Coleman is a parish school teacher in the Reformed Episcopal Church. He earned his MLitt in Classical Protestantism from the Davenant Institute in 2024. He is interested in retrieving the best historic moral theology for the renewal of the contemporary church.
Commandment 10 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).[1] In the verses preceding this exhortation, the Apostle reminds the Colossians that they have been united to Christ in his resurrection and ascension. No longer are they slaves to the old…
Commandment 9 “When [the devil] lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44).[1] “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37). We live in an age oversaturated by…
Commandments Seven and Eight In my reflection on the sixth commandment, I noted that the two tables of the Decalogue follow the logic of a descending order of severity: having a false god and murder are the “capital vices” of man’s duty to his Maker and his neighbor, respectively. Of course, the commandments that follow…
Commandment 6 The second table of the Decalogue concerns man’s duty towards his neighbor, and by the time we have arrived at the sixth commandment, we find the very foundation of that duty expressed negatively as “do not murder.” Before reflecting on contemporary Christian reflections on the commandment, this is a good juncture at which…
Commandment 5 ~ Old Testament Context When the people of Israel assembled on the outskirts of the promised land and received for a second time the stipulations of the covenant God made with them, Moses warned the people in the following words: these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You…
Commandment 4 And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it…
St. Thomas Aquinas, concerning the order of the Decalogue, wrote, “the end of human life and society is God. Consequently it was necessary for the precepts of the decalogue, first of all, to direct man to God.”[1] The decalogue begins with our end because the goal of human life and action is God. Man’s happiness,…
This is the first of a number of planned meditations upon the Decalogue (from the Greek, meaning “ten words”) or Ten Commandments. The Decalogue has an enduring place in the life of all Abraham’s children, Jews and Christians alike,[1] and forms one of the three basic building blocks of Christian catechesis for those entering the…