Keep the Ten Commandments

In one sense, the Christian life should have a very predictable look at feel.  In the six parts of the Catechism, we have learned how Jesus’ sacrifice and new life have saved us from sin and given us a new life, too.  But being saved from sin means we now live according to God’s plan for His children and His creation.  And that’s summarized in the Ten Commandments!

So whatever you do – whether you are a husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter, butcher, baker or candlestick maker – keep the Commandments!  Martin Luther was famous for saying that this alone would give you plenty of good works to keep you busy for the rest of your life.  You don’t need to go chasing after “more noble” works than these; they are commanded by God, they are pleasing in His sight, and He has attached great promises to keeping them.  Why “make up” new works when we already have enough trouble with the works we’ve been given to do?!? 

But if you are like a lot of Christians, you want something a little more “prescriptive” to guide your life.  For example:  Knowing that God wants me to “love God” and “love my neighbor” doesn’t help me choose a college major or decide whether to relocate my family to take a new job.  Or does it?

In one sense it does!  God has given you your talents and abilities, passions and interest.  But you can use those to serve selfishly or selflessly.  So when you are considering a college major, you really should ask yourself:  Will I be able to use the opportunities unlocked by this degree to serve God by serving my neighbor.

That reminds me of an annual dinner I attended while I was an engineer.  The comedian who entertained us was talking about the engineers he’d met from a competing company at their annual dinner.  They were building a high bandwidth satellite communication system and the comedian was looking for an opening to make a joke.  So he asked the engineers in the front: “What are people going to do with all this bandwidth?”  Without pausing between bites, the engineers responded: “Porn.”

Now I’m not saying that the engineers who built that system were responsible for the many ways people would misuse it.  But we should care about the work we do and the effect it has on people!  We should care if the company we work for maximizes profits by employing foreign workers at near-slavery wages.  We should care whether the commercial artwork we produce sells products by exciting lust.  We should care whether we are going to be forced to say or teach things that God finds morally repugnant.

So the first question you can ask when you have to make a decision (of almost any kind):  Has God forbid or commanded this in His Commandments?