The Priority
of the Preface
A three-part series in The Ten Commandments (part one)
Table Time
Most of our family devotions (we call it “table time”) are only partially planned. This is only partially due to busyness throughout the day. It’s also because when I bring a plan to table time that looks like an outline for a master’s thesis things often don’t go according to plan. This is probably because there are so many ways in which it is now possible to depart from the plan. It is as if once the devotion plan is written down the departure increases. And so I take a minimalist approach to the planning of our table time.
There does need to be some planning. My minimum is to plan (1) to read and discuss the Bible as a family, (2) which passage we will read and discuss (in the mornings we alternative between Jesus’ words and the Psalms, in the evenings we work consecutively through a Bible book), and (3) the main thing I hope we hear from the Lord in the given passage (this one only applies in the evenings). Often this allows a surprising and encouraging amount of engagement with the word around the table.
An Exercise
Here’s a recent example of the minimalist plan and the subsequent surprises. I’d been thinking for a few days that we should spend some time in The Ten Commandments and at the very least memorize them. So on the day of the table time I printed out the text and cut the commandments out individually as well as numbers for each one.
The idea had come to me that we would get a whole table time out of just reading the text and organizing the commandments as we heard them. Conflict ensued and several commandments were broken in the assembling of them (particularly the 8th). This involved careful listening and the reading of each of the cutouts (we have different reading levels, but one literate child can help the others). It also gave us a chance to define many of the important words we were unfamiliar with and to attach them to behaviours and attitudes we were all quite familiar with.
Identifying the Preface
With the arranging done we arrived at our first surprise and the focus of the rest of the table time. We had a problem. We seemed to have 11 texts but only 10 numbers. The next segment of the table time began: ‘One of these is not like the others.’ The kids saw the opportunity to enter detective mode and their focus shifted into a different gear. There was a problem to be solved. This is stimulating for children. But how to solve this particular problem? Grammar. We had before us a collection mostly of commandments, words put together to give us something to do. To tell us what to do. These sentences were all in the imperative mood (or carried that thrust). They were words about what we must do. One of the sentences before us was not like this.
The preface to the 10 commandments is as follows:
Good News and Good Works
What a peculiar “commandment.” It isn’t a commandment at all. It’s something else. The next segment of the table time began: the great distinction in a Christian’s universe between what God has done and what we must do. The preface is a word about God. A word about what God has done. A word about what God has done already for his people. It’s word about rescue. It’s… good news. If this is good news, what are the other 10 words? They are certainly not bad news. They are good works. We have before us what God has done and what we must do. We have good news and good works. Question time: which comes first? And what happens if we order them incorrectly?
Various forms of Pelagianism broke out around the table, which is to be expected. What’s the remedy for this? See Luke’s pharisee and the tax collect (18:9-14) and try again.
Clarity emerges. We see why we do not do these commandments. We do not do them to get out of the house of slavery. We do them because God has brought us out already. We do not do them to “get the thumbs up from God” (our shorthand for justification). We do them because he has given us the thumbs up already. We don’t do them to secure His favour, but to celebrate His favour. And if we did seek salvation by means of the commandments what would come of that? See Romans 3:20 and try again.
It’s time to get personal. We ask each other: why will you honour your father and mother tomorrow? To get the thumbs from God? No, to thank God for giving you the thumbs up. Why will we love our neighbour tomorrow (in rebellion against murder, theft, false witness, etc.)? Because of good news. Because of something God has done. We won’t coast through the day tomorrow. We certainly won’t sin that grace may abound (Rom 6:1-4). We will seek out the good works God has prepared for us in order to walk in them. And we will do it with the preface at our backs and under our feet. In this universe it will be the purest joy to succeed and no catastrophe to fail.
And with the singing of the Apostles’ Creed and prayer we were finished. There is more to be done with The Ten Commandments. I plan for us to return and think about the aspects of God’s character the commandments reveal, and what each of them mean. But the Lord saw fit on this first pass to teach us the priority of the preface. The reminder is critical. It is crucial that we parent with the preface rooted deeply in our hearts. It’s the first thing to disappear in my parenting. Thanks be to God that he has written it into the very structure of His word as well as His work..