep?
Perhaps God’s commandments to Noah are those I need to observe. They are found in Genesis 9 when God gave Noah his marching orders for life in the post-post-diluvian world. Those commandments include:
- Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
- Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you.
- Do not eat of a live animal (no eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive).
- Traditionally the Noahide laws also included:
- Do not deny God (no idolatry).
- Do not murder.
- Do not steal.
- Do not engage in sexual immorality.
- Do not blaspheme.
- Establish courts and legal systems to ensure obedience of these laws.
Other Commands
What about God’s early commandments in Genesis and those given to Abraham?
Maybe I should be bringing God offerings like Cain and Abel did (Gen. 4:3–4), or building altars for sacrifices as Noah did (Gen. 8:20)? Perhaps I should give tithes, as Abraham gave Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20) and as the Israelites did?
Maybe I should practice circumcision as God commanded Abraham? (Gen 17:10). Perhaps I am out of compliance if I am not married (Gen. 2:24)? Or should I move my family to a new and foreign land? ( Gen. 12:1-4).
Perhaps I should kill my only son? (Gen. 22).
As we can see from this brief look at things God asked of people, there are lots of commandments given and quoted in the Bible, including the commandment Jesus overruled: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (Mt. 5:38–39).
This phrase, along with the idea of written laws, goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture that prospered long before the Bible was written or the civilizations and nations of the Greeks or Romans or Israel flowered.
“An eye for an eye…” is a paraphrase from Hammurabi’s Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar. These commandments were found by French archaeologists in 1901 while excavating the ancient city of Susa, which is in modern-day Iran.
Furthermore, in Matthew 5, Jesus upped the ante of all the Old Testament laws. In fact, He said that not committing adultery was not sufficient for morality; He said if one even lusted in his or her heart, that person was committing adultery (Mt. 5:28). He even said that hate equalled murder (Mt. 5:22), and He said I was to pray for my enemies and be perfect like my Father in heaven (Mt. 5:44, 48).
Conclusion
I have only scratched the surface of the commands contained in the Bible. From this brief exploration, it is obvious that when people say I should keep the Commandments, that directive is not sufficient to tell me what to do.
Now, I know that what people usually mean when they say “Keep the Commandments” is “Keep the Ten Commandments—especially the fourth”. Yet the context of Scripture does not allow us to reduce the word “Commandments” to the Decalogue, and especially not to Sabbath-keeping.
Before we think we know the meaning of “Keep the Commandments”, we need to know what God’s word says. We have to identify which commandments we must keep, and we must know the context of those commands.
Finally, we have to remember that Jesus identified God’s bottom line command to us. In John 6:28–29 we read of the Jews saying to Jesus, “‘What shall we do, to do the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
God’s ultimate commandment is to believe in His Son, in His death, burial, and resurrection as the sufficient atonement for our sin. All of our obedience flows out of responding to this command. Only in Jesus can we be credited with keeping God’s commandments. †
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