The Ten Commandments and the entire Old Testament law can be seen as a set of guardrails on the behavior of God’s people. Not unlike other ancient societies, Israel was also plagued by cycles of violence and revenge and corrosive hedonism, so the Lord gave his people commands to limit these destructive forces and to ensure Israel’s flourishing. By obeying his laws, they could avoid careening off the road into destruction like so many other communities.
The seventh commandment against adultery served this purpose. By honoring the covenant of marriage, the people created the necessary conditions for social stability and growth; stable households provided safety and economic security for women and children at a time when both would be vulnerable without male protection. The law forbidding adultery wasn’t just a matter of personal morality, but one of social security. It was a guardrail to keep the entire community on the road to a flourishing future.
But guardrails are never enough. While they may keep an out-of-control driver from going over a cliff, guardrails alone will never teach us to drive like Mario Andretti. Or consider the gutter bumpers used in some bowling alleys. Putting the bumpers up will keep your ball in the lane, but they cannot make you throw strikes. Highway guardrails and gutter bumpers can prevent the worst from happening, but by themselves, they cannot bring about the best.
This is what religious communities that fixate upon external rules fail to understand. Whether the religious leaders of ancient Judea or Christian fundamentalists today, they erect moral guardrails and ethical bumpers to prevent the most destructive sins from happening. But these same communities often mistake the absence of obvious evil for the presence of genuine good. They celebrate when a person behaves appropriately, but ignore when their soul is riddled with anger, envy, pride, greed, lust, or hate.
The limits of external rules—even God-given rules like the Ten Commandments—are what Jesus addresses in the Sermon on the Mount. For example, he affirmed the seventh commandment against adultery, but then he said, “Anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart.” Jesus isn’t merely interested in his disciples avoiding adultery, but in their transformation into people who are not enslaved by lust in the first place. In other words, he isn’t just aiming for good behavior; he wants us to be good people.
Think about it this way. A person with excellent driving skills and complete control of the car doesn’t need guardrails. That doesn’t mean guardrails are bad, only that they are insufficient. Likewise, gutter bumpers are fine for a beginner, but a skilled bowler can throw strikes with or without them. Jesus is not saying the commandment against adultery is bad. In fact, he’s arguing just the opposite. The command is good. But for those living in the kingdom of the heavens, the goal is no longer merely avoiding evil, but becoming a person who is truly good.
Daily Scripture
Matthew 5:27–30
Proverbs 6:20–29
Weekly Prayer
From Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)
To come to you is to come home from exile,
to come to land out of the raging storm,
to come to rest after long labor,
to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.
But Lord, how can a stone rise,
how can a lump of clay come away from the horrible pit?
O raise me, draw me.
Your grace can do it.
