Last week we looked at the first 4 commandments as well as the passages leading up to them. This week we look at the last 6 commandments. The first 4 commandments deal with our relationship to our heavenly Father. The last 6 deal with our relationship to one another. Jesus expressed what is at the heart of the commandments when He was asked "which is the greatest commandment?" First he quoted the Shema, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your strength and with all your mind." Then he said the second is like it "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus goes on to say that all the laws and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
When we think about the 10 commandments we can see the direct link to what Jesus said as the first 4 expand on "Love the Lord your God..." and the latter 6 expand on "Love your neighbor as yourself." These words that Jesus used were not new to the Jews as they can both be found in the Pentateuch (First 5 books of the Bible, also considered the foundation of the Jewish faith). I bring all this up to remind us that Jesus was about love and mercy, but he held the law in high esteem and viewed himself as the fulfillment of the law. (Matthew 5:17) I believe we must always seek balance between justice and mercy just as Christ did.
I want to skip "Honor your father and mother" and save it for last.
You shall not murder
My feeling is most of us get this one. It's not too hard to figure out. Although, I always try to clarify to young people that this does not mean it is wrong to kill. The King James version can confuse us because it translates it "Thou shalt not kill" but almost all other versions use the word murder in reference to unjust or unauthorized killing. I'll never forget when the war in Afghanistan began after 9/11 and I was in the convenient store in the Indiana State University commons. A young man was looking at the paper and he was up in arms about the war. He approached me with paper in hand saying something like "Can you believe this? This is awful!" I responded by saying something along the lines of "yes, it is disappointing we are at war, but I don't think it's unjustified." He responded by asking me if I was a student and I said "No, I'm a campus minister." I knew what his next comment was going to be before he said it. It was something like "Then, how can you say that? Doesn't the Bible say 'thou shalt not kill?'" I immediately responded by saying, some versions do but what is meant is don't commit murder or unjustified killing."
We need to be careful though. Jesus gave his own take on the "no murder" issue. He expands upon it in Matthew 5:21-26. Jesus is warning us that murdering another person's character is a sin as well and we should make peace with our enemies before whatever grievance we have comes to trial. Jesus even shows us the need for mercy when the law says the death penalty is justified. We see this in the story of the woman caught in adultery where those who were bringing her to Jesus spoke of the law in Deuteronomy 22 where sometimes death is a justifiable punishment for adultery. Jesus reminds them of their own sins challenging them to cast the first stone if they are without any. The woman finds herself free of accusers and Jesus says "Neither do I condemn you" and challenges her to "Go and sin no more." Again, there must be balance between justice and mercy.
You shall not commit adultery
For all of you who told your children to "ask Pastor Dave" what adultery means or any other difficult question you didn't want to answer, I just want to say "Thanks A Lot!" I've seen you with your smile on your face standing back and observing as your children approach me with these delicate questions. All kidding aside, kids are very humorous with their questions and their answers. I recently asked a group of kids what they thought "committing adultery" means and one child said "It's when kids aren't nice to adults like they should be." If that's the case there's a lot of committing adultery going on.(ha ha)
But seriously, has any commandment taken more abuse than this one? I love what Dave Ramsey often says on his radio show about our culture and/or the world (whatever label you want to use here). To paraphrase, Dave Ramsey says culture tempts us to push the envelope as far as we can ethically and then ridicules us to no end the moment we cross the line. There is no greater example of that than committing adultery. People are more visually stimulated today than ever. It's everywhere. One of the best recommendations I've heard on the subject came from Andy Stanley. If you don't want to be tempted by it, you must flee from it. Any time, any moment, there is even a suggestion of the chance of giving in, we must seek the discipline to flee from it. If you like podcasts, I highly recommend Your Move with Andy Stanley. He expands on this idea in one of his talks in his series on Guardrails. Good stuff!
You shall not steal
Again, this is one of those we all probably get, but who of us didn't as a child learn the guilt of this the hard way. We've all likely at some time in our life given into the temptation of the 5 finger discount. Yet, there are other things we can steal that are not of a physical nature. People steal time from their employers. They steal someone's good name through gossip. Many of the ideas I get for these blogs come from commentary writers like Maxie Dunnam, who wrote the volume on Exodus in the Communicators Commentary Series. I give credit to him at least once in my blog whenever I use some of his ideas. Otherwise, I would be stealing credit for something he thought of. We must be cautious not to gloss over "you shall not steal" by saying "I'm no thief" and allow God to examine us and the Holy Spirit to convict us if such is the case.
You shall not bear false witness
We all know to be honest, not to lie. But I love it when someone calls another person out on a Sunday morning for lying, especially young people. Someone tells a fib in jest and the other person's response is "don't lie, you're in church" as if lying other places is a more permissible sin than when you're in the actual church building.
An interesting thing to note is Jewish law is just as harsh on those who have testimony or evidence and don't share it as it is with those who give it falsely. (Leviticus 5:1) Our lack of words can be just as harmful as false words. This is something that is very difficult for young people. Fear of sticking our necks out for the sake of the truth is a value that seems to lose ground daily. The truth is the fear is greater because the likelihood of our proverbial necks getting chopped when we stick them out is greater. Youth often take a self defense position of if I defend someone than I will the next target. Yet somehow the need to do so has never been more needed for those who are in need of someone to come to their aid. Paul reminds us in I Thessalonians 5:11 to "encourage one another and build up one another." Later in verse 14 he says to "admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone." We can not live this scripture out and keep silent when the defenseless need defended.
You shall not covet your neighbor's (anyone and anything)
In some ways this commandment is a guardrail of sorts from breaking the other commandments. If you avoid having a burning desire for your neighbor's spouse, you won't be tempted to commit adultery or to murder your neighbor in order to be with their spouse. If you don't get all hot and bothered about your neighbor's car or TV, you won't be tempted to steal one from him or from the store. Nor will you be tempted to rob the bank to have the money to buy one. Yes, I know I'm being extreme, but I hope my extreme examples help you see the point. To covet means to desire. The word covet itself is a neutral word. In other words in can be used in a positive or negative way. I often have heard people say "I covet your prayers." This is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. To have a desire for someone to pray for you is a good thing to let someone know. If someone says to me "I covet your wife," they're going to have a problem. The bottom line is we must ask God to help us to discipline our desires and focus them for the good. This sounds simple enough but it isn't. At the heart of it is obedience which takes love of God and time with God in order for it to develop.
Back to #5...
Honor your father and mother
This commandment sits at the transition point between those commandments directed to God and those directed to each other. This is no coincidence. At the heart of the Jewish way of life is the family, not just the immediate family but the extended family. Is there any doubt that our family experience or lack thereof is the biggest determining factor of who we become? Our family experiences motivate us positively or negatively. How many people do we hear say "I am where I am today because of my family?" How many people blame their family experience for their poor decisions? What we do and how we react in the midst of our family experiences determines a lot. Maxie Dunnam believes this is why the Jewish people have survived through so much. Regardless of who has oppressed them, they've clung tightly to their families. No culture is more committed to study of their family and it's history than the Jewish people.
This commandment is the only commandment linked directly with a promise. The NIV translates the commandment this way. "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." This seems to suggest if you honor your father and mother you will live a long life. The NASB translation gives a little more clarity to the promise. It says "that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you." This translation clarifies that life can be prolonged by honoring your parents. This makes more sense to me. I'm sure we can all think of a Christian whose life ended before they had reached what we would consider a long life. It could also be that this person honored their parents in a manner worthy of the 5th commandment. This would seem contradictory to God's promise. But I believe what God promises here is that our lives will have more of an opportunity to be prolonged in the context of honoring our parents.
We need to understand that God was speaking to the Israelites as a culture which needed to set itself apart from other cultures. Some cultures of those days would abandon the elderly and leave them behind to die when they were no longer useful. Sad, but true. God is saying do not be that type of culture. Care for your elderly with the respect they deserve. God was saying by doing this, it will prolong your life because your kids will see how you treated your parents. Thus they won't leave you behind when the time comes.
In our day and age, I can think of two practical applications of how honoring our parents can prolong our lives. For young people, honoring your parents can help them with decision making. How many young people foolishly lose their life because of poor choices. Perhaps they don't literally lose their life (although some have because of poor choices) but they get caught up in an unhealthy lifestyle because of bad decision making and they do lose parts of their life they can never get back. If in the midst of choices, we teach our children to remember their parents and how much they love them, perhaps it will prolong their lives. They will have a greater desire to honor their parents by the decisions they make. If we can help young people to think ahead and visualize the pain a bad decision might cause, they may think more deeply before a poor decision is made. The catch here is we as parents must be constantly showing and assuring our children of our unconditional love.
The other application here is of adult children and how they treat their elderly parents. Do we honor them with our time and energy, with our presence? Or do we go months and months without communicating with them? What are we teaching our children about how we honor our parents? The old cliche is true. What comes around, goes around.
The challenge is to be a Christian people who don't just view these commandments as suggestions. We can not pass this off as less applicable because it's Old Testament teaching. Jesus said himself he came to fulfill the law. He even simplified it for us by giving us a bigger picture. "Love the Lord with all you've got and Love your neighbor as yourself." This begins with the family and extends from there.
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