The seventh commandment challenges our assumptions that consent is all that matters in sex. As the commandment is applied across the Scriptures, we realize that marriage is an institution that must be protected, not because marriage is all about its...

The command against murder is a command against all human contempt. Long before a murder takes place, a person has been "unpersoned." But human value, in the perspective of Scripture, is absolute. No human being has the prerogative to...

The fifth commandment straddles the line between the first and second tablets of the law. It instructs us in loving our first neighbors (our parents), and yet by loving parents we are trained for loving God. When followed, the fifth commandment...

The Sabbath is often written off by modern-day Christians for some of the same reasons it was such a burden to first century Jews. It is thought of only in terms of avoiding effort. Some Christians may not even afford it a place in their lives. While...

In His revelation to Moses at the burning bush, God reveals His name as, "I Am Who I Am" and promises to be with Moses as the one who is faithful to His promises and delivers the people from slavery. On Mount Sinai He reveals His name to...

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image..." The second word of the ten words lays the foundation for all the others, because it points us to the ideological framework within which all the other words make sense. And yet, of all the...

This week we begin a series in the Ten Commandments, or as it is written in the Hebrew, the Ten Words. All of the Law is downstream from these ten words, and all of the last nine words are downstream of this first one: you shall have no other gods...

Christ is the Messiah of the Jews, but he is proven to be so when he is made available to the Gentiles. The visit of the Magi is a foretaste of the global missions that Jesus sent his Church to accomplish. As we begin the year, let’s remember that the...

Closing out our series on the Incarnation, we come to one of the pivotal scenes of the advent season: the annunciation. As Mary is told the angels message, three identities of Christ are revealed. In each, he acts as a son: Son of Mary, Son of David...

During advent, we celebrate the fact of the incarnation. Jesus, fully God and fully man, was coming into the world! God in flesh; God with us. But why was the incarnation necessary in the first place? What is the relationship between the necessity of...