[Steve Myers] The 10 Commandments can most certainly be found throughout the New Testament. We’ve given many examples over the last few BT Dailys, but one that might really stick in your mind – if you remember the teachings of Christ, there was a man who came to Jesus and he asked Him straight out, “What must I do to attain eternal life?”. And you can find this story in Matthew chapter 19. And this man comes to Christ and says, “What should I do? What good thing should I do to attain eternal life?”. And you know how Christ responded? He said, “Keep the commandments.” And of course, then the question was, well, “Which ones?”. And in Matthew chapter 19, Christ begins a dialogue with this man where He refers to those commandments. He kind of takes for granted the initial commandments of you know, loving God first. He takes the Sabbath for granted because, of course, we’re talking about Jews who kept the Sabbath and these kinds of things. But then He goes right to the heart of those things between people.

How do we treat people? Well, we know the last six commandments deal with those things very specifically. And so Christ kind of picks it up there, and He starts listing the various commandments.

So when you think of the commandments in the New Testament, you might think Matthew, because that first gospel records Jesus’ teachings. And when you get to Matthew 19, and in verse 18, here’s what He says. Christ says, “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You should not steal. You should not bear false witness.” He says, “Honor you father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:18). And so Christ specifically lists those commandments that relate directly all the way back to Exodus chapter 20.

And then it’s also interesting – He goes on, because the young man then says, “I’ve done all these things from my youth. What do I lack?” And Christ comes right to the heart of the matter – that there’s a spiritual aspect to these commandments that we must be living – that we must be breathing examples of the spiritual intent of God’s commandments and His law. So in verse 21, Christ says, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you’ll have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me” (Matthew 19:21).

Now, the young man, he went away sorrowful because he had great riches. But I think the greater lesson of the story is for each and every one of us, we have to strive to fulfill that spiritual intent of God’s law. And so the commandments in the New Testament point so clearly to the fact that His commandments aren’t done away. And in fact, there’s a greater degree of responsibility that we as God’s people have today, that we are to keep God’s spiritual intent of the law. And as we do that very thing, we recognize the commandments are in full force today, and even more so, to the extent that we must strive to fulfill that spiritual intent. And as Christ said, let’s go and follow Him.

That’s BT Daily. We’ll see you next time.