The writer of The Didache: The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles began bluntly:
There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways.
The first way teaches of love and humbleness and respect for life.
Reading the second way, I thought of a waiter presenting a menu:
And what will it be today ma’am (or sir)? We have an extensive menu for your pleasure today…
- Murders
- Adulteries
- Lusts
- Sexual immoralities
- Thefts
- Idolatries
- Magic arts
- Source Ries
- Robberies
- False testimonies
- Hypocrisies
- Duplicity
- Deceit
- Pride
- Malice
- Stubbornness
- Greed
- Abusive language
- Jealousy
- Audacity
- Arrogance
- Boastfulness
It starts out with some big ones. “I’ve not murdered anyone…for a while at least. Although lately, I’ve been thinking…”
However, beginning with false testimonies for the rest of the way down the list are things just about everyone indulges in…some more than others.
It begins with murder and adulteries (I bet that one has been reduced by the shelter-in-place) but it hits us all as the writer brings in jealousy, arrogance, boastfulness. There is a lot of that in the news!
We must have impressed deeply into our minds that list so that when the urge wells up from deep within us, we remember these are the way of death. Choose the way of life.
Faith Venture 
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