The Summary Of Obedience (The New City Catechism #8)

 When Paul explained to the Romans what the goal of his mission was he put it this way: It is “the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Rom. 1:5). In other words, when people trust in Jesus Christ as Savior there is a godly obedience that flows out of this faith and results in the glory of God among all kinds of people. Something we take away from Paul’s statement is that every Christ follower should strive to obey God and to disciple others so that they obey God.

This leads to a question: What does this obedience involve?  In the Old Testament alone there are 613 different laws. And this doesn’t even take into consideration the commands in the New Testament! How can we get our heads and hearts around all the Bible’s commands so we can obey God? 

We discover help since the Bible summarizes what this obedience looks like in a small list called the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28; Deut. 4:13; 10:4). These Ten Commandments (found in Exodus 20:3-7 and Deut. 5:7-21) are said to be a summary of what God requires of us (Matthew 19:18-10; Romans 13:8-10). Elsewhere, it is said that loving God with all we have and loving our neighbor as ourselves summarize what God requires (Lev. 19:18; Deut. 6:5; Matthew 22:37-40).

When we put these statements together we can see that the Ten Commandments are the short summary of God’s will in the Bible that helps us know what the obedience that flows out of our genuine faith should look like. In other words, they help us see what love of God and love of others looks like.

In this week’s catechism question and answer we will learn the Ten Commandments. As we learn them it is helpful for us also to see that they are intended to be a summary of the moral will of God.

Here is that eighth question and answer in The New City Catechism:

What is the law of God stated in the Ten Commandments? Answer: You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below—you shall not bow down to them or worship them. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shall not covet.  

Delighting In This Summary Of Obedience With You,

Tom