One of the primary heretics within the early church was a man named. Marcion. Marcion, influenced by Gnosticism, believed that the Old Testament God was slightly uncouth. He much preferred the softer parts of the New Testament. So, Marcion took his scissors and cut out anything that sounded too “Old Testament”. That’s a little bit of an over-simplification but you get the gist. People today like to offer the Marcion treatment to the Bible.
When it involves the Ten Commandments, we’d dismiss them as a code for the people of the Old Testament, but they don’t bear on us today. The issue is that just about all of those commandments are reaffirmed within the New Testament. There is critical continuity here. That’s not surprising, really. These commandments reflect the unchanging heart of God.
Even if we consider the Sabbath, which is redefined in light of Christ’s work, we must admit that the New Testament reaffirms the moral principles of the Ten Commandments, demonstrating their enduring relevance. They form not only the moral community of the Old Testament but additionally the New Testament community.
Photo Credit:©Getty Images/Bohdan Bevz
