The First Two Words

Back in the late 1980s, a popular television newscaster-1 delivered the commencement address at Duke University. He based the speech on the Ten Commandments. The Dean of the Chapel at Duke said later, “It was the most popular address ever given at a Duke commencement. In a nutshell, the newscaster said that if you look at all the problems we have in the modern world, most of them are attributable to our failure to follow the Ten Commandments. Then he went right down the list. Don’t kill! … Don’t steal! … Don’t commit adultery! … Don’t worship false gods! … Don’t bear false witness! If all of us would follow those Commandments, what’s wrong with the world and ourselves would be put right. And all the graduates and their parents loved it.”

I suppose us preachers could preach that, but the problem is that it can lead to a serious misconception about the Christian Message. If Jesus is coming through to us, we know that…