A Homily on the Decalogue
As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, the Church has traditionally approached catechesis through three main topics: The Creed, the Decalogue, and the Lord’s Prayer. This week, we begin the second section: the 10 Commandments or Decalogue. Though the Decalogue is one of the most familiar aspects of Christian teaching, remember that none of us ever outgrow the need to recall, review, and study our catechetical foundations. Turning to page 285 of the First Office of Instruction in the American Book of Common Prayer (1928 Edition), we find the discussion of the Decalogue immediately follows the recitation and discussion of the Creed. Obedience logically follows belief. While we won’t recite the Ten Commandments, It is appropriate to notice the prayer we use before reciting them in the Office of Instruction.
Let us ask God’s help to know and to keep them…
Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, That they may love the thing which thou comandest, And desire that which thou dost promise; That so, among the sundry and manifold changes of this world, Our hearts may surely there be fixed, Where true joys are to be found; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[1]
This is reminiscent of our responses to the Decalogue in Holy Communion. There we follow each of the first nine commandments with the response, “Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” After the tenth commandment, we respond, “Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.”
Over the next few installments, we will look at a couple of these commandments in turn. But for today, I’d like to give a more general overview of both the Decalogue and God’s Law in general. As we study the Decalogue, remember these prayers. We ask God to work on our hearts as we seek to be obedient to his Law, for it is only by his aid and by him changing our hearts that we can love and obey his commandments.
Our Provincial Catechism defines God’s Law as “God’s direct pronouncement of his will, both for our good and for his glory.”[2] While there are several words, both in English and Hebrew, that are used in the Bible for God’s Law, the word we usually translate as Law is Torah, which primarily connotes “instruction.” This definition tells us several important things about God’s Law.
First, it does indeed come directly from God himself. That sets God’s Law both apart from and above all human law. Classical theologians such as Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages or our own Reformer, Richard Hooker, note that while not limited to the specific contents of God’s Law, for human law to be good and just, it must be rooted in the ethics of God’s Law. This is why it was once common throughout the United States to see the Ten Commandments displayed in civil courthouses and public classrooms.
A corollary of this is that only God’s Law can “bind the conscience.” That is, God’s Law is what defines sin. Civil Laws and Ecclesiastical Laws allow us to live together in an orderly way, but we do not have the authority to call anything “sin” that God has not called sin in Scripture. Nor do we have the authority to say that something is good if God’s Law says that it is evil.
Second, our Catechism’s definition tells us that God’s Law reflects his will, which is rooted in his character. That means that God’s Law is not arbitrary. For example, the Decalogue’s prohibition against bearing false witness tells us that God is fundamentally truthful. And the prohibition against stealing tells us that God is fundamentally just. Indeed, because the commandments of God’s Law are a pronouncement of his will and thus of his character, the Law of God brings him glory. Its promulgation is part of God’s glory going throughout his creation.
Third, we see that God’s Law is for our benefit as his people. God is not a cosmic killjoy. The Law is not some sort of Divine power trip. No, the commandments are good for us, spiritually, socially, and physically. Though sin may seem pleasurable at the time, it is ultimately destructive. Sometimes the curses and consequences of sin are immediate, but sometimes they are only seen in the long term. Indeed, sometimes they’re only seen in eternity. Sometimes the curse and consequence of our sin only fall on us as individuals. More often, however, it affects everyone around us as well. As the late Ron Dodds, one of my oldest friends and a sometime Junior Warden of our parish, was fond saying, “Sin splatters.”
The term “Law” is often used in Scripture specifically to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament, the five “Books of Moses.” This is because God’s Law or instructions are a significant theme of those first five books, especially once the Israelites are delivered from Egypt in Exodus.[3] The 10 Commandments are the first of many laws given in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Concerning the Law of Moses, we follow longstanding Christian interpretation of seeing three broad categories within those Laws: the moral, civil, and ceremonial laws. Article VII of our Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion puts it like this:
Although the Law given from God by Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral.[4]
Let’s unpack that a bit. When we look at the Law of Moses through the eyes of the New Testament, we clearly see that not everything in the Torah is equally binding now that Jesus has come. With respect to the commandments that have to do with sacrifices in the Temple, the Levitical worship, and ritual purity, we recognize these as temporary commandments that are no longer appropriate in a New Covenant context. We have New Testament Scriptures such as Colossians 2:16-17 that say that the Old Testament holy days and dietary laws are “a shadow of things to come,” the fulfillment of which is found in Christ.
For example, we no longer bring a lamb to a temple to be sacrificed for the Passover. Rather, we see Jesus as the true Paschal Lamb who was sacrificed for our sins. Rather than having a Passover Seder, we celebrate the Eucharist and commemorate Easter Sunday as our Pascha. Thus, the Ceremonial laws are fulfilled in Christ and are no longer appropriate in a New Covenant context. We look at them primarily as typology and indeed prophecy pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ. They’re still important, but they’re not to be practiced in an Old Testament fashion.
The Civil Laws of the Old Testament are specific to Old Testament Israel as a particular Kingdom or Nation. They are not binding in their specifics on any other nation, but they do provide important principles related to justice and the common good. I like to call them Old Testament “case law.” For example, when Deuteronomy 22:8 commands that a “battlement” be built on the Israelites’ roof, “that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence,” we are taught the principle of caring for the safety of our neighbors. Since we don’t typically use our roofs as a gathering place, it makes no sense to build guardrails there. But local building codes do require guardrails on balconies, porches, or decks above a certain height for the same reasons. Accidents happen, but we do not want them to be due to our negligence. We do not want to ignore our neighbors’ safety.
Similarly, when looking at the prohibition in Deuteronomy 25:4 against muzzling an ox that is treading out grain, St. Paul sees a greater justice issue than guarding against animal cruelty (as important as that is). In 1 Timothy 5:18, he applies that verse to make the point that a worker is worthy of just wages, especially ministers of the Church. If an animal working to tread grain deserves to eat some of that grain, certainly a minister of the Gospel deserves support from the Church, even if Paul himself didn’t take advantage of that right!
We might see a contemporary example of the Old Testament civil laws when it comes to current debates over immigration. The Scriptures do not give us a specific immigration policy, but they do give us principles for how to make sure our specific policies are just. Our politicians don’t often understand this. The Bible’s command to treat the stranger kindly does not mean we must have open borders. Nor does the Bible’s teachings of a ruler’s responsibility to keep his people safe mean that we may treat non-citizens with cruelty. So, we Christians should use our vote and voice to help make our nation’s policies just, regardless of who or which party is in office. This is the kind of thing that the Civil Laws in the Torah teach us.
The third category is the moral law. These are eternal and unchanging. The Ten Commandments give us the Bible’s summary of this moral law. We find the Decalogue in two places in the Torah: Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Liturgically, we use their version from Exodus. However, the preamble to the Deuteronomy version is where we get the numbering of these commandments as ten. Also, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, the term we translate as “commandments” is more precisely translated as “words.” That is, the Decalogue is the “Ten Words.” As we look at it in more depth, we’ll see that not everything in them is a commandment. Also, we’ll see that not everyone agrees on how to count them so as to reach the number ten![5]
Broadly, however, we see that the Decalogue teaches us that we have a moral duty towards God to believe and serve him, to worship him, and to trust in him. And we have a moral duty towards our neighbor to honor those in authority, to seek the well-being of our neighbor, to be faithful and pure in our bodies, to respect our neighbor’s property, to speak with honor towards God and neighbor, and to be content with what God has given us.[6]
Our Lord summarizes the moral law even further by paraphrasing Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:8. We are, of course, familiar with his summary from our Liturgy:
Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.[7]
Our Lord’s summary shows us that the inner and spiritual virtues are just as important as our outer actions when we look at the Moral Law.[8]
There are two main errors Christians can fall into when looking at God’s Moral Law. The first to create too sharp a dichotomy between the Law and the Gospel. This often shows up with teachings that paint the Law as oppressive and even evil. The Second Century heretic Marcion was a champion of this error, but it still persists today. It often shows up as saying that nothing from the Old Testament applies to Christians. It will often depict the God of the Old Testament as vengeful and cruel, as contrasted with the God of the New Testament as loving and merciful. The implication is that we have no duties towards God or neighbor as Christians. It leads to a libertine or antinomian approach to our faith. Today, this tactic is often used by preachers or churches who want to excuse sin in some way, especially sexual sin.
The other error is to confuse the Law and the Gospel. This usually shows up when people say things like, “The Gospel is to love God and to love your neighbor.” But, as we’ve already seen, Jesus said that those two aspects of love are a summary of the Law, not the summary of the Gospel. This error often leads to a legalistic approach to the faith where all that we have is duty.
To combat both of these errors, it is important to see that through the entire Bible, we have both Law and Gospel. The Law is our duty towards God and neighbor. The Gospel is what God graciously does for us. A simple way to tell the difference is to see who is “doing the verbs” in a given passage of Scripture. Is God doing something for us? That’s usually the Gospel. Is God telling us what we are to do? That is usually the Law.
Our Reformers help us in discerning both our duties and the goodness of God’s Law by explaining three uses of God’s Law in the Scriptures: The Law is a restraint against evil, the Law is a mirror to show us our sin, and the Law is a guide for godly living.[9]
In its use to restrain evil, the Law tells us what God requires and what the punishment is for breaking His Law. While the Law cannot change our hearts, awareness of the punishment for breaking God’s Law can indeed curb sinful behavior and wickedness to an extent. Outwardly, the Law keeps evil in check to an extent. This use of the Law is why it is so important that human law be rooted in God’s Law. Sometimes people will say that we cannot legislate morality. But the truth is, all law is rooted in some form of moral vision and moral values. All legislation paints a picture of what is morally acceptable or unacceptable in society. All laws reflect morality, and all laws dictate moral behavior. There is no such thing as a morally neutral or religiously neutral society. Laws always reflect moral values and metaphysical beliefs.
This truth is why we see so much language of “God” and “Providence” in our nation’s founding documents. While America’s founders were keen to never have an established religion, the general moral and legal vision of the United States was Christian as received from the various Protestant traditions that came from our founders’ English forebears. Now, this is not to advocate Theocracy, Theonomy, or Christian Nationalism (whatever that means). But it does mean that Christians have a responsibility to think of God’s Law and the common good when we exercise our civic duties as voters and citizens. Again, one of the uses of God’s Law is to restrain evil and promote good for individuals and society, even if it cannot change our hearts.
Second, God’s Law is a mirror to show us the sinfulness of sin. When we are confronted with the absolute purity of God’s Law, we see ourselves as falling far short of it indeed. We see ourselves as sinful. In Galatians 3:24, St. Paul calls the law “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” That is, the righteousness of the Law burdens the conscience so that we realize our need for Christ’s mercy. We see that we need his righteousness for our justification, because we cannot stand before the Great Judge on our own righteousness. And thus, we must put our trust, our faith, in the Lord Jesus, to have his righteousness imputed to us. St. Paul continues in verse 25, “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” That is, the conviction of the Law no longer condemns our conscience. Nevertheless, that does not free the Christian from his duty under the Moral Law.
This brings us to the third use of the Law: a guide for godly behavior. As St. Paul says in Romans 7:12, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good.” Or, as the Psalmist says, “The law of the Lord is an undefiled law, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom unto the simple” (19:7). Commenting on this verse, St. Augustine says that the Law reflects Jesus, the Perfect One, “who came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it… not oppressing souls with the yoke of bondage, but converting them to imitate him in liberty.”[10]
In its second use, the Law kills us so that we might come to Christ for life. In its third use, the Law shows us how to imitate Christ in a righteous life. It shows us how to live a life that is in obedience to God. Indeed, in Christ, we are given the freedom to be obedient. We are given the liberty to live lives that imitate Christ. As Article XII says, our “Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after Justification… [are] pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ.”[11] The Law cannot justify us. But for the justified, the Law is a Law of Liberty.
And thus, God does indeed change our hearts. Earlier we prayed for God’s help in keeping his Law. We prayed for God to change our hearts. After reciting the Decalogue, the Office of Instruction gives us yet another prayer, acknowledging that we cannot keep his Law without his help:
Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without thee, may by the be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[12]
God does indeed answer both prayers. He shapes us into his Son’s image, both inside and out. And when he sees Jesus in us, he is indeed pleased. And we learn to love His Law.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Notes
- This Collect is also the Collect for the 4th Sunday After Easter, BCP 1928, 174.
↑ - Anglican Church in North America, To be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism (Approved Edition), edited by J.I. Packer and Joel Scandrett, Wheaton: Crossway (2020), 91. ↑
- Ibid. See question #259. ↑
- BCP 1928, 604. ↑
- For an in-depth look at the various ways of numbering and dividing the Decalogue, see “Introduction: Father to Son” and “Two Tables” in Peter Leithart, The Ten Commandments: A Guide to the Perfect Law of Liberty (Christian Essentials), Bellingham: Lexham Press (2020).↑
- BCP, 1928, 288-289. ↑
- Ibid., 69. Cf. Matthew 22:37-40. ↑
- Massey Hamilton Shepherd, Jr., The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, New York: Oxford University Press (1963), 286. ↑
- A helpful article summarizing this subject is Ligonier Editorial, “The Threefold Use of the Law,” Ligonier Ministries, Downloaded from https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/threefold-use-law on 08/25/2025. ↑
- St. Augustin, On the Psalms, XIX.8, in NPNF1.8, 55. ↑
- BCP 1928, 605, emphasis added. ↑
- Ibid., 287. This is also the Collect for the 9th Sunday after Trinity, BCP 1928, 200. ↑
