They Will Be Done: The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life
Gilbert Meilaender
Baker Academic (2020). 131 pp.
Book Review
Gilbert Meilaender’s Thy Will Be Done is a creative attempt to think about the Christian life in dialogue with the Decalogue, or, the Ten Commandments. Meilaender’s treatment of the commandments is prefaced by a chapter on “The Law of Christ” wherein he situates the Decalogue within the larger context of the gospel, describing it as “instructional prophecy” (15). In this regard, he follows more closely with Karl Barth’s Law-Gospel reversal and Calvin’s third use of the law than he does with his own Lutheran tradition.
For this reason, the first chapter reads as an apologetic for so doing. For instance, Meilaender engages in a succinct exegesis of Galatians to demonstrate that Paul is not against the law itself, but against “works of law.” Then, he follows this argument with an engagement of Martin Luther, arguing that although Luther’s theology tends to oppose the law to Christian freedom, his pastoral and catechetical works emphasize the importance of the Decalogue for moral instruction. These are two examples of “the Law of Christ”, namely, that Christians ought to pursue God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
The commandments themselves are treated over the course of five chapters titled, “The Marriage Bond,” “The Family Bond,” “The Life Bond,” “The Possessions Bond,” and “The Speech Bond.” This reflects Meilaender’s decision to treat the commandments as “an invitation to reflect upon the importance of five different bonds that unite human beings in community” (xi). Each chapter examines a specific communal bond from “three angles of vision”: creation, reconciliation, and redemption. This, again, reflects Meilaender’s partial dependence on Barth.
The Marriage Bond (chapter two) describes the relationship that is inferred by the commandment against adultery. Marriage, itself, is an expression of God’s intention that humans should be communal beings. Created male and female, humans are tasked with developing community in the midst of difference. From the angle of creation, Meilaender addresses traditional moral questions related to marriage: homosexuality, childbearing, and contraception. From the angle of reconciliation, he explores how the command to practice lifelong monogamous fidelity within the bonds of marriage frees us to nurture our love to maturity and to turn it outward towards others. Finally, from the angle of redemption, he considers how marriage might be a “school for virtue” by which we pursue holiness through fidelity. Redemption also provides Meilaender with the context to discuss the role that singleness plays in the Christian life.
Chapter three, The Family Bond, reflects solely on the commandment to honor parents. Seen from each angle, Meilaender argues that family: (1) is a created good that requires our gratitude, (2) a challenge to our ability to love others who are more distant, and (3) a school for virtue wherein we learn what it means to honor our heavenly Father. From the second angle, Meilaender considers questions related to abortion, orphans and adoption.
The fourth chapter, The Life Bond, is the longest chapter in the book, warranting more attention. In it, Meilaender considers the prohibition against killing from the three angles of vision he claims to have borrowed from Barth. We begin to see, however, that Meilaender’s second angle departs significantly from Barth’s dogmatics. For Barth, the doctrine of reconciliation, and subsequently, the ethics of reconciliation, are explored from the perspective of the reconciliation that is accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the objective reality that drives Barth’s doctrine. Here, we begin to see more clearly that Meilaender’s second angle is not from the perspective of reconciliation accomplished. Instead, it is from the perspective of a broken world that requires “healing”.
In this chapter, we read that from the angle of creation, the life bond reminds us that we share a common humanity because we are created in the image of God. Even though humans are the only creatures that bear God’s image, life itself requires that we treat plants and animals with dignity. Meilaender suggests that to fail to do so threatens to blaspheme God’s name because it undermines our place as image-bearers. Regarding human life, Meilaender focuses specifically on suicide, emphasizing that the Life Bond means that our lives our always connected with others. We ought not to be deceived into believing that such killing can be harmless or even “good” (i.e. euthanasia).
From the second angle, Meilaender emphasizes “preservation” more so than reconciliation. On these terms, he lays out traditional Lutheran arguments for capital punishment, military and police service, and violence in the defense of others. Comparing Pacifism and Just War, Meilaender commends the Christian pacifist’s emphasis on trusting God to care for his creation. At the same time, he warns that Christian pacifists will appear to be indifferent to calls for justice. He then summarizes the basic tenets of Just War before expanding the argument to warrant capital punishment.
Finally, from the angle of redemption, Meilaender focuses on aging and dying. Specifically, he considers Christian funerals, arguing that they ought to be opportunities to emphasize the pilgrimage that is the Christian life. Christians ought to point to baptism and burial as signs of the reality of death and the hope of the resurrection.
Chapter five on the Possessions Bond is perhaps the most creative chapter, grouping the commandments against stealing, coveting and keeping sabbath together. Possessions are good gifts from God and we are to enjoy them as such; however, their purpose is to point us beyond themselves to the God from whom we receive them. The Christian life is lived between enjoyment and renunciation. Where the Life Bond chapter emphasizes the human need for reconciliation, the Possessions Bond chapter moves more closely towards a Barthian view of reconciliation. Meilaender argues here that the Christian life is lived in the dialectic between enjoyment and renunciation. Christians will be called to renounce possessions when they threaten to replace God as our security. Christians are called to trust God to provide instead of hording possessions. From the perspective of redemption, Meilaender argues that keeping sabbath is how we learn to proclaim God’s provision and to live it.
The Speech Bond, chapter six, is the final bond that Meilaender considers, pairing together the commandments against false witness and profaning God’s name. From the perspective of creation, Meilaender reflects on the relationship between speaking truthfully and justice, emphasizing that communities require trust. From the perspective of healing, he highlights the calling we must speak up in defense of others. Finally, from the perspective of redemption, he considers the prohibition against oath-taking in Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Here again, we find that Meilaender pushes back against the so-called over-realized eschatologies of some Christian traditions by remanding Jesus’s seemingly impossible teachings to an unrealized future.
The final chapter of the book treats the first commandment as the culmination of the Decalogue; all other commandments have their end in this one commandment. In terms of creation, this means that our love for other people and things must always be relativized by our love for God. If our love for others does not direct us beyond them to God, then our love is improper or flawed. Meilaender appeals to natural law to explain how creation intends to point us to Creator. In terms of our need for healing, “the Decalogue outlines the shape of lives set free from bondage” (119). Christians are “set free” and yet still require healing. The command for us to love our neighbor is a command that requires us to take small incremental steps towards living into the life shaped by the Decalogue. This happens within the context of a new bond: the bond of the church. Finally, in term of redemption, the call to obey the commandments is one that we continue to strive for because we follow a path that is made possible by Jesus. His obedience to the commandments means that we need not despair of our own disobedience. Indeed, the 10 commandments arrive to us, from the perspective of redemption, as 10 promises. There will be a time when we will freely obey God. We confess this promise to be try every time we pray, “Thy will be done.”
Thy Will Be Done is a creative and meaningful contribution to the question regarding how Christians read and live out the Decalogue. Meilaender’s recommendations fall somewhere on a spectrum between a traditional Lutheran theological ethics and a more Reformed and/or Barthian ethics. Anyone who is familiar with Meilaender’s work will not be surprised by this. The important contribution this book makes is to frame the decalogue in such a manner that it does not merely convict us as sinners but that it also beckons us to holiness even as we are still being made reconciled. While Meilaender sometimes emphasizes the enduring problem of sin in the Christian life, he invites us to consider what it might mean to live as if these ten words are promises, not merely commands.
David Hunsicker is an associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama. He previously taught theology at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, and was a youth pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, California. He holds a PhD in Systematic Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.
