THE COMMANDMENTS

Lake County Mail, Issue 3, 11 June 1947, Page 3

THE COMMANDMENTS

After a sermon preached on the Ten Commandments by the regimental chaplain, the “ black sheep” of the regiment was heard to remark, “I haven’t made a graven image, at any rate.” Perhaps that is our view of the Commandments, or do we think of them like the old lady who said to the vicar, “ I don’t believe in the Ten Commandments —they only put ideas into one’s head.” What position, then, do tiie Commandments hold in present-day living? Are they outmoded and outdated? The answer is definitely “ No.’

Many Christians prefer the positive summary of the Commandments as

given in the New Testament, when our Lord said: “Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love of God is the summary of the first four of the Ten Commandments. love thy neighbour is the summary of the .last six. Both are important, but they are put in order of importance by our Lord, when He s.fys of the love of God, “This is the first.” The curse of the modern age is that the second is obeyed, to the exclusion of the first. There are countless secular societies for the relief of the poor, and care of orphans and the aged, for doing “good works”—but there is only one, and that supported in a very halfhearted manner, for helping us to fulfil our duty towards God. It is the old argument between faith and works, which is more important. As the apostle says in his letter, it is no use having faith and telling your starving neighbour to be fed and giving him nothing to eat. Neither is it right to

concentrate on helpin'? your neighbour without doing it for the love of God. Tf it is not done with this motive, it is done for some ulterior motive, selfglorification, ,or praise or payment. One cannot really help one’s neighbour unless one loves God, for unless one loves God, one cannot love his neighbour. And so we reach the logical conclusion that love of God comes first, and from it emanates love of one’s neighbour.

Many criticise the Church for doing nothing practical. These critics arc evidently unaware how much they owe to the Christian Church. In .the Middle Ages in England the only hospitals and schools were run hy the Church. St. Thomas’s, Barts (St. Bartholomew’s), Guy’s, are hospitals of Church foundation. The public schools and universities (Oxford and Cambridge) owe their existence to the Church. That’s all very well, but let us live in the present, and in New Zealand. What is the Church doing now? In spite of social legislation, there is still a place for the Church, and the Church is doing its work, wherever it is given a chance. Besides, when we criticise the Church, whom do we mean? The clergy, surely not, for they arc only a small proportion of the Church. The Church is like an army with officers and other ranks. Wo mav call the clergy the officers, but the

man-in-thc-stroet makes up the membership of the Church. The man-in-the-streot. be be Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic or Methodist, is the person ultimately responsible for the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of the Commandments —Love God, Love Tbv Neighbour —Philip C. Williams.