Matthew and the Law of Christ
14081 words long.
Published on 2024-04-28
Abstract
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free
in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
- Romans 8:2
The Apostle Paul contrasts two laws. The first is the old covenant of Moses, called the law of sin and death. It is able to condemn but not justify. Then there is the new covenant of grace, called the law of the spirit of life. That law is able to impart eternal life. This is a confusing topic for new believers. Paul both attacks the old covenant and continues to insist that people not murder, steal, commit adultery, worship idols or lie. How is that not exactly the same?
This article, originally published as the chapter "Matthew and the Law of Christ" in the book Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace, provides a helpful guide to understanding what exactly is this "Law of Christ". It builds upon the previous article Which Ten Commandments? to divide the Gospel of Matthew according to the Law Pattern. Each pair of chapters in Matthew corresponds to one of the fourteen imperative statements found in the Ten Commandments. What does this mean? It means that there are two chapters of gospel commentary for each imperative that explain the new way in which we are to walk according to those commandments, an expanded view of each given straight by Jesus. So when Paul speaks of "the Law of Christ", it is not a rhetorical flourish, nor is it devoid of significant content. Jesus did lay down this new law and we can trace its shape. We do not need to be confused any more.
Matthew and the Law of Christ
Bear one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ.
- Galatians 6:2
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.
To those under the law I became as one under the law
(though not being myself under the law) that I might win
those under the law. To those outside the law
I became as one outside the law (not being outside
the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I
might win those outside the law.
- 1 Corinthians 9:20-21
In the previous chapter, we saw the Gospel process of salvation hidden in a psalm about the Law. Now we shall uncover the Law hidden in a Gospel.
What is the law of Christ? Paul wrote extensively about the change from living under the law to living under grace. In Peace, the chapter “Appendix I: A Clock for Timothy” shows that 1&2 Timothy are structured according to the Ten Commandments. You can take a deep dive into Pauline theology to figure out this “law of Christ”. Alternatively, you can head to the Gospel of Matthew.
When I began crafting the conclusion to this book, I pulled together the patterns from Peace and this book (Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace) and other fruits of my research. I scribbled notes on many pieces of paper then stood back to see if I could distill all I had learned into a compact description of the heart of wisdom. In doing so, when I got to the heart of Matthew, I noticed passages that matched the heart of the Ten Commandments expressed as fourteen imperative statements. The two central imperatives are to not work on the seventh day and to honor your father and mother. Lo and behold, the middle chapters of Matthew call Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath and then discuss the fifth commandment. I hoped it was a coincidence because this book is already twice as long as I planned for. No dice.
(At the start of Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace was a chart that you can use to compare the several patterns developed in the book. It is reproduced below. The last pattern to be explained appears in the chapter “Epilogue: The Fifth Commandment”. That is the Motherhood Pattern.)
The next day I dissected Matthew and all doubt was removed. In addition to the Harvest and Growth Patterns, Matthew also conforms to the precise structure of the commandments. Each pair of chapters matches one imperative, fourteen pairs in all. Some matches are direct, with commentary framed to discuss that commandment. Others expand the scope of the command. Yet others speak of the opposite of the command, the positive sense of how to do right instead of avoid wrong. Lastly, there are examples of Jesus or others obeying the command through righteous acts, or disobeying the command through sin.
So many patterns! Matthew is far more complex than I ever knew. With this addition, the larger story of the gospel comes into view. The most granular pattern is the Growth Pattern of Solomon’s twenty-eight times. The path to mature obedience and fruitfulness takes time. The next level is this new Law Pattern of fourteen steps. As we mature we are able to follow God’s laws with greater sincerity, perseverance, and fidelity. We are learning to obey God. The next level is the Harvest Pattern of seven steps, where we learn to be fruitful. Then the top level returns to the most important commandments, to love God and neighbor, which in Jesus become one.
Mature, obedient, fruitful, loving.
28, 14, 7, 2.
Reinterpreting Matthew in the light of the Law Pattern could be the subject of an entire book. The following will identify which passages match each imperative but only provide extended discussion for connections that are not obvious. Then by combining what is said in Peace about the Harvest and Growth Patterns in Matthew and what this book says about the Law Pattern, you will be able to see three intersecting lines of thought as they touch each chapter. Every chapter can then be seen in relation to the whole, making connections and trends of thought clear that are easily overlooked.
In the sections below, the commandments are divided into fourteen parts, corresponding to the fourteen imperative statements. Each imperative statement is addressed by Jesus in two chapters of Matthew. By this logic, Matthew will devote six chapters to the sabbath, as it comprises three parts. This is significant.
- 1: No other Gods
- 2a: No Making idols
- 2b: No worshiping idols
- 3: No vain speech
- 4a: Keep the Sabbath holy
- 4b: Work six days
- 4c: Don't work on the seventh day
- 5: Honor father & mother
- 6: No murder
- 7: No adultery
- 8: No stealing
- 9: No lying
- 10a: No coveting neighbor's house
- 10b: No coveting neighbor's wife
1: (Matthew 1-2)
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
Both the preamble and first imperative find expression in the first two chapters of Matthew. The Egypt connection between preamble and gospel is clear in chapter 2:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt,
and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about
to search for the child, to destroy him.”
And he rose and took the child and his mother by night
and departed to Egypt and remained there until the
death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had
spoken by the prophet,
“Out of Egypt I called my son.”
- Matthew 2:13-15
Prior to this, when the angel spoke to Joseph, the connection to the imperative is made:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
- Matthew 1:23
This introduces the great controversy. We are not to worship anything “on the earth beneath”, yet now God has come upon the earth in the form of a man. His deity is reinforced later, when the wise men visit:
And going into the house they saw the child with Mary
his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.
Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts,
gold and frankincense and myrrh.
- Matthew 2:11
We are only permitted to worship God. Jesus is God.
2a: (Matthew 3-4)
You shall not make for yourself a carved image,
or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth.
The word idol does not crop up in these chapters. However, one troublesome form for an idol and two materials commonly used to make idols are described in a mysterious way by John the Baptist:
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them,
"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves,
‘We have Abraham as our father,’
for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up
children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the
root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
- Matthew 3:7-10
Concerning the viper, the Jews once worshiped the image of a snake, but Hezekiah destroyed it:
He removed the high places and broke the pillars
and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the
bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days
the people of Israel had made offerings to it
(it was called Nehushtan).
- 2 Kings 18:4
Likewise, pagan altars were often built from stones and topped with wooden Asherah poles. The irony in John’s words is sharp. People are not supposed to worship lifeless things of stone and wood, yet John says that God can turn those lifeless stones into children of Abraham, while those who are technically children of Abraham are like idols made of wood, trees fit only to be burned.
In the next chapter, when Jesus is tempted by the devil (4:1-11), stones make another appearance. Jesus refuses to turn stones into bread. By doing this, Jesus is refusing to turn his appetite and divine power into an idol that will serve him. Jesus came to serve, not be served. As for refusing to jump off the temple, Jesus refused to allow even the temple to become an idol to be worshiped. Finally, Jesus refuses to bow down and worship the devil, who qualifies as a being from “heaven above”.
2b: (Matthew 5-6)
You shall not bow down to them or serve them,
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children
to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those
who love me and keep my commandments.
Chapters 5 and 6 do not focus on not worshiping idols, they focus on true and acceptable worship. The attitude of acceptable worship is revealed via the Beatitudes (5:3-12). The actions of acceptable worship are itemized in both chapters. That includes taking oaths (5:33-37), alms giving (6:1-4), praying (6:5-15), and fasting (6:16-18).
Jesus does address the worship of idols, but indirectly, by shining light on the heart attitude behind that idolatry. Humanity’s number one idol is money. Jesus urges us to store up treasures in heaven (6:19-24) instead of things that moth and rust destroy. He then extends the scope of such idolatry to anxiety over food and clothing (6:25-34).
Jesus’ most startling claim is how he defines his relationship to the law:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until
all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the
least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever
does them and teaches them will be called great in
the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Matthew 5:17-20
As we continue to march through the gospel, keep this in mind. Jesus’ words are not rhetorical hyperbole. With Jesus’ life, ministry and teaching conforming explicitly to the Ten Commandments, he really does fulfill the law.
3: (Matthew 7-8)
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,
for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
who takes his name in vain.
Taking the Lord’s name in vain encompasses more than swearing. When we manipulate others by claiming our words come from God when they do not, that is vain speech. Jesus here warns of false prophets. (7:15-20)
When we call “Lord, Lord” to request help but habitually break God’s law in secret, that is vain speech. (7:21-23)
When we call on God for help but doubt His love and ability to help us, that is vain speech. (7:7-11)
Stepping into chapter eight, Jesus transitions from teacher of the law to doer of the law. After cleansing a leper, he directs the man to follow the law:
And Jesus said to him,
“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go,
show yourself to the priest and offer the gift
that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
- Matthew 8:4
Then Jesus is astonished at the faith of a centurion (8:5-13). That man unwaveringly believed that the Lord had the authority and ability to heal his servant. When he asks, seeks and knocks, and calls “Lord, Lord”, the Lord answers.
4a: (Matthew 9-10)
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
4b: (Matthew 11-12)
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
4c: (Matthew 13-14)
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son,
or your daughter, your male servant, or
your female servant, or your livestock,
or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The Sabbath commandment, being distributed among three imperatives, finds expression in six chapters of Matthew. When Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath, the religious authorities interpreted this as disobedience to God’s law. These chapters tackle holiness, work and rest in a perplexing sequence consistent with Christ’s controversial stance.
The Jewish leaders considered Sabbath observance to be the most important ritual in Judaism. Some modern Jewish commentators assert that shabbat is mentioned more often in the Tanakh than any other Jewish religious practice. Even some Christian denominations, like the Seventh Day Adventists, consider the Sabbath commandment to be the most important. Most Christians look at what Jesus said and did and come to the opposite conclusion. The irony is that this six chapter focus shows that Jesus agreed with the teachers of the law! A fifth of this gospel is devoted to the controversy over how to keep the sabbath holy. Jesus disputed not its importance but the spirit in which to observe it.
What does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy? It means that holy people congregate in a holy place at a holy time to worship a holy God. Jesus showed a new way to satisfy all these requirements and it got him in trouble. Jesus met with unholy people, like Matthew the tax collector and his tax collecting friends (9:9-13), a sinful, paralytic man whom Jesus both forgave and healed (9:1-8), and a demon-oppressed man (9:32-34). How was this okay? Because Jesus made them holy!
When Jesus met in an unholy place (Matthew’s house), he sanctified it by his presence. Sadly, he reported on the unholy things that would soon be done in supposedly holy synagogues by saying, “Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues.” (10:17)
The other gospels make much of the fact that some healings Jesus performed on the Sabbath, offending the Pharisees’ sense of time. Matthew does not specify for most of these healings if they occurred then, but he does address the issue of understanding when God’s timing for special seasons in salvation history override convention. Jesus was questioned about why his disciples did not fast like the Pharisees did (9:14-17). Now we know that when he was tempted by the devil, he fasted forty days, then later taught about the proper way to fast. Jesus is showing that we have liberty in how we structure our time in service and worship.
More importantly, Jesus was not working on the Sabbath to satisfy his own need for food or money. Jesus was working to set people free from bondage to disease and sin so that they might for once enter into the peace of God from which they had long been excluded. He makes the startling declaration that he is the Lord of the Sabbath (12:1-8). One example of Jesus exercising this authority is the restoration of a man’s withered hand (12:9-14). This was explicitly stated as occurring on the Sabbath. When challenged about this, Jesus shames them by showing that they care more about sheep than people:
He said to them,
“Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls
into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it
and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man
than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man,
“Stretch out your hand.”
And the man stretched it out, and it was restored,
healthy like the other.
- Matthew 12:11-13
Jesus calls this great work of setting people free the harvest. He called for people to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into the harvest field (9:35-38). Do not overlook this! Jesus did not arrogate the right to change the times set in the law. He prayed for God to authorize people to work extended hours to accomplish this compassionate task. Then in the next chapter, Jesus actually sends his disciples out into the harvest field (9:1-42). This identifies Jesus as the Lord of the Harvest.
Since he is both the Lord of the Sabbath and Lord of the Harvest, he is lord of both the six days of work and the one day of rest. Since he is the recipient of prayers and the one who by offering forgiveness makes people holy, Jesus is the Holy God that we are to worship on the Sabbath. That makes any house where he stays a synagogue or temple.
With heavy taxes, occupation by Rome, and disease and oppression of every kind, the people needed rest. In chapter 11, corresponding to the command to work six days, Jesus says the opposite, calling the people to rest, because the people needed rest today, not tomorrow:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
- Matthew 11:28-30
Then when we get to chapter 13, corresponding to the command to do no work on the seventh day, Jesus gives the Parable of the Sower and others related to the great work of harvesting souls for the kingdom.
Finally, chapter 14 gives examples of Jesus working so that others may have peace. He feeds the 5,000 (14:13-21) and heals the sick (14:34-36). In between these two miracles Jesus performs an essential service. The afflicted are not the only ones who need a savior. The faithful who answer the call to the mission field are subject to persecution and hardship. Like the disciples, afraid of the waves and terrified at the sight of Jesus walking upon the sea (14:22-33), we need our anchor in the storm. Any day, any hour, can usher in our sabbath rest.
5: (Matthew 15-16)
Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be long in the land
that the Lord your God is giving you.
Chapter 15 gives precept and example. Jesus rebukes people for using religious rules to allow them to wiggle out of fulfilling responsibilities that they had toward their parents under this commandment (15:1-9). When I was a new believer, I was guilty of this. It is easy for a son or daughter to clothe ordinary resentments in the religious garb of perceived persecution and justify isolating from family gatherings and chores.
Backing up a chapter, we have the example of Salome “honoring” her mother by demanding of her father the death of John the Baptist (14:1-12). Yes, Herod was a great sinner, but his daughter dishonored him by making such a wicked request.
Contrast this with the Canaanite woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter (15:21-28). She made a dangerous journey, endured the scornful looks of the Jews who despised all such pagans as well as the sharp answer from Jesus: “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” This mother endured dishonor to save her daughter. For this, the remembrance of her great faith and honor as a mother are preserved for all eternity in this gospel story. By this, Jesus calls all mothers and fathers to be honorable parents by risking all to care for their children.
In chapter 16, Jesus honors his Father in Heaven. He does this by acknowledging two things: a blessing received from the Father in the present and a blessing anticipated by faith that He trusts the Father will bestow in the future. The present blessing is upon Peter and would lead to the founding of the Church:
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi,
he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
And they said,
“Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others
Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them,
“But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter replied,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus answered him,
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
- Matthew 16:13-17
The future blessing is upon Jesus and all whom he shall reward with grace and vindicate by justice on the day he returns:
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels
in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay
each person according to what he has done.
- Matthew 16:27
Due to the interplay between the Harvest, Growth and Law Patterns, there are two important examples related to honoring Jesus’ mother which are slightly out of place, in chapters 12 & 13. There is a reason for this. Back in “Which Ten Commandments”, Jesus was specially identified with the center imperatives of resting on the Sabbath day and honoring Father and Mother. Thus chapters 12 & 13 show the vital unity of these two commandments which define Jesus as both God and Man. These chapters declare Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath and Son of Man (12:8; 13:37). Consider then how his humanity was regarded:
While he was still speaking to the people, behold,
his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak
to him. But he replied to the man who told him,
“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does
the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and
sister and mother.”
- Matthew 12:46-49
In Peace, this was shown to be an emotional riddle. An emotional riddle is a Bible statement whose true meaning is hidden behind the negative emotional response that the statement evokes. Only a person who perseveres in faith, refuses to throw away the Scripture by calling it errant or uninspired, and implores God to explain it will find its true meaning. Thus Paul’s command that women be silent and not teach in 1 Timothy was a riddle pointing to a later time, “a time to be silent”, which would immediately precede “a time to speak” when women would be permitted to speak as leaders and teachers in the church. That verse was a test of men, to see if they would ever treat women as equals. It was a test of women, to see if they would obey in submission for over a millennium. It remains a test of the church to see if they would exegete it with integrity. It is a test of unbelievers to see if they will trust a savior whose words they do not understand.
In the present emotional riddle, the emotion is either anger that Jesus is insulting his mother or umbrage that his family expects special status. A typical Protestant might be happy with this as on the surface it contradicts Roman Catholic teachings about the unique role of Mary. However, being adjacent to the chapters about honoring one’s father and mother, it is intentionally provocative.
We can take this statement as a put down of Mary or an elevation of all who obey the Father’s will to like status with Mary. The fifth commandment receives special mention by Paul:
“Honor your father and mother”
(this is the first commandment with a promise),
“that it may go well with you and that you may
live long in the land.”
- Ephesians 6:2-3
Do you see what Jesus has done? The Ten Commandments are mostly about what we should not do, with no explicit blessing for obedience except this solitary command. (There is an implicit blessing of continued freedom from slavery.) By doing this thing, equating the faithful with his mother and brothers, Jesus is free to extend his love and honor to all. Now when he honors his mother, having made all believers into his mothers, sisters and brothers, that honor overflows to the whole church. He has turned the Law into Grace! All this springs from our being adopted into God’s family. It is as John said:
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God, who were born,
not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of
the will of man, but of God.
- John 1:12-13
In Peace, the other side of this question was examined. We are called to do more than change our view of how faith affects the status of our earthly relationships. If ordinary believers are elevated to like status with Jesus’ family, what is the status of that family? For we know that Mary obeyed the angel and the Father when she undertook the difficult mission of becoming the mother of our Lord. So the Bible challenges us to ask concerning Mary, “Who is my mother?”
As related in Peace, during the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church began to ask that question in earnest. Saint Anselm, Eadmer, and other theologians posed the question and began to formulate an answer. They sought to understand who Mary is, what her role in the church is, and how they might honor her. During that era, the food supply doubled, life expectancy increased from 25 to 35 years, and the population doubled. By this and other prophetic connections related in that book, it is clear that there is something special about Mary, and honoring her releases blessings from Heaven. In the Magnificat, Mary said that all generations shall call her blessed. As a loving, compassionate believer in the Savior, surely she shares that blessing with Christians in need throughout all generations!
As a counter example, consider not Jesus’ words but those of neighbors from his hometown:
And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went
away from there, and coming to his hometown he taught them
in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said,
“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?
And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
And are not all his sisters with us?
Where then did this man get all these things?”
And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown
and in his own household.”
And he did not do many mighty works there, because of
their unbelief.
- Matthew 13:53-58
Like Job’s friends, they discounted the possibility that anyone born of woman could be Messiah. Like all people, they judged Jesus according to his social status. Carpenter’s son. Mary’s child. Fatherless. Brothers and sisters of no account. Galilean. Average looking. Human. They are rejecting the possibility that God can become incarnate in a form both human and divine. That is part of the unbelief that prevented Jesus from working many miracles. It is not its source.
The source of this unbelief in Jesus springs from the first two pieces of evidence cited by the people for mistrusting him: his father and mother. The people dishonored Jesus’ father Joseph and mother Mary. No honoring of Jesus’ parents means no promised blessing. I am a Baptist, a Calvinist Protestant, but logic, history and Scripture compel me to accept that there is something about Mary that we do not understand. So have you ever prayed, “Who is Jesus’ mother?”
6: (Matthew 17-18)
You shall not murder.
If someone wishes to dispute the present structured categorization of Matthew by the commandments, this would be a good place to start. Murder shows up everywhere. Herod tried to kill Jesus in chapter 2. The devil tried to get Jesus to jump off the temple in chapter 4. Jesus likened anger to murder in the Sermon on the Mount (5:21-26). The Romans crucified Jesus in chapter 27.
What sets these two chapters apart is that they describe what Jesus is going to do about murder. Adding to what he said in chapter 5, Jesus condemns in 18:1-9 all who lead children or anyone else astray. This will fall heavily on public school teachers and college professors who proclaim lies that contradict the Bible. Since the end state of a person who is lured away from the truth is eternal damnation, corrupt teachers are to be punished the same as murderers.
Yet God in his mercy will not stand idly by as these deceivers spread corruption. In the Parable of the Lost Sheep (18:10-13), Jesus promises to seek out the lost and bring them back to the truth. Then he proclaims a message of forgiveness in 18:14-19. Of course this is tempered by a requirement that those who are forgiven also forgive others, as told in the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (18:20-34).
If chapter 18 holds Jesus’ plan, chapter 17 describes the obstacle Jesus had to overcome to get the spiritual authority and power to accomplish that plan. At the close of the scene where Jesus was transfigured upon the mountain, he says this:
And as they were coming down the mountain,
Jesus commanded them,
“Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised
from the dead.”
And the disciples asked him,
“Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”
He answered,
“Elijah does come, and he will restore all things.
But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they
did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.
So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”
Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them
of John the Baptist.
- Matthew 17:9-13
To reinforce this, he soon after said this:
As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the
hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will
be raised on the third day.”
And they were greatly distressed.
- Matthew 17:21-22
To rid the world of murder, Jesus had to let himself be murdered. That is how hard it is to stop us humans from killing each other. That is how heavy a price had to be paid. When Jesus said he would fulfill the law completely, he did not exaggerate. He follows that law so that we may receive grace.
7: (Matthew 19-20)
You shall not commit adultery.
In chapter 19, Jesus speaks out against adultery (19:18) and divorce (19:1-12). When he does this, he connects these sins to some of the evil effects they cause, like harm to children (19:13-15). Altogether, Jesus is reinforcing the necessity of healthy families in promoting a healthy and happy life.
The next chapter seems at first blush not to have anything to do with adultery. This is a case where having a commandment framework adds value. If Matthew 20 addresses adultery, then what kind? The first clue is in the story of the mother of two disciples soliciting Jesus for top positions in his kingdom. Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” (Matthew 20:22) Drinking a cup can mean several things in Scripture, but the connotation here is suffering. Jesus is righteous, so his suffering is undeserved persecution; he again predicts his death in 20:19. In Revelation, we have the cup of God’s wrath against the adulterous false religion of Babylon:
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”
- Revelation 18:3, NIV
When Jesus drinks the cup, his motive is pure. The two disciples and their mother, however, walk this road for pride, the core sin of Satan’s religion.
With the insight that this chapter concerns the adultery of false religion, another story make sense. The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard is not about just any old workers. They are evangelists, missionaries and pastors. The attitude of entitlement pitting the early workers in a mission field against those who complete the task is also pride, but tinged with greed. As Paul observed, many see Christ as a means for earthly gain.
The remaining story on the surface is about two loud mouthed blind men whose bold faith leads to their receiving their sight. The underlying religious story is that the bystanders were annoyed at the men for disrupting Jesus’ teaching. Are propriety, order, tradition, comfort and manners more important than love? Not to Jesus. He refused to let religion get in the way of welcoming people into the Kingdom of God.
8: (Matthew 21-22)
You shall not steal.
Chapter 21 starts off with a peculiar introduction to theft. Roman soldiers could compel a person to carry their gear, which is a theft of services, but authorized by Roman law. In the first story (21:1-11), Jesus has his servants borrow a donkey and its colt to be used to bear Jesus on his entrance into Jerusalem. Jesus instructs his disciples, “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” (21:3) By this, he shows that though he is the commander of the heavenly host, he obtains permission from its owner even to borrow a beast for a day. In this way, Jesus sanctifies property ownership.
The next pericope attacks legalized theft in a religious context.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all
who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the
tables of the money-changers and the seats of those
who sold pigeons. He said to them,
“It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’
but you make it a den of robbers.”
- Matthew 21:12-13
When a person offers a sacrifice at the temple, it is often to atone for guilt and receive forgiveness. God’s purpose in this is to remove the burden of sin from their heart. The money changers, by taking their cut and jacking up the prices for purchasing animals for sacrifice, added to the penitent’s burden. By making religion a business, they rob God of His glory and attach a financial obligation to His grace.
This grace is then expressed ironically when Jesus, after condemning the religious, offers a place in his kingdom to the biggest thieves of all, tax collectors for Rome.
“… Jesus said to them,
“Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and
the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness,
and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors
and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it,
you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.”
- Matthew 21:31b-32
There are surely people today who enjoy words like this where Jesus sticks it to the religious people. Their pride rises up inside them, thinking that they get a free pass. I can’t help thinking about the man who wrote these words down. I doubt that Matthew felt pride as he dipped pen in reservoir and made each careful stroke. Every few seconds he had to wipe tears from his face with his sleeve, lest they drip upon the parchment and ruin his calligraphy. He had been one of those tax collectors. He knew how undeserving he was to receive such a gift. Now the Lord was entrusting him to render an account of all these marvelous deeds, to be slotted in first place in the New Testament. The weight of such a blessing who can bear?
The Parable of the Tenants (21:33-45) shows us where theft leads: to murder. The tenants rob the landowner first of their rent, then they kill his servants (the prophets) and finally his son (Jesus). The immediate context for the vineyard is Israel, but by now it extends to our whole world. We want to seize ownership from God and be our own masters. This will not end well.
Chapter 22 steps back and shows there are two kinds property, matching two sources of authority and obligation, earthly and heavenly.
Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to
pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said,
“Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin for the tax.”
And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them,
“Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them,
“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's.”
When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him
and went away.
- Matthew 22:17-22
We live in a world in which claims upon our time, talents and resources come from all directions. We must sort them out. We must learn from Jesus how to prioritize them. The reality that we cannot use religion, political philosophy or our worldview to get a pass from any of them is infuriating. Jesus called it malice. We can grow to despise the people and institutions that have legitimate claims upon us. This is a great burden and a great test of faith.
9: (Matthew 23-24)
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
The whole of chapter 23 is devoted to one pernicious form of lying: religious hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is revealed in its many facets:
- Public observance of rules to hide private lawlessness
- Missionary activity that reproduces the same deceptive lifestyle in new converts
- Narrow focus on rule keeping at the expense of justice, mercy and faithfulness
- Making oaths into lies by excusing people for breaking ones that do not involve money
Recall the third and ninth plagues on Egypt? They were the plagues of gnats (a minor plague) and of darkness (a major one, which renders people blind). Darkness is symbolic of lies, which conceal the truth, just as light is symbolic of truth. Jesus connects those plagues to hypocrisy by these words:
You blind guides, straining out a gnat
and swallowing a camel!
- Matthew 23:23
A balanced faith does not focus on one area of morality and ethics at the expense of the others. As James wrote,
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point
has become accountable for all of it. For he who said,
“Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.”
If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act
as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- James 2:10-13
Throughout Matthew, Jesus prefaces statements with “Truly, I say to you…” Moving on to chapter 24 is no exception. Jesus countered the pleasant lies of false prophets with devastating truths, like the coming destruction of the temple (24:1-2). Then he warned of false prophets who speak religious lies (24:3-14). Some people will react to this by ignoring all prophets, but that is equally dangerous, because the only way to endure calamity is to accept and act on the truth:
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed
throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations,
and then the end will come.”
- Matthew 24:14
From verse 15 on, Jesus gives true details of what is to come to enable us to distinguish truth from lies. The truth of these words is so monumentally important that Jesus attached to them the highest level of assurance:
From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes
tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near,
at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not
pass away until all these things take place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
- Matthew 24:32-35
Of all the lies to be told by false prophets, Jesus saves this one for last: “But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed’…” (Matthew 24:48)
When the time set by the Father (24:36) and known only to him arrives, so will Jesus. He will not be delayed.
As they say down under: Struth!
10a: (Matthew 25-26)
You shall not covet your neighbor's house;
There are far more things that we can covet beyond those listed in the commandment. In these chapters, if you combine the surface and inner meanings, you get relationships, religious status, real estate, money, and reputation, to name a few.
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (25:1-13) is about preparation, whether in our normal work responsibilities or our role as Christians preparing the world for Christ’s return. Why were some virgins not prepared for the bridegroom to arrive? We can call it laziness, but what produced that laziness? Somebody else was getting married. If it was her own wedding, every virgin would have been prepared. Jealousy towards the bride who was getting married, instead of them, undermined their dedication to their work.
Some who have been entrusted with an important responsibility do not have feelings of humble gratitude. In the Parable of the Talents (25:14-30), the third servant buries the talent entrusted to him. Envy, anger, resentment and fear cripple him, so he refuses to take a risk for his master to try to obtain a good return on the investment. He believes that all the results of his labor should belong to him, not the man who staked him with the talent. He covets the investor’s rightful share of the profits. God gave us everything we have, starting with life. The obedience he commands and the return he expects of us are not theft, they are the gift of purpose and significance. If we do not covet our master’s share but industriously increase it, he will allow us to enter into his joy (25:21,23). The joy of heaven is superior to all the wealth on earth. It is a spiritual treasure. Covetousness is built upon a faulty appraisal of the value of things. The greedy are greedy for the perishable. Their greed would be virtue if they craved the eternal pleasures of Heaven:
You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
- Psalm 16:11, NIV
The separation of the sheep and goats (25:31-46) switches to the opposite of covetousness, which is generosity.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you clothed me,
I was sick and you visited me,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
- Matthew 25:35-36
The only way to overcome covetousness is to give. The joy of giving will displace the empty satisfaction of merely keeping what is yours. Yet even that joy may be met with derision and that generosity with opposition:
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very
expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as
he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it,
they were indignant, saying,
“Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum
and given to the poor.”
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them,
“Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done
a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the
poor with you, but you will not always have me.
In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it
to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever
this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has
done will also be told in memory of her.”
- Matthew 26:6-13
Matthew fingers all the disciples, but John 12:1-8 narrows it to Judas Iscariot. Judas kept the group’s money bag and was skimming from it. On the surface, he was concerned about charity. Underneath, it was greed. If the other disciples grunted their agreement with Judas, it may have been because they coveted not the money but the good reputation that comes from making a big contribution to the temple or to charity.
Decades ago, I composed a worship song about the woman who anointed Jesus. Her story moved me and challenged me. Are you keeping her memory alive by emulating her example? Is your love for Jesus extravagant enough for people to insult you for being wasteful?
10b: (Matthew 27-28)
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant,
or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey,
or anything that is your neighbor's.
In Matthew 27, we see how covetousness gave root to a money laundering scheme (27:1-10). When Judas returns the blood money for betraying Christ, the chief priests had a conundrum. That money was accursed, so it could not be added to the temple treasury. But oh, how they coveted that money! They found a loophole that enabled them to do something “charitable” with the funds: buy a field to bury foreigners in. Covetousness is oh, so clever.
The jealousy towards Jesus over performing all those miracles and winning over the crowds is expressed elsewhere in Scripture, but the fruits – the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus – are on full display in these chapters. However, Matthew does not dwell on their covetousness, but on the Christ’s generosity. He gave his life as a ransom for many.
And what was the fruit? Despite danger, scorn and grief, women cared for his body. A rich man donated his tomb (27:57-61). Soldiers coveted their lives and money, so they lied about the body being stolen (28:11-15). Then Jesus gave us a gift so generous, we do not deserve it.
Then Jesus came to them and said,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything
I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always,
to the very end of the age.”
- Matthew 28:18-20, NIV
He gave us the most important job in history and promised to always live up to that blessed name, Immanuel. God is with us, our eternal life. Why should we covet anything else?
Coincidence?
Matthew has many references to the commandments. Couldn’t the preceding pattern that matches each of the commandments to chapters be a coincidence? If every chapter mentioned every commandment, it would absolutely be a coincidence. Then you could walk though each chapter and pick the command you wanted to highlight and construct any sequence of commands you wanted. However, this is not the case. Murder is a topic in six chapters and adultery four. The word mother occurs in twelve. Father appears in twenty-three, but only twelve are in the context of honor or dishonor.
Assume that each imperative may be found in half the chapters (fourteen), which overstates things in favor of the possibility of the pattern being a sheer coincidence. What would be the odds be of assembling a complete sequence of imperatives ordered by chapter if references to each of the fourteen imperatives were sprinkled randomly among the twenty-eight chapters? The formula for that probability is simple:
Probability = (14/28)28 = 3.7253 / 1,000,000,000
The odds that the Law Pattern in Matthew is a random coincidence are less than four in a billion! It is not illusory. It is real.
The Law of Christ
Paul may have named the Law of Christ, but now we see that Matthew enumerated every statute, like Moses with the original tablets of the law. Jesus fulfilled each statute of the law, which it is useful to summarize. Before that, let’s revisit the association of each imperative with a member of the Trinity from Which Ten Commandments. To the list of fourteen we shall add the corresponding chapters of Matthew.
- Father (1-2).
- Father (3-4), Spirit (5-6), Son (7-8).
- Spirit (9-10), Father (11-12), Son (13-14).
- Son (15-16), Father (17-18), Spirit (19-20).
- Father (21-22), Son (23-24), Spirit (25-26).
- Spirit (27-28).
The question is, if each command has a special affinity to one member of the Trinity in Exodus, does that association hold up when we look at Matthew? It does! Here is the evidence. Each imperative goes with two chapters. At least one of each pair matches the relevant person of the Trinity. Four chapters in all do not match the expected person.
- Chapter 6 matches the Father, not the Holy Spirit
- Chapter 12 matches the Holy Spirit, not the Father
- Chapter 17 matches the Son, not the Father
- Chapter 28 matches all members of the Trinity, not the Holy Spirit alone
The deviations from pattern do not look accidental. Chapter 6 mentions the Father nine times, including Jesus teaching the Lord’s Prayer. Chapter 12 addresses the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, possibly the strongest statement in the Bible about the importance of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 17 shows the Transfiguration of Jesus, which prefigures the fullness of the glory in which he will one day appear. Lastly, the concluding chapter of Matthew, chapter 28, holds the central verse in the Bible revealing the Trinity. Thus each person of the Trinity receives one out-of-place chapter to reveal something special about him, followed by one chapter that emphasizes their cooperative unity. This is on top of seventeen instances of the Harvest Pattern described in Peace, a pattern rich in Trinitarian structure. Matthew is shouting Trinity with so many poetic and rhetorical devices that it boggles the mind how some continue to dispute this!
| Chapter | Person | Scripture Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Father | A chronology of forty fathers leading to Jesus, beginning with Abraham, whose name means “Father of many”. Joseph, adoptive father of Jesus, visited by angels, |
| 2 | Father | Joseph warned by angel in a dream to go to Egypt. |
| 3 | Father | The Father speaks: and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) All three members of Trinity appear here. |
| 4 | Father | All three temptations by Satan were to get Jesus to mistrust or disobey his Father, or even doubt that God is his father. “If you are the Son of God…” |
| 5 | Holy Spirit | “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3) Gives the proper spirit in which to worship God. The spirit behind murder is anger (5:21-26). The spirit behind adultery is lust (5:27-30) |
| 6 | Holy Spirit? Father! |
The Father is named nine times! This breaks pattern. |
| 7 | Son | And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29) |
| 8 | Son | Emphasis on Jesus’ healing ministry and the cost of following him. Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:21-22) |
| 9 | Holy Spirit | No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch
tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine
put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled
and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and
so both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17, ESV) The new wine is the Holy Spirit (compare to Elihu in Job 32) as well as new teachings. |
| 10 | Holy Spirit | And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.” (Matthew 10:1, ESV) |
| 11 | Father | At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matthew 11:25-27) |
| 12 | Father? Holy Spirit! |
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit decried. Parable of the return of an unclean spirit. This is affiliated with the Holy Spirit, not the Father as expected. |
| 13 | Son | Parable of the Sower and others related to the harvest. Christ is the Lord of the Harvest. Also, Jesus rejected at Nazareth. |
| 14 | Son | Jesus walks on water, sign of divinity. |
| 15 | Son | Teaching about honoring father and mother, which is what a son does. |
| 16 | Son | Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ. Jesus predicts his death and resurrection. Jesus predicts his second coming in glory. |
| 17 | Father? Son! | Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus foretells his death and resurrection. Temple tax story: the sons of kings are exempt from the tax. |
| 18 | Father | See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 18:10) In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, the king represents the Father. |
| 19 | Holy Spirit | Teaching about divorce. Jesus speaks of their hardness of heart, the domain of the Holy Spirit. The story of the rich young man deals with the attachment to wealth that prevents him from being perfect, again a matter of the heart. |
| 20 | Holy Spirit | The parable of the laborers in the vineyard and the story of the mother of
the two disciples are both about people who think that their hard work
entitles them to higher wages or a higher position. This is a heart matter, related to the Holy Spirit. |
| 21 | Father | Parable of two sons is about obeying their father. Parable of the Tenants. Though the son is sent and killed, it is the Father whose decisions and actions are at the center of the story. |
| 22 | Father | The parable of the Wedding Feast begins: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son…” (Matthew 22:2) Focus is on the king and his actions. Controversy over the resurrection has Jesus speak of the patriarchs, the forefathers: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32) |
| 23 | Son | Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
(Matthew 23:10) Speaks of crucified prophets. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:38) |
| 24 | Son | And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. (Matthew 24:4-5) Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. (Matthew 24:23) Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31, ESV) |
| 25 | Holy Spirit | The Parable of the Ten Virgins. The oil in the lamps symbolizes the Holy
Spirit. However, all members of the Trinity are here. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 25:31-34, ESV) |
| 26 | Holy Spirit | Jesus anointed at Bethany. Anointing with oil symbolizes blessing with the Holy Spirit. |
| 27 | Holy Spirit | Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” (Matthew 27:19) The wife of Pilate was given wisdom by a dream, a gift of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. (Matthew 27:50) And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:51-54) This is the climax of Jesus’ sacrifice. To what end was that sacrifice? That from his broken body the Holy Spirit would be poured upon the earth. The resurrection of the saints in the tombs requires the Holy Spirit. |
| 28 | Holy Spirit? Whole Trinity! | Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) |
We have established that not only do the commandments match the structure of Matthew but the person of the Trinity inferred as having an affinity for each imperative also matches Matthew. Thus we can be sure that Jesus’ life and ministry and his relationships with the other two persons of the Trinity are a complete and complex incarnation of the law in all its fullness. What does that law look like now?
The Growth and Harvest Patterns are vectors. That means they have a direction, moving from beginning to end through time. Both conclude with peace. The Law Pattern, structured as it is by the Trinity and divided into human and divine relationships (love God and love neighbor), does not at first seem to have a direction. It seems to represent eternal, static ideas, not a dynamic process. The difficulty is that the commandments do not constitute a one-dimensional vector. They form a field with two-dimensions. One is time, the other, space. The unsurprising surprise is that this third pattern also points to peace.
As Above, So Below
The fourteen imperative statements may be divided into two levels. The first seven are about actions and attributes of the upper level, the eternal, heavenly realm. The second seven are about the lower level, the temporal, earthly realm. Each imperative in the upper level has a corresponding match in the lower level. The conventional view is that the two levels divide commands to love God from those to love your neighbor. However, if you consider that Christ is all and is in all, then all the imperatives are also about something Jesus is doing for us.
The phrase “as above, so below” and its Latin and Arabic antecedents have unfortunate occult connections. This phrase also appears in the Bible paraphrase The Message in its rendering of the Lord’s Prayer. It is used in place of “on earth as it is in heaven”. The philosophical idea is that all that happens in this world is an outworking of something happening in Heaven. That is the motion from above to below. In addition, there is a process in Heaven from beginning to end, concluding in peace. As this process proceeds in Heaven, the parallel process on earth moves forward towards its conclusion. On earth, it seems as though all the cause and effect relationships are entirely in our realm. It is our blindness to what transpires up there that deceives us.
This schematic shows the direction of flow from above to below and start to finish for the Ten Commandments:
Looking at the horizontal sweep of seven steps, you can see hints of both the Growth and Harvest Patterns, but the fit is less precise than correspondences found elsewhere in Scripture. The beginning of the story (God as creator and parents as having children) makes sense as the preparation or security phase. The end of the story makes sense, with the seventh day of rest sharing the same spirit as peace and contentment, the opposite of covetousness. The story behind the middle imperatives is fuzzier. One thing can be said. It describes a plan for delivering peace to a broken world.
First, let us look at the clearer explanations of the vertical “as above, so below” links from the previous diagram.
1 to 5: Creator. We are to have no other gods because He is our creator, and no one else can claim that title. Mothers and fathers imitate God by their activities in procreation. Many people think of the first commandment as the most important. I would put it second, but only by being combined with the fifth. The two essentials of God’s plan for peace are a channel for blessing and the blessing itself. The fifth commandment is the channel of blessing. It is the only commandment that comes with a promise, “that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
How does the blessing for honoring parents become a channel for infinite blessing entering into our world? Remember what we discovered in Psalm 19 in the last chapter? (That is the chapter titled "Psalm 19: The Glory of God's Law" in Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace.) The answer is adoption. Here is the chain of events:
- Jesus honors his Father (God) and his mother (Mary), calling forth God’s blessing for keeping the fifth commandment.
- Jesus on the cross pays for our sins, performing the work that empowers faith in him to accomplish a person’s adoption into God’s family.
- John said “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12) Our faith in Jesus gives us the right to be adopted into God’s family.
- Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:49) This enables all believers, having now been adopted, to participate in the honor that Jesus bestows upon his parents and to receive that blessing.
- The blessing is entering into God’s eternal sabbath rest, defined in the fourth commandment.
An important dimension of that channel of grace is that it enables an eternal, heavenly peace to be poured into a finite, temporal world of time-bound people. This is only possible because the eternal Word of God took on the nature of a finite human, bridging the chasm between time and eternity.
All the work of God is essential, no step being superfluous, but the end goal is the most important: eternal rest and peace in God’s presence. That is why the fourth commandment is the most important. It channels the grace that is being delivered to the saints.
2a to 6: Incarnation & Sacrifice. The direct, negative connection between the command against making idols and murder is the evidence from pagan rituals. Cannibalism, human sacrifice and child sacrifice make murder into a religion. Today’s religion of human sacrifice is the abortion industry, which enables the flourishing of adultery by hiding its consequences.
The positive side of not making idols is what God did: He begat his Son, Jesus Christ. We are not to make idols in the form of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below. The Father, however, caused Jesus to take on the form of sinful man. That means he resembles the image of something on the earth below, but he was not made by human hands, so he is not an idol. Also, he is eternally begotten of the Father (John 1:18), meaning he was never “made”. The incarnation is the Father’s legitimate, sinless solution to mankind’s need for a God that we can see and relate to on a human level.
The sixth commandment is the opposite of incarnation; murder is the destruction of the image of God in another person. The positive side of murder is Jesus’ voluntary sacrifice of his life to pay for our sins and give us his eternal life.
Together these two commands speak of the incarnation and the crucifixion of Jesus. One speaks of his descent to earth, the other begins his return journey to heaven.
2b to 7: Worship. The opposite of worshiping an idol as in the second part of the second commandment is worshiping the true God. The seventh commandment forbids adultery, which the Bible uses as a parable for false worship. False worship destroys the church and harms or ruptures our relationship with God, breaking up our spiritual family. Literal adultery destroys our earthly families. The two commands are one.
3 to 8: Faith & Grace. The third commandment forbids using the name of the Lord in vain. One way to do this is to pray without faith, asking God for things we don’t believe he can or will give us. We are told by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount to ask, seek and knock and by James to not doubt. The prayer of doubt is vain speech.
A second way to use the name of the Lord in vain is to be a false prophet or teacher. Such a person says words that are not from God, makes promises that God has not said he will keep, and arrogates authority to themself that is not rightfully theirs. The evils that spring from such false prophets are greater than what proceeds from material thieves, because even the righteous are often caught up in such wickedness.
The eighth commandment against theft would seem not to match the third. Stealing God’s authority for yourself is worse than stealing money directly. Corrupt religious leaders are notorious for fleecing the flock for tithes and spending it on their own selfish desires. False visions have started wars.
The opposite of these two is the Lord’s generosity. We tried to steal his life but he gave his life willingly. He asked the Father again and again for miracles of healing and deliverance and countless thousands were blessed.
The Lord did steal something: he bound the strong man and stole back souls in bondage to Satan.
4a to 9: Holiness and Truth. The second and third parts of the sabbath commandment tell us what to do when it is not the sabbath and what not to do when it is the sabbath. This first part tells us what to do on the sabbath: keep it holy. What does that mean? The ninth commandment forbids lying. This gives us a clue about what to do on the Sabbath: tell the truth to God. It means to talk to him and listen to what he prompts your heart to do. The ninth plague was of darkness. Jesus is the Light of the World, so keeping the Sabbath holy means letting the light of Christ as found in the gospel shine into your soul.
4b to 10a: Purpose and Place. Ecclesiastes tackles the challenge of finding purpose in our work. The second part of the fourth commandment is the command to work six days. If God commands it, it is not vain and futile.
The first part of the tenth commandment calls on us to not covet our neighbor’s house. If you combine this with the upper half, that means each person must build their own house. In Peace, chapter ten of Ecclesiastes was shown to be a parable of how to build a house, which is more than a building; it is a strong family. That is our temporary abode. If you trust Jesus, you know that he has promised to build something permanent for his family of faith:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions:
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,
and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
- John 14:1-3, KJV
In Revelation, this place of many mansions is revealed in all its splendor:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,
and God himself will be with them as their God.
- Revelation 21:1-3, ESV
The opposite of covetousness is waiting for the closing date to pass papers on a house without a mortgage. The closing date is the Day of the Lord. The papers are the heavenly scroll, unsealed by the Lamb. The house is the heavenly city. The check is drawn on God’s treasury, Jesus Christ. And there is no quarterly water bill to pay the MWRA, because the river of life is free.
4c to 10b: Eternal Rest and Wedding Banquet. The final part of the sabbath commandment is to rest on the seventh day. Do we rest alone? No, because God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Eve was made for Adam to be his bride, but the Church was made for Christ to be his. We are not to covet our neighbor’s wife or husband because our heavenly union will far exceed in joy and peace anything that we could find in an illicit affair.
And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9)
Growth along the Lower Level
One reason that the horizontal links between the commandments are fuzzy is that the pattern makes more sense on the lower level of commands to love our neighbor than the upper level level related to loving God. Thus we shall first address the seven imperatives of the fifth through the tenth commandments.
The seven imperatives form a Growth Pattern, but most imperatives match two consecutive growth phases, not one. This complication was unexpected and made discovering and verifying the pattern difficult. Thus the commandments overlap each other, yet still proceed to the same goal.
- Security (5). The 5th commandment to honor parents identifies parents as the source of a child’s security and matches “a time to be born”.
- Ability (5,6). Parents (of the fifth commandment) train children to develop their mental and physical abilities. Then the sixth commandment against murder matches “a time to kill”, one of the four times that goes with this growth phase.
- Stability (6,7). The sixth commandment is against murder, which springs from anger, an emotion teens must master during the stability phase. The seventh commandment is against adultery, which springs from lust and other emotions that must also be mastered.
- Amity (7,8). Amity is about friendship, romance and marriage. Adultery destroys marriages. The eighth commandment gainst theft concerns unequal partnerships where a selfish friend or lover pursues their own interests exclusively, like a leech or an abuser.
- Opportunity (8,9). The eighth commandment against theft in this case is usually literal. It can include stealing intangible opportunities from others but most commonly means stealing tangible goods or money. The ninth commandment against lying can mean falsely claiming responsibility for a good idea or accomplishment, blaming a colleague for a mistake or cheating people in a business venture by lying about the quality or quantity of the goods delivered. The Lord hates lying scales.
- Community (9,10a). Community is built upon open, truthful communication, as in “a time to be silent” and “a time to speak”. Breaking the ninth commandment against lying destroys community, as in “a time to tear”. So does the enmity that springs from a covetous heart. The first part of the tenth commandment forbids coveting your neighbor’s house. A house can be a building, but it can also represent a family, clan, church or larger group of people. In that case, coveting means desiring the power and prestige that another person enjoys in the community.
- Loyalty (10a,10b). Finally, our chief loyalty should be toward Christ and his church. The house we should desire is the house of God and the person we should desire with our whole heart is Jesus. Covetousness in this case is false religion. The opposite of covetousness is the contentment of “a time for peace”.
The above concordance demonstrates that the second half of the commandments provide guardrails that foster growth. This is further evidence that the pillars of wisdom, which conform in greater detail to the Growth Pattern, fit into forms carved from the foundation of Lady Wisdom’s house, the Law.
The Upper Story Harvest
Can we replicate our success of matching the lower level of commandments to the Growth Pattern? The pattern we should expect for the upper level is a Harvest Pattern. Why expect this? Jesus was called “something greater than Solomon”. Solomon’s Growth Pattern concerned affairs “under the sun”, which means it must be the inferior “so below” pattern. If Jesus’ Harvest pattern is greater, it must go with the “as above” upper level. (Recall that the Seven Pillars are sequenced according to the Harvest pattern, symbolizing its superiority over the pillars’ internal Growth Patterns.) Here is the concordance between the first seven imperatives and this pattern:
- Preparation (Preamble, 1). “I am the Lord your God…”. The defining aspect of preparation is acknowledging that God is your Lord; it is the Fear of the Lord, the heart of the preamble and the first commandment.
- Plowing (2a). The beginning of the second commandment forbids making idols. This connection is profound. Solomon tells us that the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of feasting and pleasure. We short circuit God’s purpose for us in mourning if we seek an illegitimate way out. The common shortcuts are alcohol, drugs, sex, and the pursuit of wealth. These are our idols, which we make to save us from our sorrow.
- Planting (2b). The end of the second commandment forbids worshiping idols. That is the rooting in our minds of the false ideas that our idols are teaching us.
- Pouring (3). The third commandment is about using the name of the Lord in vain. It sounds like speaking, which is verbal and belongs with the planting phase. Instead, the key word is “vain”. Meaninglessness and futility are an affliction of the heart. Vain prayer is faithless prayer. It has no seed so sprouts no shoots. False prophecy and religious manipulation of others is a fruit of pride, another blot upon the heart.
- Plucking (4a). The first sabbath imperative is to keep the sabbath holy. It is about making your relationship with God a priority. Plucking is God disciplining us to adopt sane priorities by removing the weeds of distraction. The main distraction is our work and the worries that attend it.
- Producing (4b). The second sabbath imperative is to work. To produce a harvest at the end of the season requires hard work. Laziness is the enemy here.
- Peace (4c). The final sabbath imperative is to rest on the seventh day. Without question, this is a call to peace.
Now we can see that the Law is an indispensable support for both producing a harvest and promoting spiritual growth. The commandments show how the spiritual harvest in the upper level, which yields spiritual treasures, funnels those treasures down to earth to trigger spiritual and material growth in the world “under the sun”. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) He meant it.
Altogether Now
After examining all these commandments, it should now be clear why the fourth commandment (and its mirror in the ninth and tenth) is the most important commandment. It is the goal, the consummation of our faith, the eternal rest delivered into our temporal world at last and celebrated at the wedding feast. If you look at the forth commandment closer, you will notice that it is the only command with three imperatives, and there is one imperative for each member of the Trinity. This commandment shows that eternal peace consists in living in harmony and communion with all three persons of the Trinity.
Introduced in Peace, like Solomon Never Knew and recapped in this book (Plague, Precept, Prophet, Peace), Ecclesiastes enumerates the types of prophetic clocks. They are also hidden in the commandments. The preamble speaks of liberation from Egypt, followed by Ten Commandments to preserve liberty. That points to the Empire Clock of ten empires, found earlier in Job. The second commandment then evokes a Generational Clock:
You shall not bow down to them or serve them,
for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children
to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me
and keep my commandments.
- Exodus 20:5-6
The two groupings of seven imperatives suggests a Spiritual Clock as well as the sabbath regulation’s use of seven. Then, the fourth commandment suggests a Celestial Clock, by reference to the creation of the heavens, which includes the heavenly timepieces:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested
on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and made it holy.
- Exodus 20:11
The numbers three, four, six, and thousand describe salvation history. God works for six thousand years to prepare for the delivery of eternal peace, which happens in the seventh millennium. The other division of history is four thousand years from creation to Christ and three more thousand years (one abbreviated) from Christ to consummation. (Alternately, it is three thousand years from the creation to King David and another four thousand years until the unending reign of David’s son, Jesus.)
Taken together, the Ten Commandments describe God’s Trinitarian nature, His plan of salvation and spiritual growth, how peace shall be communicated from Heaven to Earth, and how long the process will take. Truly, the Law of Christ is a marvel of compactness and mystery. It is complete, with no holes in it. Not so our hearts…
Links to the other articles in this section:
Spiritual Growth Introduction to the articles about spiritual growth.
What are Life's Twelve Most Important Questions? If you can answer these questions, you know the way better than the Mandelorian.
What are the Heavenly Treasures? It is one thing to list these treasures, quite another to acquire them!
The Harvest Pattern of Jesus A tactical pattern for overcoming an individual obstacle and reaping a single spiritual harvest.
The Growth Pattern of Solomon Overview of a strategic pattern to help you plan your whole life.
There is a Season The chapter from Peace, like Solomon Never Knew where I first introduced the Growth Pattern.
The Apostle Paul's Discipleship Program Shows how the first seven letters of Paul to the churches are arranged according to the Growth Pattern.
Seven Facets of Spirit-led Discipleship The Sermon on the Mount conforms to the Growth Pattern.
The Motherhood Pattern A strategic pattern for women.
The Law Pattern of Moses The law does more than restrict; it also guides.
- Which Ten Commandments? The Harvest and Growth Patterns fit perfectly into the Law Pattern.
- Matthew and the Law of Christ The Gospel of Matthew is a perfect realization of the Law Pattern. It helps us understand what the Apostle Paul meant by the phrase "the law of Christ".
- Seven Facets of Spirit-led Discipleship The Sermon on the Mount conforms to the Growth Pattern.
The Journey Pattern It is a long journey back to Eden.
Emotional Prophecies of the Psalms
Job and the Ways to Talk to God
Job Description for a Savior Job knew what he needed in a savior. Do you?
Dreams Dreams can guide you, paralyze you, or lead you astray. In my case, it was all three.
Spiritual Warfare Somebody IS out to get you.
