You shall not murder. (Exod. 20:13; Duet. 5:17) On this sixth day of the new year, we are looking at the sixth commandment--You shall not murder. Most people in the world think they have done a pretty good job of keeping this commandment. The number of people worldwide who have been incarcerated for homicide is small as a percentage of the world population. Most people in the world will live their entire lives without actually taking the life of another human being. But does that mean that most people will keep the sixth commandment? On the contrary, when we understand what the sixth commandment is actually prohibiting, in light of Jesus’ authoritative interpretation of it, we come to realize that most people will likely violate the sixth commandment not once, but many times during their lifetime. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:21-22). According to Jesus, being unjustifiably angry with another person is the equivalent of committing murder in your heart. I say ‘unjustifiably angry’ because becoming angry is not always sinful. Jesus became angry and did not sin when he saw people desecrating the temple and then drove them out (John 2:13-22). There is such a thing as righteous indignation. But for most people, when we become angry, it is usually for sinful, selfish, reasons. Thus, for most people, when we become angry, we commit murder in our heart. This is not to say that committing murder in our hearts is any less grievous in the eyes of God. Notice again what Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” The consequences are the same for both physical murder and spiritual murder; hence, the grievousness of both sins are equal in the eyes of God. This is because humans are made as the image of God (Gen 1:26-27); we are image-bearers of God. Thus, to desecrate, insult, or disrespect an image-bearer of God is to render the same to God himself. It is for this reason God commands capital punishment for physical murder (Gen. 9:6), forbids cursing people (James 3:9), and condemns becoming angry with people for unrighteous reasons (Matt 5:21-22). Becoming angry in our heart for sinful and selfish reasons at another person who is made as the image of God is a violation of the sixth commandment--You shall not murder.
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Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. (Exod. 20:12; Duet. 5:16) In Ephesians 6:2 Paul says this is the first commandment with a promise. He is referring to the second half of the fifth commandment—“that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” God is telling his people that the reason they want to treat their parents honorably, respectfully, and with dignity is so that their future will go well for them. As they are preparing to enter into the promised land, if they want to live long and happy lives in the promised land, if they want their farms to do well, if they want their families to be healthy and blessed, if they want their marriages to be harmonious, they need to honor their fathers and their mothers. We know this commandment very much applies today because Paul cites it in Ephesians 6:1-3, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” The problem for most of us is that we tend to think the fifth commandment only applies to children because Paul starts out that way. But in both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, God is not just speaking to children. He is speaking to all his people—children and adults. To be sure, the dynamics of our relationship with our parents necessarily changes when we reach adulthood and when we enter into marriage, but the requirement and the promise of the fifth commandment never becomes obsolete. We must always seek to treat our parents honorably, respectfully, and with dignity. What is important to note is that if there is a promise attached to this commandment for obedience, then there is necessarily a curse attached to it for disobedience. This is Paul’s implied point. In other words, if you dishonor your parents, expect life to be hard for you and fraught with much difficulties.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and 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. (Exod. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15). The fourth commandment, on this fourth day of the new year, is to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. In the Exodus passage, the basis for keeping the Sabbath is because God rested on the Sabbath day and because we are created in God’s image, we too are to rest on the Sabbath day. In the account given in Deuteronomy, the reason given there for keeping the Sabbath is to remember that God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt and gave them rest from all their labors. Thus, they are to rest on the Sabbath day from all their labors and as a way of remembering God’s deliverance. The fourth commandment, of all the commandments, seems to be the one most Christians think no longer applies. We no longer live in the Old Testament (OT) and we are not Jewish; thus, we can treat the Sabbath like any other day. Or can we?
Before we deal with that question, we first need to determine when is the Sabbath? Saturday or Sunday? While we do not see the New Testament (NT) church observing the Sabbath in the OT sense, on Saturday, we do see them ceasing from their labors and gathering for worship and the partaking of the Lord’s Supper regularly on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2) and this seems to begin immediately after the resurrection of Christ which took place on Sunday (John 20:19). Thus, in light of Christ’s resurrection, the NT church began treating Sunday like the new Sabbath because it was the day of a new creation. This means they would cease from their labors and engage in corporate worship as a way of remembering Christ’s resurrection from the dead and their having found their ultimate rest in Christ (1 Cor 11:17; Heb 10:24-25). Thus, in one sense we honor the Sabbath and keep it holy by continuing to find to our rest in Christ by faith (Heb 4:9-10) and by not neglecting the corporate gathering of the saints for worship on the Lord’s Day (Heb 10:24-25). God still requires us to take one day out of the week to honor Him, to worship Him, and to reflect upon the rest we find in Christ and our deliverance from the bondage of sin, Satan, and death. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (Exod. 20:7; Deut. 5:11) The third commandment is always an interesting one to discuss among believers. What does it mean? Does keeping this commandment mean we say things like ‘gosh darn it’ or ‘oh my gosh’? What does it mean to not take the name of the LORD your God in vain? The 17th century Puritan theologian Thomas Watson, in his book The Ten Commandments, argues that for every commandment where God forbids us from doing something, then we are equally commanded to do the opposite. In other words, to not take the name of God in vain necessarily means that we are to honor God’s name and hold it in high esteem. This makes sense when we consider that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.” This opening line is not just a prayer of address but is the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught that the very first thing we should pray for when we pray is that God’s name would be regarded as sacred in the world. Not only that it be regarded as sacred in the world, but that it be regarded as sacred in our lives and in our behavior. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul says, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” As believers, everything we do and think and say should ultimately be for the glory of God, should ultimately render honor and high esteem to God. To not do so is to rob God of his due honor because if we are not doing things for the glory of God then we are by default doing them for the glory of ourselves, and that—according to Watson—is to dishonor the name of God and is a violation of the third commandment. We violate the third commandment whenever we do or think or say anything that does not rightly give proper glory and honor to God.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exod. 20:4-6; Deut. 5:8-10) Here we have the second commandment of the Ten Commandments, which is more properly the commandment against actually bowing down and worshipping false gods or idols or statues. Growing up in a Roman Catholic home, it was a common scene to be inside a church and witness countless people bowing down before statues, kissing their feet, lighting candles for them, and praying to them. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church would say their adherents are not actually worshipping these statues but simply paying homage to them and honoring them. However, to go to anyone or anything else other than God himself and ask for help is to imply that God cannot help you with your problem, that your best chance of being helped is by going to Mary or St. Martin or St. Lazarus or St. Joseph or any of the countless other saints. To bow down before a figure and pray to it and ask for help or guidance or wisdom is to esteem greater honor and value and worship to that person than to God himself. And the reason for not doing this is made quite clear in the commandment itself. In v.5 God says, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” God wants all glory and worship and honor for himself. There are many places where God makes clear that he will not share his glory with anyone else (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11). The early church understood this quite well which is why many of them were fed to the lions in the Colosseum merely for refusing to bow before a statue of Caesar and burn incense to it. Sadly, there were many less committed Christians who did bow the knee and burn incense believing that their external actions were not a reflection of what they believed in their heart. However, Jesus makes clear that “whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:33; Lk 12:9). Jesus was not just speaking empty words. This is not an empty threat. To deny Christ by our words or by our actions is to bring upon ourselves the rejection of God. This may seem like a mere academic point, particularly for those living in the United States, but there will come a day when believers will be asked to choose between the state and our commitment to Christ. I believe that day is not very far off.
You shall have no other gods before me. (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7) The first commandment is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3; Deut. 5:7). Often when Christians here this commandment they immediately begin to think about bowing down to a statue or some object and kissing it or worshipping it. But the commandment to not have any other gods before the one true God is not just a prohibition against engaging in false worship or false religion, it is a prohibition against placing anyone or anything in a position of greater value than God. That is, any time we treat someone or something else as being more important than God, we are violating the first commandment. We are placing other gods above the one true God. When we choose to look at internet pornography in disobedience to God (Matt 5:27-28), lust becomes our god. When we refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us (Matt 6:14-15), we are placing anger and bitterness above God. When we choose to take our children to sporting events on Sunday rather than attend church in disobedience to God’s word (Heb 10:25), our children become our god. God commands, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Nothing and no one should ever take priority over God.
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