Graduations parties are being held and kids are getting out of school. It’s a great time for us to do some review as a congregation. For the next few weeks, we will be going over the six chief parts of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism in this “Summer School” newsletter series.
The 10 Commandments are the first of the “Six Chief Parts” of the Small Catechism. Catechisms existed before Martin Luther’s catechism, but normally speaking, they did not start here. Instead, they usually started off with the Creed. The idea was that the first thing that you needed to understand as a Christian is the question “Who is God?” Martin Luther, however, felt it was at least equally important to answer the question “Who am I as a creature?” The 10 commandments help us to see ourselves as creatures created by God for His purposes.
The 1st commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me,” and is really sort of a summary of the 10 commandments. Whenever you end up breaking commandments 2-10, you do so because you have put something other than God in God’s place. At the other end, commandments 9 and 10 show how we usually end up in sin as human beings. Commandments 9 and 10 are about coveting, or wanting something that is not ours – either the possessions of another or the life of another. When we begin to covet, the door to sinning opens. Covet your neighbor’s lawnmower enough, you may end up stealing it. Covet your neighbor’s relationship with her husband enough, you may end up committing adultery. Whether you’re committing theft or adultery, or any of the other sins, you’re showing that you don’t trust God and His plan and care for your life.
The Ten Commandments are the summation of the Law for us as Christians. They show us what life is supposed to be like. Of course, because we break these commandments, our life doesn’t look like the perfection we see in the Law. We’re broken and we need a fix. Thankfully, that fix comes in the person of Jesus who is our Savior. He was the only one who kept the Law perfectly, and He kept it perfectly so that He could be crucified on our behalf as a sacrifice for us.