Why The Commandments?

It is true that God has established the law. There will be a moral universe. A moral universe implies a free universe; because we are free, we can abuse our freedom. But we are not to blame God for it. When you buy an automobile, you always find with it a set of instructions. The manufacturer tells you the pressure to which you ought to inflate your tires and the kind of oil you ought to put in your crankcase and the kind of gasoline you ought to put in the gas tank. He doesn’t give you these directions because he holds a grudge against you. And God doesn’t give us commandments because he holds a grudge against us. The manufacturer of the automobile really wants to be helpful when he gives us these laws. He wants you to get the maximum utility out of that car.  And God is anxious that we get the maximum amount of happiness out of life. So he said: I will tell you what you should do, what you ought to do. We are free; we can do just as we please. We ought to put gasoline into the tank of our car. But we can put perfume in there, we can put in Chanel No.5, and there is no doubt that it is going to be nicer for our nostrils if we fill the tank with perfume rather than gasoline. But the car simply will not run on Chanel No. 5. In like manner, we were made to run on the fuel of God’s love and commandments, and we simply will not run on anything else. We just bog down.