Have you ever heard of “The Ten Pleasures?” That’s another way to view the Ten Commandments. Although most of the commandments are stated negatively, each negative also implies a positive, and each prohibition of vice enjoins a pleasure in virtue. The Ten Commandments therefore imply ten pleasures to pursue.
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- Enjoy the pleasure of knowing, worshipping and serving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
- Enjoy the pleasure of worshipping God in ways that He approves, loves, rewards, and responds to.
- Enjoy the pleasure of speaking and singing about God’s beautiful persons, names, attributes, and acts.
- Enjoy the pleasure of six days working in God’s calling for you and then enjoy the freedom of one full day off work to worship God and rest.
- Enjoy the pleasure of loving and following the leaders God has placed in your life for your temporal and eternal good.
- Enjoy the pleasure of healthy attitudes and activities that will improve the quality and length of your life.
- Enjoy every physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual pleasure with the wife/husband God has given you.
- Enjoy the pleasure of growing wealth in order to provide for your family and to bless others with loving generosity.
- Enjoy the pleasure of praising others and of promoting all that is true, beautiful, and good.
- Enjoy the pleasure of being thankful and content with all that God has given you.
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When the Ten Commandments are understood in this way, Psalm 1 and others like it begin to make huge sense. “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97).
Real men find pleasure in God’s law.
Questions
- What effects should flow from viewing the Ten Commandments as Ten Pleasures?
- Which commandment do you find it hard to associate with pleasure and why?
- What can you do or believe to make the Ten Commandments more like Ten Pleasures for you?
Further Reading
How I Love Your Law by Jared Olivetti
Oh, How I Love the Law! By Tim Challies
Why Is the Law Sweet Like Honey? By John Starke