"The Hub"

What does a Ferris Wheel - much less any wheel - have to do with the Ten Commandments? 

This summer in our Sunday services, we're focusing on the meaning of God's commandments. The First Commandment gets the most detail in the original passage. The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1-17, but the First Commandment is the focus of the first six verses.

The First Commandment is this: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). Martin Luther offers this explanation of the meaning of the First Commandment: "We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things." This First Commandment is the foundation for each of the individual commandments that follow. Commandments 2-10 spell out the most important ways in which we are meant to fear, love, and trust in God in our daily lives. 

This is why I think about the First Commandment as the "hub" of the commandments. Looking at the Ferris Wheel above, you see a clear hub at the center. Connected to it are the spokes which form the connecting structure of the wheel. (You see the same structure on a bicycle wheel or other type of wheel.) A commandment such as the Eighth Commandment is one of those "spokes" among the Ten Commandments. By teaching us that we are not to speak falsely against our neighbors, God is first teaching us one of the ways in which we fear, love, and trust Him. 

The point is that the Lord our God is the center of the commandments, but more than that, He's the center of everything: our lives, the church, and the whole creation! 

However, an honest assessment of our lives reveals that we have treated God as anything but the center. The commandments are necessary and good in teaching us about the true God and His will for our lives, but they will always show our sins and shortcomings. 

Ultimately, our hope is not found in our level of obedience to God’s laws but in the One who fulfilled the whole Law of God in our place – His Son, Jesus Christ. Trusting Him for forgiveness and salvation, we make it our aim as Christians to fear, love, and trust our God who is much more than the Lawgiver. He is our Savior. God be praised for that!