2nd Principle
2 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:3-6)
The connection between these two is quite obvious. God frequently refers to his covenant with Israel as a marriage covenant and when they go chasing after other gods, he refers to them as adulterers. Therefore the connection between these two commandments is adultery, understanding that idolatry is adultery. But do we fully understand what God means by "adultery"?7 You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
We have many kinds of relationships with other people. There are friends, siblings, parents, grandparents, spouses, co-workers, and others. Each of these is different but one of them is different from all the others in a way that is important here. One of them requires a covenant. That's marriage.
Because of that covenant it is the only relationship that has rules attached to it. Those rules were defined by God. The covenant binds one man and one woman for as long as they live. The covenant permits a sexual relationship between the two. It also defines a term called adultery.
Sidebar:
Polyandry, when a woman has more than one husband, is not mentioned in the Bible. It was just never done. The reasons are fairly clear though.
God's plan for marriage and the family, from the time of Adam and Eve, is that the man has the role of head. This makes polygyny acceptable but polyandry would make the woman the head.
There is also a practical concern in the time of Israel. The laws for inheritance depended on knowing the child's father. That couldn't be known under polyandry
We see adultery as "sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse" (Google dictionary). That isn't the way God looks at it though. We also describe adultery using words like "infidelity and unfaithfulness" which hint at the real problem, not being true to the vows of the marital covenant.Polyandry, when a woman has more than one husband, is not mentioned in the Bible. It was just never done. The reasons are fairly clear though.
God's plan for marriage and the family, from the time of Adam and Eve, is that the man has the role of head. This makes polygyny acceptable but polyandry would make the woman the head.
There is also a practical concern in the time of Israel. The laws for inheritance depended on knowing the child's father. That couldn't be known under polyandry
Now we'll look at the 2nd commandment from that perspective. When we accept Jesus, we are accepting a marriage covenant where Jesus is the husband. As the wife in the agreement, we cannot accept another husband or chase after other men.
This helps us understand that idolatry is not really about the idol. An idol is nothing to God. Idolatry is about the relationship with God. An idol is something that takes your heart away from God, something that breaks the covenant with God.
Therefore the principle here is "respecting covenants" and, of course, the vows that come with them.
2nd Commandment
The 2nd commandment is commonly worded as no other gods "before me" as it is here. The Hebrew word, however, has a large number of meanings, including above, according to, after, as against, among, and, as, at (Strongs 5921). The point is that there should be no gods with God. It would not be acceptable to have another god that is second to God. This verse makes that clear when God says "I am a jealous God." He wants all your worship, praise, and love.
When we apply the principle to the 2nd commandment, we see that God is also specifying what is acceptable worship under his covenant. First God sets the theme, "no other gods." Then he says not to make any idols but he goes on to say not to make any likeness of anything. The message there seems to be that if you don't make it you won't be tempted to worship it.I am Yahweh, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. (Isaiah 42:8)
This is important to understand. Even if you do not make it for worship as a god and do not literally bow down to it, you can still be worshipping it as something you've created. You could be impressed by the beauty, style, color, or whatever of this thing you have created. You would then be forgetting that God created you and gave you the ability to create it. You would thereby be stealing the glory that should be God's and giving it to yourself.
For every good thing we do, eloquent thing we say, or wise thing we think, we must be careful to thank God for making it possible. We have unduly large opinions of ourselves and what we are capable of both as individuals and as a people. God wants us to understand that we are very small compared to him and everything we have and we are come from him.
The commandment continues on, making it clear that if we make something we must not worship it. God is making it clear to us that mankind has a problem in this area. God knows that he built us to seek him and worship him but that innate desire can be perverted very easily into worshipping physical objects, either other gods or worshipping ourselves through the things we have created.
The 5th commandment has been called the first one with a promise. This commandment is the first with a threat. God says if we worship other gods the consequences of that will fall on our children to the third and fourth generation. He says the worship of other gods is hate toward him. Those who love him and obey him he will treat kindly because of his love for them.
Kinds of Idols
There are many kinds of idols that can take our hearts away into spiritual adultery. We've talked about false gods so far and about worshipping ourselves through the things we have created. There is another god that God names as prostitution. It is very similar to human prostitution, exchanging the things of God for the things of the world. Every enjoyable thing in the world can become a god to us.
Even the Ten Commandments can become an idol. It's possible to focus on obeying them instead of obeying God. We obey them because we are obeying God. It may seem like a small difference but it is very important. We need to avoid making them the god of our life.
Even a picture of Jesus can become an idol. First, the Bible does not describe any aspect of what Jesus looked like so we can be sure that any picture is not him. Second, other people have brought pictures of "Jesus" into their offices or work places and found that they start thinking of them as Jesus. It was meant to remind them of Jesus but eventually they start to bow to it or pray to it. It has then become an idol. God is spirit and not to be worshipped through physical objects.
Idols can even be very abstract things like beauty, comfort, peace, patriotism, and wisdom.
Self as an Idol
These words were spoken by Samuel to Saul after Saul had done what he thought was good instead of doing what God said. Samuel's point is that ignoring what God said, to do what you want is putting yourself above God. It makes you an idol that you worship above God.{…] insubordination is as […] idolatry. (1 Samuel 15:23)
Yes, it seems odd to worship yourself. We would stop doing it if we realized we were doing it because it makes no sense. We are limited, mortal people like all other people and nothing like God.
This is a very large problem in the church. Sometimes we feel that God's instructions are too confining. Instead of accepting that God is king, we sometimes look for an escape clause. We do not want to admit that we are rejecting God's word so we find ways to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing something good, just as Saul did. Anytime we ignore what the Bible says and say "I think it's OK because …" we are doing the same thing as Saul.
Self-as-an-idol pops up in other ways
You have known this, that no person who is a fornicator or impure or a greedy person (who is an idol worshipper) has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God. (Ephesians 5:5)
Greed is a self-centered desire that puts you above everyone else and makes you a worshipper of yourself.Kill therefore your members that are in Earth: fornication, impurity, diseases, wicked desires, greed (which is idol worship), (Colossians 3:5)
Syncretism
Syncretism is very similar to idolatry. It is bringing outside beliefs and practices into the covenant. Historically these have come from other religions when people convert to Christianity from other religions. More commonly now we see ideas from the world being brought into Christianity.
When this happens, usually there isn't an intention to do wrong. Instead a person brings the foreign beliefs and practices into the relationship without thinking about it. Very often the person bringing these in means well and even believes it is good.
This has been the case with ideas like seeker-sensitive messages, practical positivity messages, and messages that avoid unwanted truths. The result though can be an over-shadowed gospel or an incomplete gospel.
The Works of Our Hands
The commandment talks about making things that look like anything in the sea, on the earth, or in the air, and worshipping them. There are other things that we can make with our hands and then worship. God says something interesting about that to Moses.
The general message here is about things that interfere with the worship of God. First, God doesn't want his worshippers to be distracted by a glorious beautiful altar carved by men. God will not share his glory with another. I think the modern church needs to think about some of the things they do in their services that show the glory of men and distract from the glory of God.If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. 26 And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it. (Exodus 20:25)
Second, God does not want any sexual display to be part of his worship. This was a very common practice in many religions of that time.
As we see so often in the Bible, it isn't so much the act that is the problem, but the heart. The sin of idolatry is not about the idols, whatever they may be. It is about where God fits into your priority list. There are many things that are part of our lives and must be. When these things begin to take away from God's place in your life (and thus your heart) then there is a problem. Nothing should even come close to that.
The 7th Commandment
We talked about the terms of the marriage covenant, one man, one woman, for as long as they both shall live. We also said this covenant, and only this covenant, permits a sexual relationship. Adultery therefore is either covenant breaking or sexual love without a covenant. As you can see, God's definition of adultery is much broader than our legal definition. It includes shacking-up, hooking-up, homo-sexuality, and even masturbation.
Without understanding God's definition, we don't understand how it was possible in the Old Testament for a man to have more than one wife. It leaves us wondering how he could have a second wife without cheating on the first wife. The answer is the covenant.
Knowing God's definition, we can understand better where Jesus gets the broad definition of adultery that he uses and how that definition makes sense.
Notice where the adultery occurs - "in his heart." All love comes from the heart. The problem here is that kind of love requires a covenant.You have heard that it was spoken, "You shall not commit adultery." 28 But I am saying to you, everyone who looks at a woman so as to lust for her, immediately commits adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)
Notice also that the text doesn't say "who looks at another woman." So we see here that adultery doesn't require an existing marriage and doesn't even require a sexual act.
Jesus is talking about an Old Testament law that allowed for a divorce decree. God hates divorce but the Israelites were so hard-hearted and unloving that a civil divorce was allowed, yet God still considered them married and if they took advantage of it they would be sinning.It has been said, "Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce." 32 But I am saying to you that everyone who divorces his wife, apart from the report of fornication, he causes her to commit adultery, and whoever takes her who is divorced is committing adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)
In Jesus' example the man sins for breaking the covenant by issuing the divorce decree. It was not reversible so the woman would have to reject the covenant making her an adulterer. The divorce would cause her to re-marry because it was important for her to have a husband in that society. The new husband would become an adulterer for marrying an adulterer.
Your praise, worship, and love are God's right under your covenant with him. In the same way, the spouses in a marriage have a right to each other's love. Just as God tried everything to get Israel to turn back to him after she chased after idols, we should do everything possible to get an adulterous spouse back into the relationship.
Because adultery is not so much a sinful act but a covenant breach and covenants have a lifetime of their own, it is possible to get into sinful situations that persist until corrected. For example, civil law can allow a marriage when God considers the previous marriage covenant still in effect. According to God, the new marriage is not valid and must be changed or terminated.
Keyword: Relationship
Add-on: Worship
If - Then
If a people respect their covenant with God, then they will respect their covenants with men.
3rd Principle
3 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
The 8th commandment is probably the easiest for us to understand, so we'll start there. While we might not have understood all the depth and types of adultery in the previous commandment, we are pretty clear on stealing, or so we think.8 You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
Stealing isn't only about taking stuff but about getting some advantage from the stuff that was taken. If you stole something only to throw it away, that wouldn't make much sense. We steal because we want to benefit.
Thieves usually steal physical things like money, cars, and jewelry but it's possible to steal non-physical things as well. For example, writers can steal the words of other writers. They do this by using the words as though they were their own words. It's called plagiarism. It's even possible to steal ideas and present them as your own by not giving credit to the person who had the idea.
That takes us to the core of what stealing is. Now we need to understand some things about the 3rd commandment before we can find the common principle.
What does "in vain" mean? In this context it refers to empty, useless, or purposeless. From God's point of view that would be anything that was not a Godly purpose. If it is wrong to use God's name pointlessly it would be even worse to use God's name for your own purposes.
But what is God's name? As we saw above, God's personal name here יהוה has also been replaced by "the Lord." That isn't the kind of name this verse is referring to though. This verse refers to the kind of name that means something closer to "reputation" or "character". In that sense then, God's name is love, truth, keeps his word, just, forgiving, and on and on.
There is one last thing we need to notice in the 3rd commandment, the word "take." In English we use that word in many ways. The Hebrew word that is translated as "take" only has the meanings of holding, lifting, and carrying. The central idea is of putting something under your control and doing what you want with it.
Therefore the 3rd commandment is about taking God's character / reputation to use as we want.
This leads us to the general principle which is something like "don't take / use the other's stuff" or "respect the other's possessions."
3rd Commandment
God's most prized possession is his name and he guards it.
It's important to understand what Israel has done to profane God's name in this verse. The word profane means to treat it like any other name. God drove Israel out of the land and the nations began to ask "You are God's people but you aren't in the land he promised to you for eternity so maybe God isn't true to his word. Maybe his name is not what we thought." God blames Israel for this because they have not admitted to the nations that they were kicked out of Israel because they killed their own Messiah, among other things. If they had, the nations would have known God's name was good.When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord; yet they have come out of His land.' 21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went. 22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. 23 I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. (Ezekiel 36:20-23)
This helps us understand both how important God's name is to him and how easily we can misuse it. To emphasize that truth God says "I will not leave him unpunished" when he speaks of those who have used his name uselessly or worse.
We can also misuse God's name by using it to benefit ourselves, for example to sell goods or get "Likes" and "Shares" on Facebook. I got this from a list called "12 things currently being sold on eBay because they kinda look like Jesus"
Tortilla Christ
9 Description: "Miraculous appearance in an average pack of tortillas. Too cool…5-6 Inches across standard tortilla!! Too Cool!"
Starting Bid: $4.99
Current Bid: $0
Item Location: San Antonio, TX
Jesus Bracelet
10 The ad to the left is obviously wrong but how is it different from the Amazon.com ad below?
11
It's important to understand something about the above items. The items themselves are not evil. It is the heart that can be good or evil. So the person selling it may be doing evil by using God's name to sell it but the person buying it may use it for good.
The bracelets above are a good example. The bracelets above have Jesus' name imprinted on them to help them sell. That's because people care about Jesus' name and not, for example, mine. The other seller goes so far as to use a supposed image of Jesus and claiming Jesus' healing power. But a person may buy the bracelet as something they can use to start conversations about God.
There is another way we can misuse God's name. I saw it on TV. A drug dealer thanked God for the money he made selling drugs. God does not do evil and does not want the credit for the evil we do.
8th Commandment
As we saw above understanding stealing isn't as easy as we think. This is often complicated by lies that we tell ourselves. The foundation is "control for your benefit". So whenever we have a situation we aren't sure about, we can start by asking the question "Is it yours to control"? If the answer is no, the next question is "why are you controlling it or about to control it"?
I think it was Ben Franklin who said if you are walking through another man's orchard and see an apple laying on the ground, it isn't yours. Even if you know it will rot, it isn't yours. The problem with justifying taking the apple because it will rot is the slippery slope. Once you've taken that step, how long will it be until you start wiggling a branch so an apple will fall on the ground.
Even so, there are lots of situations in life that test us, like vending machines that give us two instead of one, and lost money in the street. One way to resolve these is to recognize the other part of stealing - benefit. For the vending machine we can give the extra goody to whomever is responsible or leave it on the machine. For lost money, if we are sure it can't be found, we can give it to a good cause.
Probably the most common lie we tell ourselves in these circumstances is "No sense letting it go to waste." It isn't yours.
Keyword: Possessions
Add-on: none
If - Then
If we respect the possessions of God then we will respect the possessions of others
Application
As we've already seen we can very easily use God's name uselessly or for our own purposes, and without thinking about it. Here are some common ones:
- Supposed picture of Jesus on FB with caption "Share if you love Jesus"
- No one knows what Jesus looked like so you can be certain that isn't a picture of him
- The person who put this out values those "likes" and "shares" and hopes you will provide that
- I got fired for doing something wrong at work. I guess God wanted me in another job
- The person who says this is using God's name to avoid accepting. God does have a plan for your life. It doesn't include doing wrong
- I know Jesus said he would, but he won't
- This is probably the worst thing someone can say, but it seems like nothing. This is a direct attack on God's name as truth and as a keeper of his promises.
- Jesus never said one word about homo-sexuality in the Bible
- Jesus is the Son of God. It was he who spoke the law from Mount Sinai. It was he who spoke through Moses, the prophets and the apostles. All of the Bible is his word. Therefore saying this is misrepresenting his character
- May God strike me dead …
- The problem here isn't the use of the word "God" but that this is using God's name to make what you are saying more believable to the listener
4 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)
The 9th commandment is pretty straight-forward - Don't lie about your neighbor. We even understand the deeper concept that we shouldn't lie at all. We get that but we need to know that lying isn't only done with the mouth or even in words. With a nod of the head we can support a lie. With a gesture we can make a lie. With silence we can allow a lie to continue.9 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)
Looking at the 4th commandment now, we see it is the longest of the commandments. At its core are the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest.
At first it isn't clear how these two commandments could have a common principle. To find that principle we need to look more closely at the 9th commandment. Notice how it describes lying in terms of being a witness, as though a court case was in progress.
A lie isn't an abstract concept, something that stands on its own. God sees it in a practical way. A lie is a story, a false story, that tries to substitute for the true story. More than that it is a false story replacing another person's true story. As the commandment says, it is "against" him or opposing him. A lie is always directed at someone else's truth.
A false witness would be lying to the judge or jury about something your neighbor did or said. That's what gives us the connection to the 4th commandment. The days of creation are something that God did and told us about.
Therefore the general principle is "don't lie about what the other has done or said" but I wanted to express it in a positive form as I did with the other principles. It's hard to do that though. I considered "respect the accomplishments of the other" and "respect the truths of the other" but I settled on "respect the facts of the other."
4th Commandment
Lying about the days of creation has been the center of the battle between believers and unbelievers from early on. To stop people from believing in God it is necessary to lie about the evidence of God, his creation, to find some way to explain it that doesn't involve God.
We see that when educated people tell us that everything began with the "Big Bang"; therefore no God is required to create everything; therefore there is no God. The lie is an attack on the facts of God and on the very knowledge of his existence.
People as old as me remember when people like this taught the "Steady State" theory; the universe was always this way and always will be this way. That lie ends the same way as the Big Bang lie. Therefore no God is required to create everything; therefore there is no God.
Even many in the church have now accepted these lies or variations of them and found ways to twist the Genesis creation account.
The Deuteronomy 5 list of the Ten Commandments is notably different in a few places from the Exodus 20 list. Some things are added and removed. One thing that is added is a reason why the male and female servants must rest as well. It says:
The point here is that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt by his grace and power alone, both slave and free. The free did not bring out their slaves by their own power. They were slaves in Egypt but now have rest. Therefore, they as slave owners, must give rest to their slaves. What they received freely, they must give freely.Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
As an Observance
The 4th commandment goes a step beyond that principle of not lying. The Hebrew word translated above as "remember" has many meanings including "observe." The Deuteronomy list of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:12), however, uses a different word that is plainly "observe" and translated that way. Therefore this commandment sets up an observance.
God says the creation and especially the 7th day rest are to be memorialized by observing a rest on the 7th day of the week just as he rested on that day.
The verses don't say why but it seems clear the idea behind this observance is to establish the facts of creation, and God's rest that followed, to ensure the creation isn't forgotten or covered by lies, that we "Remember the Sabbath". This is interesting because we think of the 4th commandment as primarily an observance. But God says it is primarily about respecting the truth of what he has done and the observance is setup to ensure the truth is remembered.
There is support for this in Job, yes Job.
Just so it's clear that this verse is talking about the Sabbath, it's verse 7 of chapter 30-7So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor. (Job 37:7)
The Sabbath observance has the same purpose as the observance that Jesus setup, which we call Communion - don't lie about what I have done and this observance will help you to remember it.
Another difference in the Deuteronomy 5 account is that the mention of the creation is gone. Instead we find the mention of God bringing the people out of Egypt with his mighty hand and outstretched arm. The intent is to show another great thing God has done that he doesn't want people lying about. Most archaeologists now deny that the Israelites were ever in Egypt, let alone that they escaped after plagues sent by God.
Like the other observances that God sets up, for example the feast days, God expects his people to make their best effort to observe it. Yet, God recognizes there are realities. Jesus says:
But when the Pharisees saw them, they were saying to him, "Behold, your disciples are doing something that is illegal to do on the Sabbath." 3 But he said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? 4 How he entered the house of God, and he ate the bread of the table of Yahweh, that which was not legal for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but rather for the priests only? 5 Or have you not read in the Law (Torah) that the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? (Matthew 12:2-5)
[…] Who is the man among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, will not take hold and lift it out? (Matthew 12:11)
Therefore there are exceptions for emergencies and necessities but generally the Sabbath is to be observed.[…] Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath release his ox or his donkey from the stall and go to water it? (Luke 13:15)
As a Community
The 4th commandment also contains something many don't recognize. Why are there so many examples of who is included under this commandment? It includes "you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servant, your cattle, and your [traveler] who stays with you." Does this mean your brother isn't included because he isn't listed? No, it means we need to think about this. God provides an excess of examples, as he will do again in the 10th commandment, to make a subtle point. The 4th commandment is also about community.
The day of rest also provides an opportunity to build community relationships. This is made possible because everyone ceases from work (rests) on the same day, the Sabbath. This would not be possible if every person could pick whichever day of the week they want.
This common rest also made community worship possible, though worship is not part of the 4th commandment.
Notice that the list includes travelers. Those who housed travelers, even those from foreign lands, were to ensure that they also did no work on the Sabbath.
9th Commandment
Lying is a constant difficulty for Christians and all people are far from perfect truth. But why do we lie? Or perhaps, why is it so easy for us to lie? Once we've told one lie why does it seem like another lie isn't far behind it and probably a bigger lie.
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9)
Why Do We Lie? We might answer:Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are His delight. (Proverbs 12:22)
- to avoid getting in trouble, maybe even saving your life
- to keep someone else from getting in trouble
- to spare the feelings of others
- to preserve or strengthen alliances
- to impress someone
- to get what we wanted
- to get something to happen quicker (arrogance)
- to cover up an earlier lie
There are three roots of all of these:
- fear
- manipulation
- pride.
Those are certainly factors that cause us to think we must lie, and there are many more. But why do we choose to lie?
The short answer is "because we can." Not only do we have the God given ability to make that choice to lie but we are also able to tell a lie and have a hope that it will be believed. If we were transparent and everyone always knew the truth about everything, there would be no way to lie. No lie could be successful and there would be no reason to lie.
Instead, people can only see the outer self, our body, while inside there is another self. Inside we know the truth but the words and actions of our body attempt to describe something that is not truth.
In fact this is the definition of lying, knowing the truth on the inside but presenting something different on the outside.
Lying often seems to be the easiest way to go, but the truth is that lying is the hardest way. Producing a lie that will stand for any length of time is a difficult thing to do. As other witnesses come forward the lie starts to unravel. That leaves us with the choice of confessing, with all the awkwardness of that, or of improving the lie or replacing the lie.
Lying also results in a duplicitous mind. Lies require keeping track of which story was told to which person. Practicing that and becoming good at it will increase the likelihood of lying.
I think our prides are involved in most lies. If the lie didn't start from pride, it's pride that will step in to help us add more lies when the first one starts to unravel, in the hope that pride won't be damaged.
In most cases the lie eventually collapses into a stinking heap. Even if the liar doesn't confess, other people know about it and the liar's reputation is damaged.
It's odd then that lying would be such a natural choice for us, but it is the instinctive response. Often it is on us before we know it.
Another reason we choose to lie is because lies are easier to get out of our mouths. A lie can be uttered with just a few words. The truth requires explanations and evidence.Why do we do it? Because, let's face it, we just can't seem to help ourselves. (Psychology Today)
The lie is almost certainly juicier and more interesting, so it travels quickly. That's also part of the problem with a lie. Many people hear it before it collapses in on the liar.Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it (Jonathan Swift)
Is there a righteous lie?
Is there ever a time where a lie is justified? If a life may be saved by a lie is it alright to lie?
The Bible never says there is ever a time when it is acceptable to lie. There are cases where someone lies and the Bible does not condemn them. God can work his will through anyone, even the most horrible people. God also knows the future and whether someone will lie and can use that to achieve his will. God could even do this as a test of a person. Thus we can't say lying is approved because of these cases.
If God knows you won't lie, he will not build his plan to be dependent on you lying. Perhaps that will help you avoid being in that situation in the first place.No doubt, there is great value in the truth (John 8:32). As fallible, sinful human beings, our imperfect thoughts may not be able to comprehend what God has in mind, and we need to strive to trust God when He speaks on this subject, regardless how hard it may be. We need to place our faith fully in Christ and trust in God in all things - and not lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) (Bodie Hodge - Answers In Genesis).
Not only do we lie to others, we lie to ourselves ... as crazy as that might seem.
A lie can start with something as simple as an accident or mistake. That embarrasses us so we look around to see if anyone was watching, then we cover up the evidence, or at least our association with the evidence.
For example, we might slip and fall, people do that sometimes. Our pride doesn't want us to be seen as foolish or helpless, so we quickly get up so no one will see what happened. Then we look around for a rock, or bump, or greasy spot that we can blame it on. Or perhaps we minimize it for all who did see, "oh, nothing," then we walk on as though our knees aren't screaming in pain.
Perfect truth
Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." By "the truth" he meant that he was perfect truth, without a flaw, and the source of truth. By "the way" he meant that he was the path for us to follow. In other words we should strive to be like him. We should strive towards perfect truth.
At its foundation every sin is a lie, "It's OK". Therefore repentance is a return to the truth.
Keyword: Truth
Add-on: Observe God's Rest
Spiritual Dimension
The seventh day rest is not only a rest that God took in the past but it is the future rest that we long for - everlasting life with God.
The Sabbath is also a day for bringing that future Sabbath into the present, a time we have prepared for and where we have no need to work.Let us fear, therefore, lest, while the promise of entering into his rest stands, any of you should be found to come short of entering. (Hebrews 4:1)
If - Then
If we respect the truth of what God has done then we will respect the truth in the affairs of men.
Application
It's hard to know how to apply the 4th commandment to our lives because there is no agreement on how or even if it applies. The Catholics have one point of view, the majority of Protestants have another, and there is a minority within Protestantism that has a third. Within the majority of Protestants there is no agreement on the reason why they believe what they do. So, instead of looking how to apply the commandment we'll ask the question, is the Sabbath for Christians?
Go to this study 4th Commandment and then come back here to finish this one.
5th Principle
5 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. (Exodus 20:12)
As was mentioned at the start, the apostle Paul explains that the 5th commandment is about more than parents. It is about honoring all those whom God has placed in authority over you, all the way up to God. Notice what God says through Malachi.10 You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17)
We should not disrespect someone's place in the hierarchy. That's easy to see but it's hard to see how the 10th commandment has a common principle."A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?" says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. (Malachi 1:6)
We'll start with the question, "what is wrong inside a person that causes him to disrespect those in authority over him." The answer will come later.
To find that principle we need to understand what it means to covet and how that is different from stealing, which is the 8th commandment. Coveting isn't a halfway step to stealing. Coveting isn't the desire to have, but without the action of stealing.
Coveting is also different from greed, which we've learned is idolatry.
The verse hints at the problem with its long list of things, "neighbor's house, neighbor's wife, male servant, female servant, ox, donkey or anything." The commandment could have just said "Do not covet" just as the 6th commandment says "Do not murder." The long list hints that the problem is a desire for many things. The Deuteronomy 5 account of the Ten Commandments adds "his field" to the list. This shows us that the list of things can be changed and therefore that the things themselves aren't the problem
A man who covets wouldn't be satisfied if he got something he coveted. If he coveted his neighbor's TV (among other things) he wouldn't be happy if he bought a TV just like it. It wouldn't fill the need. He would covet other things.
The problem isn't the things or even the coveter's attitude toward them. The problem is him; he wants things only because other people have them. He really wants someone else's stuff because he isn't happy being himself. He wants someone else's life.
These two commandments could be summarized and stated in a negative form as, "Don't have within you disrespect for a position over you (or the person in that position) or for your neighbor's stuff (or your neighbor). Now we can see the principle that ties the two together, "respect your identity." We are to be content with our place in authority and content with what we have.
A child disrespects a parent because the child isn't content being a child and wants to have the authority of a parent.
5th Commandment
The 5th commandment is a positive commandment - a "do" commandment as opposed to a "don't" commandment. It calls for us to honor those in authority over us. The commandment also links that honoring to a promise of a long life and a good life (Deuteronomy 5:16).
We probably shouldn't think of that promise as a miraculously extended life. Instead the promise is of a life lived to its full length, i.e. not cut short. Jesus indicates this by tying this commandment to an ordinance given shortly after the Ten Commandments are given.
We've already said this commandment is not only about honoring father and mother but all those in authority over us. Understanding that, we can say that dishonoring those in authority over us will lead to an unhappy and possibly shortened life.For God has said, "Honor your father and your mother," and "Whoever reviles his father and his mother shall surely die." (Matthew 15:4 quoting Exodus 20:12 and Exodus 21:17)
We dishonor someone's position without thinking sometimes. It can be as easy as saying, "I'm going to drive 5 miles per hour over the speed limit." By doing that, we are saying we are not under the law, that we know better than the law makers. Thus we dishonor the law and the government. It isn't possible to honor those in authority over you and also disobey them.
If this sounds like the second commandment where we saw that insubordination was like idolatry, there are similarities. The difference is that you can dishonor those in authority without elevating yourself over them. It's also possible to be in violation of more than one commandment at a time. We also see here that the broad understanding of the commandments shows that they are connections between them.
10th Commandment
Coveting is not about the things. Failure to understand this has caused some people to break up this commandment. Augustine and the Catholic Church decided that coveting your neighbor's wife is the 9th commandment and coveting all the other things are the 10th commandment. Much later Luther decided that coveting your neighbor's house is the 9th and all the other things are the 10th.
Most people classify "sentence enhancers" like "OMG!", "GD!", and "JC!" in the 3rd commandment, not using his name in vain. The thinking is that these are names for God, but they aren't. God's name is not God, that's a title. Jesus' name was not even Jesus. I believe these expressions belong under this commandment because they disrespect the office of someone in authority over you - God.
Keyword: Authority
Add-on: Contentment
Spiritual Dimension
Do not covet the spiritual gifts that God has given to others. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12:7-31. Below are just a few verses from that passage where Paul is comparing the gifts of the Spirit to the parts of a body to show that a complete church body needs all the spiritual parts, so no one should covet the gifts of another.
If - ThenFor also the body is not one member, but many. 15 For if a foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body", is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if an ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body", is it therefore not of the body? (1 Corinthians 12:14-16)
If a society respects the position where God has placed them then they will respect the positions of those that God has placed over them.
Application
In the story of Esther, we find an example of coveting, in Haman.
It might seem that Haman's problem is that he is an anti-Semite. Yes, he hates Jews but that isn't his only problem. He lists all the great things that he has, but he is not content. He isn't happy being himself and instead he believes he would be happy if he was someone else, and not just anyone.Then Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, and the number of his sons, and every instance where the king had magnified him and how he had promoted him above the princes and servants of the king. 12 Haman also said, "Even Esther the queen let no one but me come with the king to the banquet which she had prepared; and tomorrow also I am invited by her with the king. 13 Yet all of this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." (Esther 5:11-13)
Remember what Haman says when the king wants to reward Mordecai and Haman thinks the king is suggesting a reward for himself.
Haman is describing the way he would like to be rewarded so that tells us something about him. Notice what he says. He doesn't want just any fancy robe; he wants one the king has worn. He doesn't want just any horse; he wants one the king has ridden while wearing his crown. Haman wants to be king. He isn't happy with everything he has as number 2 in the vast Medo-Persian Empire. He covets the king's position.The king's servants said to him, "Behold, Haman is standing in the court." And the king said, "Let him come in." 6 So Haman came in and the king said to him, "What is to be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?" And Haman said to himself, "Whom would the king desire to honor more than me?" 7 Then Haman said to the king, "For the man whom the king desires to honor, 8 let them bring a royal robe which the king has worn, and the horse on which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown has been placed; 9 and let the robe and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes and let them array the man whom the king desires to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, 'Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.'" (Esther 6:5-9)
Haman has also built a huge device to execute Mordecai and thereby stepped out of line. That is the king's business. People who lust after the king's position are a danger to the king and kings put an end to that. That's how Haman meets his end.
If we aren't happy with the authority God has given us or with the things in our lives, it can cause us to covet. What can we do that will help us to be content with the authority and the stuff that we have?
- Determine to be satisfied. Turn your thinking and attitude around
- Honor those in authority over you, just as the commandment says, and honor your neighbor as well
- Accept the blessings God has given you
- Accept God's decisions for your life
- Be thankful
- Respect the life you have
If you are content with your relationship with God, and you should be, you should still continue to read the Bible, pray, spend time with other Christians, and grow.
Summary of Principles
- Respect the existence of the other
- Add-on: Faith
- Respect the covenant with the other
- Add-on: Worship
- Respect the possessions of the other
- Respect the facts of the other
- Add-on: Observe God's Rest
- Respect the identity of yourself
- Add-on: Contentment
So far we've only discussed how these commandments describe how we should treat the "other". Now we need to think in terms of the other who thinks of us as the other. When we do that, we notice that all of these principles can be stated in a reciprocal form.
- Respect the existence of the other just as you want him to respect your existence
- Respect the covenants with the other just as you want him to respect your covenants
- Respect the possessions of the other just as you want him to respect your possessions
- Respect the facts of the other just as you want him to respect your facts
- Respect the identity of yourself just as the other respects the identity of himself
1 Klinghoffer, David - Shattered Tablets
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments
3 http://www.rwf2000.com/ten.htm
4 http://www.spirit889.com/ten-commandments-third/
5 http://www.spirit889.com/ten-commandments-third/
6 Klinghoffer, David - Shattered Tablets
7 http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInte ... /exo20.pdf
8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cosmology
9 https://theawl.com/12-things-currently- ... .ybvutrhyg
10 An ad from an unremembered source
11 Amazon ad https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Magnetic-B ... B0093LXJ4Q