Can a fencepost keep the Ten Commandments?

Here are the ten commandments, as given in Deuteronomy (they are also in Exodus 20):

Deuteronomy 5:7 “You shall have no other gods before me.

5:8 “You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, any likeness of what is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5:9 you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me; 5:10 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

5:11 “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

5:12 “Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you. 5:13 You shall labor six days, and do all your work; 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 5:15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

5:17 “You shall not murder.

5:18 “Neither shall you commit adultery.

5:19 “Neither shall you steal.

5:20 “Neither shall you give false testimony against your neighbor.

5:21 “Neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (World English Bible, public domain)

Not to belittle these, in any way, but there's a serious omission, namely that the Ten don't really get to my heart, my attitude. In other words, it seems to me that a fencepost could keep the Ten Commandments, except for the "honor your father and your mother" part. That seems to require some action. The rest could be passively obeyed. They seldom, if ever, are, but it seems possible. The Old, and the New Testaments make up for this with emphasis on the heart, the attitude:

Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. If I truly love God, and my neighbor (including my family, my co-workers, and my on-line friends) I will keep the Great Commandments, and, therefore, keep the Ten Commandments. (Except possibly keeping the Sabbath -- that may have been modified by Christ and Paul. Maybe not.) I won't be a fencepost, but will actively love God, and others.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 491

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Weekend Fisher tells us how to love someone.
Humor: (or something) Wired, on how people used to believe that beavers bit off their own testicles.
Politics: Rachel Lu, writing in The Federalist, says that pro-abortion advocates are now telling stories in defense of abortion. Lu has a sensitive and thoughtful reply, and anyone, whatever her position on abortion, should be made to think.
Science: Wired has an interesting article, with this title: "If Someone Secretly Controlled What You Say, Would Anyone Notice?" The answer, probably not. The article uses the intriguing term, cyranoid.
Wired also reports on why it's so difficult to lose an accent.
National Public radio reports that there are a lot of microbes in New York City's Central Park, including about 2,000 that hadn't been known before.

Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 488

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: Relevant discusses the problem of loving others, when we have a hard time doing it.
E. Stephen Burnett claims that popular culture is a good thing, and will probably be present in the Final Kingdom.
Humor: (And Christianity) Peanuts on suffering and the book of Job.
Science: Wired reports that some fish, not generally believed to be very smart, show the ability to collaborate intelligently.
Wired also reports on naked mole rats, almost the only non-insect that has queens in a colony. In addition to this, and other interesting details of their lives, they don't get cancer.


Image source (public domain)

Affirmation can be misdirected

In a previous post, I argued that modern society does not affirm people and things as much as it should. I also quoted from the Bible, two verses which indicated that we should affirm -- praise, try to imitate, think about -- what is good.

But there's another side to this. Affirmation can be misdirected.

One type of misdirected affirmation was (and probably still is) a movement to try to increase the self-esteem of elementary school students. (Surely you have been in towns where half the automobile bumpers seem to proclaim some child or other as an honor student?) As the Wikipedia article that the previous link points to indicates, there is no solid evidence that acting so as to increase a child's self-esteem makes for better academic achievement.

It is a terrible mistake to act and speak so as to attack a person's self-esteem, particularly that of a child. But it is also a terrible mistake to lead a child to believe that he or she is a budding genius, athlete, or artist of some sort, when they are not, and show no evidence of ability and ambition toward such a goal. Telling a child who can't read at their grade level, and who does not seem to have any desire to, that she is going to become a lawyer or a doctor is a mistake. Telling a college Junior who barely gets Cs that he should expect to become a dentist is an error.

What should be put up for admiration and esteem is excellence. If the child shows evidence of working hard toward some sort of excellence, then that, too, should be affirmed, but misbehavior and laziness should not.

The same thing is true of adults. In Matthew 22:34-39, Jesus, quoting the Old Testament, tells us that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We should have proper self-esteem -- a realistic view of our failings, and also of our likeness to Christ, which latter should be affirmed. Not publicly, not boastfully, but recognized and encouraged. Our goal should be to have an ambition to become more like Christ. All Christians have such ability. Would that I acted on it more.

Thanks for reading.