The ten chain-breakers

The Ten Commandments can be viewed as a set of restrictive laws designed to limit human behavior. But that is, perhaps, viewing these commandments in light of our enmeshment with our cultures narrative of scarcity.  Viewed in light of God's narrative of abundance, Pastor Phil Kniss suggested that Exodus 20:1-17 can be viewed as 10 chain-breakers that free us to be more fully human, living as God designed us to live. We are no longer bound to the narrative of this world, having received  these ten words of liberation, a gracious gift of love. Psalm 19 shows how the writer held this view of the law as a gift. We can choose to bind ourselves to this loving giver of the ten commandments.