NASHVILLE (BP) — This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with Lifeway Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, Lifeway publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.
This week’s Bible study is adapted from The Gospel Project curriculum.
Bible Passage: Exodus 20
Discussion Questions:
- How does your understanding of God’s love for you shape the way you interact with others?
- How can we determine that our obedience to God’s commandments is an overflow of a heart of faith, as Jesus taught, not just surface-level compliance?
- How should your worldview be impacted by the uniqueness and holiness of God?
Food for Thought:
When reading the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, we can tend to see them as a list of dos and don’ts, but they are much more than that. After God delivered the Israelites from cruel slavery in Egypt, God demonstrated His concern for human welfare, righteousness and flourishing of His image-bearers by giving the Ten Commandments. By giving the law on Mount Sinai, God showed His love by instructing His people how to live moral and devoted lives that bring blessing.
The Ten Commandments can be organized into two parts. The first four commandments teach that God alone is worthy of our undivided worship. God alone is worthy of this worship. The next six shift from rules pertaining to respect for God to rules pertaining to human relationships. God’s people are known by the way they revere God and by the way they treat each other. We can see God’s love and His desire for us to love like Him modeled in these verses.
These commandments go beyond legalistic rules. According to Jesus, God’s commandments aim for our hearts, from which our actions overflow (see Matthew 5:21-30). Exodus 20, then, functions as a compass that directs believers toward worshiping God rightly and living virtuously with holiness in our interactions with others.
Knowing that we can’t fully fulfill these commands in our sinful nature, Jesus came to fulfill the law in our place, so that we might be saved by His perfect righteousness (Matthew 5:17). In our sanctification process, we strive to live by these commands not only by the letter of the law but more so by the spirit of the law. The indwelling Holy Spirit helps us daily to be more like Jesus, having our hearts more attune to the heart of God.
Loving God and loving others are the two commandments Jesus confirms as the greatest (as seen in Matthew 22:37-40), and they encompass all Exodus 20 states in the Ten Commandments. Therefore we joyfully obey, knowing it transforms us more in our Christlikeness.
The Gospel Project
The Gospel Project is a chronological, Christ-centered study for kids, students and adults. The Bible is not a collection of stories. It is one story of God’s plan to rescue His people from sin and death. It is the story of redemption, the gospel message of Jesus Christ. More information can be found at Lifeway.com/gospelproject.
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