February Catechism Discussion Questions
In the book, How to Teach The Catechism to Children, by Joyce M. Horton, there are some helpful discussion questions / topics you can use during the Truth Made Known time.
Q. What do the Ten Commandments teach? A. To love God with all my heart, and my neighbor as myself.
The first four commandments teach our duty to God.
The sum of the first 4 commandments: To love God with all my heart
Duty is defined as our responsibility - what we owe to God. It’s what he expects of us, it is what is required
The last six commandments teach us our duty to our fellow men - that is, what we owe to our fellow men.
The sum of the last six commandments: To love my neighbor as myself.
The ten commandments then all add up to loving the Lord with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.
Christ said to love your neighbor as yourself.
Ephesians 5:29 - “After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—” This tells you how much you love yourself. That is how completely you are to love your neighbor.
Phil 2:3-4 - in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
We are to be as concerned about our neighbor’s welfare as we are about our own. We see, then, just how far short we fall in obedience to this sum total of the law.
Scripture Reference:
Deuteronomy 6:5 - Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Matthew 22:37-40 -Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Romans 13:9-10 - The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Q. Of what use are the Ten Commandments to you? A. They teach me what is pleasing to God, and how much I need a Savior.
So, what good are the ten commandments if you can’t keep them?
They teach us the perfection of God. His perfect standard. Man can never reach it. We all have learned that we can’t live those ten commandments. They show us our duty to God and our duty is to live perfectly.
Immediately when we see the perfection of the ten commandments and the sinfulness of man, what else do we see? We see our need for a Saviour.
We need Christ as our Saviour to save us from our imperfections. Because if you can’t get to Heaven by living the law perfectly, what is the only other way you can get there?
Somebody has to live that law perfectly for us, and has to pay the penalty for the fact that we didn’t. Christ did this for us. God, who inspired the Bible, says you must believe it to go to Heaven.
Scripture Reference
Deuteronomy 27:26 - Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.
Romans 3:20 - Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Galatians 2:16 - know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.