Given to answer a friend's question

Which commandments allow for changes as how we live them now that we are in the year 2009?

The answer is “none.” But the answer is also “all.”

Where the Creator gave us commandments to last for all time, He also gave us a world that changes. In this, the commandments are meant to be flexible. When Luther recognized it to be so, he wrote out simple explanations to the commandments, which he called the Small Catechism. His work makes it a little easier to translate God’s desires into specific action.

So now, many years later, with issues confronting us that could not even have been imagined (by humans) when the commandments were newly carved, we may apply the ancient word of God to the modern world.

Here are some principles for reading the commandments, following Luther and the scripture itself:

1. Be kind and forgiving of your neighbor; assume the best. The purpose of the commandments is not to give us ways to accuse, blame or condemn others, even though it’s fun and makes us feel good about ourselves. (Matthew 7:1-5)

2. In contrast, be as strict as possible with yourself. When a question arises in your heart about whether a commandment forbids you doing something, assume it does. Likewise, the question, “Do I really have to . . . ?” should get a yes, by default. Exceptions to this principle are few. (Matthew 18:21-22)

3. Remember that the law does not justify. Too many of us think that God gave the commandments so that we could make ourselves righteous by obeying them. Then we fall into the trap of reading the Bible like an instruction book on how to live, and not a proclamation of God’s love. Did they really think that, if they understood the commandments clearly, they could keep themselves from sinning? (Luke 17:10)

4. We are saved by grace. Sin is less about the things we do than about our radical disconnect (uprootedness) from God, which we chose: rather than let God be God, and let Him do the commandment writing and the justifying, we humans would prefer to be our own gods. (Genesis 3:5) We broke it, and can’t fix it. Only grace can rectify this situation.

5. Finally, forgiveness is not permission, still less sanction. (John 8:11)