The Desire for Autonomy – The Tenth Commandment

The Desire for Autonomy

Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21

“And you shall not covet…”

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Who makes the rules in your life?

Everybody lives by rules. Everybody follows certain guidelines, conforms to certain patterns and protocols, lives according to certain norms and standards. The issue for men in every age is not whether or not they will submit to certain rules and standards – even if they are continuously shifting and changing (the basic rule in such a case is change). The issue is which rules, whose standards, which set of norms will guide our lives? When you come right down to it, only two choices are available. Either we will submit to God’s rules and standards, and thus find life; or we will embrace standards and norms of our own choosing, and merely hope for the best. When men desire to be the final arbiter of the standards and rules by which they will live, rather than submit to God, they have fallen into covetousness. They wrongly desire, as the poem, Vindictus has it, to be the master of their fates, the captain of their souls. Augustine wrote that this desire for autonomy is a deadly corrosive. Coveting self-rule eats away at a person’s soul, because every choice we make apart from God is actually a choice made against Him. And every choice against God corrodes and consumes the soul, and subjects us to the judgment of God. The way of life is the way that God has defined.

How could someone tell when he was living his life in a way that merely seemed right for him, but was without grounding in God’s revelation? How can we avoid falling into this snare?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.