Do the Ten Commandments Belong in Public?
Do the Ten Commandments Belong in Public?
Despite the fact that this could sound strange to modern ears, Luther has an important reason for saying what he does about the Commandments.
Last month, Louisiana’s governor, Jeff Landry, signed into law a mandate that would require public school classrooms throughout the state to display the Ten Commandments. In the New York Times article reporting on the story, the authors highlight how Landry’s Christian faith and commitment to public witness shaped his decision-making with respect to this mandate and other legislation on culture war issues.
A story like this one raises the question for Christians: is it appropriate that the Ten Commandments appear in public? Are they fitting for display in public buildings like schools and courthouses? Legally, this has been a topic of dispute for decades in the United States. Legal challenges have usually surrounded the Incorporation Doctrine, wherein parts of the Bill of Rights are applied to the states. Since “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” the First Amendment may prohibit the states from displaying the Ten Commandments on public property. The legal and political ramifications of having the Ten Commandments in public touch upon contested issues of states’ rights, constitutional interpretation, and the power of the judiciary.
If religion in this case refers to something practiced and believed in private, then the Ten Commandments belong not in classrooms but in churches. Many churches of the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Reformed traditions display the Commandments at the front of the church for teaching purposes. The Book of Common Prayer includes a reading of the Commandments at the beginning of the Sunday service, for example. And, for Lutherans, the Small Catechism begins with Luther’s explanation of these commandments.
In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther says that the Ten Commandments are “a summary of divine teaching on what we are to do to make our whole life pleasing to God. They are the true fountain from which all good works must spring, the true channel through which all good works flow. Apart from these Ten Commandments no action or life can be good or pleasing to God…” (LC I 311). This divine teaching is the property of Christians and should be diligently studied.
Luther notes that “it is not without reason that the Old Testament command was to write the Ten Commandments on every wall and corner, and even on garments” (LC I 331). Indeed, in the 1530 preface to the Large Catechism, Luther refuses any distinction between a public and private use of the commandments. On the contrary, Luther says that “those who know the Ten Commandments perfectly know the entire Scriptures and in all affairs and circumstances are able to counsel, help, comfort, judge, and make decisions in both spiritual and temporal matters. They are qualified to judge over all doctrines, walks of life [Stände], spirits, legal matters, and everything else in the world” (LC “Martin Luther’s Preface” 17). The Commandments aren’t just for private morality, but teach concerning public, political matters as well.
Despite the fact that this could sound strange to modern ears, Luther has an important reason for saying what he does about the Commandments. If we turn to other places where Luther writes about the Commandments, it becomes clear that he thinks they are the natural law common to all peoples and nations in all times. Such reasoning probably isn’t the same rationale used to justify the Louisiana mandate, but listening to what Luther has to say can help Christians think about how to approach these issues today.
In How Christians Should Regard Moses (1525), Luther makes the odd assertion that Christians should have nothing to do with Moses because his commandments were given only to the Jews. He writes, “[the law of Moses] is no longer binding on us because it was given only to the people of Israel. And Israel accepted this law for itself and its descendants, while the Gentiles were excluded” (LW 35:164). Likewise, in his Sermons on Exodus (1524), Luther exhorts his hearers to always note to whom a commandment is given. Simply because Scripture records an instruction doesn’t mean it’s given to you.
Moses should be kept around “because he agrees exactly with nature." (LW 35:168)
However, Luther makes an important observation about the Commandments that is relevant to the question of whether they ought to be displayed in public. Luther says that “the Gentiles have certain laws in common with the Jews, such as these: there is one God, no one is to do wrong to another, no one is to commit adultery or murder or steal, and others like them. This is written by nature into their hearts…” (LW 35:164). Consequently, “it is natural to honor God, not steal, not commit adultery, not bear false witness, not murder; and what Moses commands is nothing new” (LW 35:168). Moses should be kept around “because he agrees exactly with nature” (LW 35:168) – since God has written the law on the hearts of all people (Rom. 2:15). The Ten Commandments are a summary of the natural law, and not the exclusive property of Israel or the church.
Luther notes in the middle of his discussion that if a magistrate or political ruler seeks to rule well, learning from Moses could help. Luther is clear that there’s no compulsion to shape political rule after the model of Moses and the Old Testament law. But in How Christians Should Regard Moses, he does list a few things that he believes rulers in his own time could learn from the Old Testament law – for example the tithe being fairer than a tax (LW 35:166–7).
It's important to recognize that Luther doesn’t use a threefold distinction within the law between civil, ceremonial, and moral elements. This distinction inherited from Thomas Aquinas holds that civil and ceremonial rules are applicable only to Israel, but that the moral law is universal. Luther agrees that the Ten Commandments are “natural” in that they comport with the natural law, but he also holds that the entire law, even the Ten Commandments, find their end in Christ (Rom. 10:4). The Christian is no longer under the law, including the Decalogue, but under grace (Rom. 6:14).
If this is the case, then it’s the human – as sinner – who must be reminded daily of what pleases God. And for Luther, this has nothing to do with a private experience of inner sanctification. The preaching of the law is to bring repentance unto Christ and the gospel, not to improve broken people. The law’s business is that of killing the old nature and keeping order in a sinful world. Such business is inherently political, since it concerns external, temporal obedience, not faith which is in the heart.
To the opening question: do the Ten Commandments belong in public? Perhaps Luther’s answer would be that, for the purpose of edification and instruction, they belong more in public school classrooms than in churches. In Christ’s church, the law is preached to kill the old nature and bring the sinner to Christ. In the realm of politics – which includes the classroom and the courtroom – the Ten Commandments are a trusty guide to all things concerning God’s creation. They are the order and design which God has implanted in the creation. For the sinner, the law’s judgment can only be heard as accusation, even when the law is being used to curb the effects of our sinfulness. The church’s task is chiefly to meet this judgment with the forgiveness of sins.
But in temporal and political matters, these commandments make people wise concerning all things God requires.
