Saturday, March 13, 2004

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
(Leviticus 19.18 NRSV)
The Ten Commandments are wonderful, they're essential, they simply are inadequate. When Jesus was asked to cite the great commandment, he did not mention any of the Ten Commandments. He cited a Law bigger than all the commandments put together. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind . . . and your neighbor as yourself.

It isn't enough just to keep the Ten Commandments. They tell us what we are not to do. But that's not enough for Christian living. We need both personal integrity AND compassion. We need to have both morality AND love for the least and the lowest. Purity AND passion for the oppressed. The Ten Commandments and a strong social conscience. The Ten Commandments are wonderful, but they are not enough. We must have a heart full of God's love.

Dear God, fill my heart with love and compassion as I follow your commands. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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