Perhaps you heard about the Sunday School teacher who was teaching her class the ten commandments. After discussing the command to βhonour thy father and thy mother,β she asked the class, βIs there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?β To which one boy replied, βThou shalt not kill?β
If you are wondering why weβve entitled this article βthe end of the ten commandments,β the answer to that question has to do with the Apostle Paulβs words in I Timothy 1:5:
βNow the end of the commandment is charityβ¦β
If you are thinking, βBut that verse speaks about the end of the commandment, not the end of the ten commandments,β consider what James wrote about the ten commandments:
ββ¦whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not killβ¦β (James 2:10,11).
You see, as far as God is concerned, the ten commandments are one commandment. You break one, you break them all! So in speaking of βthe commandment,β Paul is talking about the ten commandments.
But in speaking of the end of the ten commandments, Paul isnβt thinking of a time when it would ever be acceptable to kill someone or dishonor your parents. He is rather talking about the purpose or the goal of the ten commandments. We use the word βendβ that way when we ask someone, βTo what end are you doing what you are doing?β That is, we are inquiring about the purpose of whatβs being done.
So in speaking about βthe end of the commandment,β Paul is addressing the purpose or goal of the ten commandments, a goal that he identifies as βcharity,β one of the Bibleβs words for love. And that makes sense, if you think about it. If you love God, are you going to take His name in vain, or have some other God before Him? If you love your neighbor, are you going to lie to him, steal from him, commit adultery with his wife, kill him or covet his things? I donβt think I have to tell you, that is not the way love behaves!
This explains why Paul says that βhe that loveth another hath fulfilled the lawβ (Rom. 13:8 cf. 9,10), and that βall the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyselfβ (Gal. 5:14). You see, βthe end of the commandment,β the purpose or goal of the law, βis charity.β
In closing, we have to add that while it is true that βcharityβ is a Bible word for love, donβt change the word charity here to love. Love is a feeling. Charity is an action. Charity is the action that expresses the feeling of love. So when Paul says that the end or goal of the commandment is charity, heβs not saying that Godβs goal in giving the ten commandments was to get you to have some warm fuzzy feelings of love for others. Heβs saying that the goal of the ten commandments was to get you to put those feelings in action by treating God and your neighbor with the respect that the ten commandments were designed to bring out in us. source
[β¦] How little some know about the Law, the Ten Commandments. [β¦]
[β¦] it is wrong to lie and steal and commit adultery, yet they know nothing about the law of God, or the Ten Commandments. How, then, do they know that these things are wrong? God made them with this knowledge; He gave to [β¦]
[β¦] era demonstrated the fact that human behavior cannot be legislated. This is so even with the law of God. Some people think that the Ten Commandments were given to help us to be good, but this is not so, [β¦]