The presumption that the so-called moral precepts of the Decalogue could be separated from our obligation to worship God would, I think, strike the Church Fathers as distinctly odd. Augustine, for example, notes that ‘The beginning of freedom is to be free from crimes…such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, sacrilege and so forth. When once one is without these crimes (and every Christian should be without them), one beings to lift up one’s head toward freedom. But this is only the beginning of freedom, not perfect freedom…” The commandments cannot be separated, viewed in isolation from one another, and in particular, from the first commandment.”
Stanley Hauerwas, “The Truth About God: The Decalogue as Condition for Truthful Speech” from Sanctify Them In The Truth, page 47.
Excerpt #22
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Justin DaMetz 