The legend of the Ten Commandments precedes itself. As God’s flawless, textbook guide to righteousness, many perfectionist Christians have challenged themselves to follow all Ten Commandments to the letter. However, many find themselves tripping on their own two feet, avoiding sin. For some people, life becomes like a scoreboard. They count how many sins that they committed, tallying per day their losses and wins. Often, the sins outnumber the victories. From there, that leads to a winding road of frustration where living becomes surviving. However, those people do not realize that it isn’t the way that God’s Elect was meant to live.
Naturally, today’s modern society emphasizes perfection. Photographic advertisements devour on the insecure. Cunningly, they display untarnished, youthful models to trick others into buying their products. All for profit, these advertisers use the unseen forces of photoshop, make-up, and visual effects to produce a literally impossible image. If people cannot understand the limits of the flesh, how could they understand the limits of the soul?
After all, the Ten Commandments demanded nothing short of perfection. As the psalmist states, “The law of the Lord is perfect” (Psalm 19:7). As known, only one Man has followed the Law without a single grievance since the fall of Adam and Eve. Even more so, Christ hadn’t only followed the Law, but He also died paying the complete penalty of the Law. Christ suffered so that his people may be spared.
Most people fail to understand the purpose of the Ten Commandments. It’s not just a ‘Don’t do this’ or ‘Don’t do that.’ It’s a mirror of mankind’s own sinfulness. It is meant to be a demonstration to show how far people stand apart from the holiness of God. As stated, “…the law is holy, righteous, and good” (Romans 7:12). No procedure was placed within the law for failure. It was meant to be all or nothing. One personality flaw would inevitably destroy the perfection that God required in His Law. Just one.
We are told that God spoke all the words of the law. He gave the entire testimony, and the Jewish people of Moses’ era assumed the responsibility of following the Ten Commandments per order. That spurs the question, why didn’t the Jewish people ask for mercy? After all, a flawless criterion requires a perfect man. However, no mortal man on Earth was ever perfect since the fall of Adam and Eve. So, how could mere mortals think of following every verse of the Ten Commandments without fail? Overall, a likely answer is human pride. It always makes people think that they can please God by themselves. As proven, before Israel even received the law and began to execute the Ten Commandments, they were already dancing in front of their idol, the Golden Calf.
See, the Ten Commandments was meant to be a lesson for the Israelites to learn humility. They could not be Holy enough to follow all Ten Commandments on their own.
A goal of a religious perfectionist is often to attempt Holiness by executing all the Ten Commandments (…or something similar.) That doesn’t sound bad at first. After all, God’s Elect was told to make their bodies into Holy sacrifices to the Lord. However, that’s where the Ten Commandments becomes a form of soulish bondage instead of a state of spiritual harmony. These perfectionists fail to realize the Ten Commandments were meant to be insurmountable in the first place.
It is truly an impossible task.
Attempting such an unfeasible challenge of holiness triggers a never-ending cycle of frustration. For a person to have a constant self-critical eye, it wears down the blade of their faith. Soon, their own degradation caused by their flaws transmutes into a judging game against other people. Finding dissatisfaction in themselves, they turn to nitpick others within their line of sight. Trying to set themselves apart from the rest of the other sinners around them, these self-shattered individuals begin to compare sins. As religious perfectionists struggle to build themselves by their impossible code, they must take someone else down. Often, that is done to their chosen targets by outright, blunt ostracization or silent, piercing judgment. Consequently, they fail to understand the impossibility of perfection. After all, if they were thoroughly Holy, what would be the need for the grace of the Resurrection?
Many months back, I saw a Christian preacher on the television falsely claim that people must keep all Ten Commandments in thought. However, he failed to realize that the mind is the worst possible place to derive Holiness. Since the mind is constantly at war with principalities and powers of the air. Not to mention, the mind is also the meeting point between the egotistical soul and the dead spirit of non-born-again believers. Thereby, the mind is completely alien and void of God in the first place. As most of the Elect are not born-again, such a misguided teaching provides an impossible goal that could only be reached once they are born-again. Such an event only takes place from witnessing to the Gospel of Jesus. The born-again experience cannot be done by man’s own prompting, but instead by the Holy Spirit’s intervention. Consequently, a non-born-again believer meticulously following the Ten Commandments is equivocal to entering a spiritual marathon that they haven’t even entered yet!
People think that their sins will somehow make God refuse his Elect. However, they are blind to God, writing all three billion letters of their DNA, writing the circumstances of their lives, and setting the time of their salvation. He literally created them before time even began to tick. He knows the good, bad, and temptation of each person. That includes the very essence of their spirit. Consequently, if someone claims that someone is too awful to be born-again (or themselves for that matter), that person fails to recognize their Lord’s omnipotence.
After all, He created His Elect long before the Ten Commandments were established.
If you feel tortured by the inability to follow all Ten Commandments, join RESCUE at https://www.facebook.com/groups/rescue/. There, you may gain spiritual freedom and enlightenment by learning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Personally, I found other points of view helps myself see spiritually better. It’s something helpful along the lines of using many mirrors to see oneself. Many people have been in similar positions. If your situation requires a personal touch, you may call Pastor Pam at 888-818-117.
Spiritual Warfare Library of PSM 