The Ten Commandments rightly have a central place in Christian ethics, considered to be a summary of the moral law. However, the Ten Commandments are often understood in a narrow or biblicist manner, as if they amount to an arbitrary set of legalistic commands. One key challenge for Christian ethics, therefore, is to uncover and elucidate the patterns of creation and the created order that underly the Decalogue and the way the commandments reflect God’s wisdom.
This is what Gilbert Meilaender’s excellent book, Thy Will Be Done: The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life, sets out to achieve. It considers the commandments thematically though the lens of five bonds (namely, marriage, family, life, possessions, and speech). An introductory chapter explores the contemporary applicability of the Ten Commandments in light of the seeming hostility to the law evident in New Testament books such as Galatians. Meilaender concludes, citing Luther, that obedience to the law cannot make people right with God, but that the law shows people the manner of living in such a way as to please God.
The books considers the commandments creationally, redemptively, and eschatologically. Each bond is examined considering the creational ordering and structure of human life and society, which constitutes the underlying telos of the Decalogue’s prescriptions. Meilaender shows the ways in which each bond is in need of healing, the distinctive New Testament cast of each commandment, and the challenges posed by living in a fallen world, which may present conflicting loyalties. Finally, the Decalogue is treated eschatologically (that is, in relation to the last things), with the final chapter describing how the commandments will be recast as promises: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” (125).
One interesting point of departure from traditional Protestant teaching is the treatment of the fourth commandment (fifth for those in the Reformed tradition—in this book the traditional Lutheran and Roman Catholic ordering of the commandments is adopted). Meilaender considers that this commandment is best seen as being confined to the parental relationship and does not have in view a broader conception of political authority, because of the fundamentally different natures of those bonds or relationships. Another point of departure is Meilaender’s inclusion of abortion within the family rather than the life bond: “In permitting some of us to exercise unlimited power over the lives of others of us, it undermines our commitment to equal human dignity” (46).
One key strength of the book is its appeal to natural law or creational reasoning. As an example, chapter 6 notes that “No community can sustain itself indefinitely if its members cannot rely on each other to speak straightforwardly and truthfully; that is simply a necessity built into the nature of life in community” (98). A potential downside of this approach is to blunt the force of the imperatives of the commands, which points to the need to maintain both the teleological and apodictic nature of biblical law. This book would be suitable for anyone wishing to understand more about the Decalogue, including people with a range of educational and theological backgrounds.
The book is warmly commended.
Benjamin B. Saunders is an associate professor at Deakin Law School.
Benjamin B. Saunders
Date Of Review:
February 16, 2022