Rather than jumping into the Commandments directly, I would like to draw your attention to what Jesus said in Mark 7:17-23. It is what we think that defile us and make us unacceptable to God. This is an important truth, for as long as we are not aware that our arguments tend to serve our self-interest, we can argue until the cows come home without reaching a satisfactory conclusion about any truth in the Bible.
If we can cast aside our pride and self-interest, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us, I am pretty sure the conclusion would be the same.
1. The Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:1-17. Note that they should apply to us since we have been rescued too.
2. Referring to Matthew 5:17-48 would further confirm about how much we should obey the Commandments.
We should praise the Lord that Jesus came to fulfill the Law, since we cannot do it by ourselves. However, that does not mean we can stay unmoved and just do whatever we like. In fact, as Christians, we should obey God even better than the teachers and the Pharisees. That can only be done if we do it from the heart. Physical obedience is meaningless, if we harbour a secret sinful thought life.
3. If we expand the physical acts of obedience to include our thought life, we would find the following version of the Ten Commandments:
Giving to God what belongs to God
i. To worship God is to adore, trust, believe and desire God.
We can easily worship any gods by adoring human superstar idols, trusting human systems to help us, believing in the lies of non-Biblical ideologies, and desiring the “security” that comes with money.
ii. To make physical idols of animals (versus plants) include admiring their qualities. It also speaks of an impatience to wait for God to reveal Himself to us, as shown in Exodus 32:1-8.
This actual reverses the order of the creator and the created. We have power over what we create (the idol) and should not worship them. God has also given us authority to rule over the animals. Similarly, proper regard should be given to our Creator. Since He created us all, including the animals, should He not be our only worship?
iii. To use God’s name properly is to use it with respect.
Often, people swear oaths or give their promises in God’s name. This action seeks to impress the recipient about the sincerity of the originator. However, if the oath or promise is not fulfilled or is just trickery, it abuses the name of the Lord. This leads directly to how we live our lives as Christians, how we carry His name. If we call ourselves His own and misbehaves, the weaker in faith, and the unbelievers would have more reason to reject Him. The many religious conmen who pretend that “thus says the Lord” will surely be punished.
iv. Note that six days are set aside for our daily and regular responsibilities. The seventh day is a day of reflective rest and a sign of obedience to the Creator.
Let us not fool ourselves about any talk regarding the Lord’s Day (usually meaning Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, which is Saturday). The early Church meets regularly on Saturdays in Acts. They only collected donations on Sundays. We should not do any kind of work on Saturdays. The current Church leadership burn themselves and their lay leaders out for the Sunday services. There is no longer any reflection in the “day of rest”. However, I would like to remind you of Matthew 12:1-14, and Mark 2:23-28, 3:1-6. Since the Sabbath was created for our benefit, showing mercy and not judgement to the needy who need to work on Sabbaths is what we need to do too. In fact, we should render good deeds to the needy on Sabbaths. I believe that this Commandment clearly shows that we cannot observe God completely and that is why we need Christ. Since we are forgiven much, we can forgive others.
I have a recommendation, and this is from me, not from the Lord. We work very hard from Mondays to Fridays (refer to Genesis 3). We obey God to rest and reflect on the Creator on Saturdays, and do not judge those who work on Saturdays. We also contribute to the needy (spiritual, physical, emotional, mental) on Sundays. May God be praised in all that we do.
Respecting others as made in the image of God
v. Being a father, I can understand why parents feel heartbroken when their children fail to honour them.
When we honour our parents, we provide for their needs (spiritually, financially / physically, emotionally, mentally). We also give them our obedience (in the Lord) and love, in front of others, in front of them, and when we are alone. We do not gossip about them, but we bless them with prayers. We regard them as higher than ourselves, for without their decision to keep and raise us, we would not be here.
vi. We also murder others when we hate them (without cause), plot against them (for our self-interest), and ignore their needs.
Thus doing, we have decided that their right to live with dignity is not worth contemplating.
vii. By not giving in to lusting in our hearts, we commit ourselves to the sanctity of the marriage covenant, and show respect to others who are not meant for our sexual (and emotional) pleasure.
Putting things where they belong
viii. We should not take anything that belongs to others.
This includes “borrowing” without permission and claiming credit for what others have done. This also includes piracy, and using school and office things for unofficial purposes.
ix. We should think of others as being higher (more important) than us.
By judging others, we would start mudslinging (to make ourselves look better), gossiping, and slandering. I believe the main purpose of false testimony is to justify that the accused do not deserve what they have, compared to us. This is putting things first, before people.
x. The solution to greed is contentment.
Contentment with Godliness is much gain. When we are greedy for what belongs to others, we may plot against them, so that we can get what belongs to them. A lesser evil is to work very hard for these things so much so that the things become our goal in life, our god. We should work very hard, because life is tough, but we should do so with contentment. We are satisfied with what we have and what we do not have.
Above all, we have God.
