THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
In His Word, God has given certain commandments which tell us what we are to do and we are not to do. The Bible speaks especially of the Ten Commandments which God gave to His people.
Long, long ago God chose a man named Abraham to serve Him. God told Abraham to leave his country and his people and go into a far country. God promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation. Abraham’s descendants became the children of Israel—God’s chosen people.
In time, a named Moses became the leader of God’s chosen people. One day God called Moses up to the top of Mount Sinai. There God spoke to Moses and gave him two flat stones on which He had written the Ten Commandments.
Commandment No. 1
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”
-Exodus 20:3
There is only one true and living God. We are to have no other gods beside Him. We must love God more than we love anyone else. We must love Him more than we love money, business, pleasure, or anything else.
God will not take second place to anything or anybody. He is the great God who created all things. He is the God who created us, and He claims first place in our lives.
Each of us should ask ourselves, “Is God really first in my life? Is there anyone or anything that I have been putting before God?” God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Commandment No. 2
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (any idol)...
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”
- Exodus 20:4-5
The First Commandment tells us that we are to have no other gods before God. The Second Commandment tells us that we are not to make any images or idols to represent God. We are not to bow down to them, nor serve them. We are not to worship any object that we can see, touch, or feel. The Bible says,
“..Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” -Matthew 4:10
God is a Spirit-being. We cannot see Him or touch Him. When God spoke to His chosen people long ago, the Bible says that they saw “no image or form.”
All idols are hateful to God. They rob God of the worship that is due Him as our Creator. If God created us, then He certainly ought to have first place in our lives. There is not a single incident in the Bible where a man was allowed to bow to or worship anyone other than the God of Heaven and Jesus Christ, His Son.
We should, however, realize that there are other kinds of idols beside those which are made by men’s hands. Whatever we love more than we love God is our idol. We can make an idol out of success, money, beauty, or popularity.
Whatever comes before God in your life is your god. Many people make a god of money. That is what they work for and lives for. Others make a god of pleasure. Whatever shuts God out of your life, whatever comes between you and God, is an idol in your life. God will not accept a divided heart. Jesus said,
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other...” –Matthew 6:24
Our duty to God is to love, worship, and serve Him and no other. He refuses to be one of several gods or even the chief of many gods. He says,
“I am the LORD: that is My name: and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images.”-Isaiah 42:8
Commandment No. 3
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain..”
-Exodus 20:7
What does it mean to take God’s name “in vain”? It means to use God’s name in a light or a careless way, or to use it in cursing or swearing.
God is very great , and His name is great. The Bible says, “Holy and reverend is His name.” Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed (holy) be Thy name.”
God will not permit people to use His name in a careless way. It is a serious offense to show disrespect and dishonour to your country. How much more serious it is to show disrespect and dishonour to God our Creator. To do so classifies you with the enemies of God. The bible says,
“For they speak against Thee wickedly,
and Thine enemies take Thy name in vain.” –Psalm 139:20
Some people never speak the name of Jesus except in cursing. Jesus Christ is God the Son, and it is a sin to take His name in vain.
Some people take God’s name in vain, but they say, “I don’t mean anything by it.” But God will not permit men to trifle with Him in this way. Suppose I steal a man’s watch, sell it, and spend the money. When he finds out about it and comes to Me, I say, “Yes, I stole your watch, sold it, and spend the money, but I didn’t mean anything by it.” Such an excuse would not be acceptable to him, nor such an excuse be acceptable to God. One day we will have to give an account to God for every word we have spoken. The Lord Jesus said,
“Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment.” -Matthew 12:36
Some people attempt to excuse themselves for swearing by saying that it is a habit with them. This means that, over a long period of time, such a person has regularly trained himself to show disrespect and dishonour to God’s name. Will God accept such an excuse? No, He certainly will not. The Bible says,
“..the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.”
-Exodus 20:7
The remedy for cursing and swearing is loving God with all your heart. If you love Him, you will not dishonour His name. David was the greatest king of Israel ever had. David said,
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable
in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” –Psalm 19:14
(See also Psalm 111:9 and Luke 11:2)
Commandment No. 4
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
–Exodus 20:8
Would you like to work fifty days without a break? Would you like to go to school three months without a break? I am sure that all of us would say, “No, i would not like that! I would need some time off for rest.”
The great Creator, the wise and loving God who created us, provided for the needs of our bodies. God commanded that one day in a week be set aside as a day of rest and worship. This is for man’s benefit. The Lord Jesus said,
“And he said unto them, The Sabbath(Sunday) was made for man,
and not man for Sabbath.”–Mark 2:27
The word “Sabbath” means “rest”. God created the heaves and the earth in six days, He rested on the seventh day. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a day of rest. God says to us, “Remember the rest-day, to keep it holy.”
God means for the rest day to be a day when we lay aside our work and worship Him. It should be a holy day, not a holiday. We should avoid doing anything that may keep others from worshipping God on this day.
The Lord Jesus taught that works of necessity and emergency could be done on the Sabbath. The religious leaders found fault with the Lord Jesus because He healed people on the Sabbath, but Jesus said that it is lawful to do a deed of mercy on the Sabbath day. He told them that, if one of their sheep fell into a pit on the Sabbath, they would certainly pull it out. Jesus said,
“How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is a lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” –Matthew 12:12
In the Old Testament, God’s people kept Saturday, the seventh day, as the day of rest. In the New Testament, the disciples set aside Sunday, the first day of the week, as the rest day. It was on the first day of the week that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, and this is also the day that He appeared to His disciples. Therefore the early disciples set aside Sunday as the day they met together to worship God. The Bible says,
“Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread (to observe the Lord’s Supper), Paul preached unto them. . .” –Acts 20:7
Commandment No. 5
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be
long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
–Exodus 20:12
God is concerned about the way we treat our parents. He commands us to honour our father and mother. To “honour” our parents means to love them, to respect them, and to obey them.
Why should we honour our parents? We should honour our parents because God has commanded it.
The parents represent God’s authority in the home. God’s arrangement for the family is for the father to be the head of the family under God. The wife is to be subject to her husband, and the children are to subject to their parents.
The Bible tells us that one of the signs of the last days is that people will be disobedient and disrespectful to their parent. God’s Word says,
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.” -2 Timothy 3:1-2
God says to us, “Honour your father and your mother.” This commandment has a time limitation. The day comes to most people when their father and mother die. What bitter feelings you will have when that time comes if you have failed to show your father and your mother the love and respect that is due to them.
Commandment No. 6
“Thou shalt not kill.”
–Exodus 20:13
First, let us see what this commandment does not mean, it does not forbid the killings of animals for food. It does not forbid lawfully putting a man to death for murdering someone. God Himself set the death penalty for those who kill others. He said,
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood (kills a man), by man shall his blood be shed..”
- Genesis 9:6
This commandment means, “You shall not commit murder.” Very few people have actually murdered another person, but God says if we hates someone, we are guilty of breaking this commandment.
The Bible says that the sin of murder begins in the heart. Jesus said,
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, MURDERS,”- Mark 7:21
God knows what is in our hearts. He knows what we think. To hate someone is as bad in God’s sight as though you actually murdered that person. The Bible says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” -I John 3:15
Commandment No. 7
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
–Exodus 20:14
In the beginning God created one man and one woman. They were committed to each other for life. This is God’s order for marriage- one man and one woman committed to each other for life.
God gave sex as both a means of producing offspring and a soured of pleasure. Through sexual intercourse a husband and wife are able to express to the fullest of their love to each other. This is one of the great blessings and privileges of marriage. God gave the Seventh Commandment- “You shall not commit adultery.”
This commandment forbids all sexual impurity. Adultery is sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her marriage partner. Fornication is sexual intercourse between a man and woman who are not married. Both adultery and fornication are condemned by God, along with other sexual sins.
God looks not only at our actions but also at the thoughts and intents of our heart. You do not have to commit the act of adultery to be guilty of breaking this commandment. If you have looked upon someone with lust in your heart, you have broken the Seven Commandment. Jesus said,
“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” –Matthew 5:28
Commandment No. 8
“Thou shalt not steal.”
–Exodus 20:15
Stealing is taking something that does not belong to you. Let us consider some facts concerning stealing:
- Stealing is stealing, regardless of the amount or value of the thing stolen.
- Stealing is a sin, even though no one finds out about it.
- Stealing from a rich man is just as much a sin as stealing from a poor man. Some people who would not think of stealing from another person think nothing of stealing from a large company or from the government. But it is stealing, just the same.
There are other forms of stealing. The person who cheats on an examination is stealing information that does not belong to him. The person who receives more in change than is due him and says nothing about it is stealing. The person who does not pay his rightful debts is likewise stealing.
If you are guilty of the sin of stealing, you can be forgiven of this sin, but God will expect you to do what you can to make things right within other people.
One of the first things a person should do after becoming a Christian is to make things right with those he has wronged in any way. No amount of weeping over sin and saying you are sorry will do unless you are willing to make things right with the people you are wronged.
Commandment No. 9
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
–Exodus 20:16
The Ninth Commandment forbids bearing false witness. The two most common violations of this commandment are:
1. Lying- saying or acting out that which is false and untrue.
2. Slander- spreading gossip and false reports about someone which tend to destroy that person’s reputation.
The Bible says that the tongue is “an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” Spreading gossip about someone has three deadly effects: It poisons the one who gossips, the one who hears the gossip, and the one about whom the gossip is spoken. This is a sin which should be avoided by every child of God. The Bible says that we are “to speak evil of no man.”
It was a lie that Satan used to bring sin into the world with all its devastating effects. In His Word, God names seven things that are especially hateful to Him. Two of these seven involves lying.
The Bible says,
“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto Him:
A proud look, A LYING TONGUE, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness THAT SPEAKETH LIES, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” –Proverbs 6:16-19
There are at least three kinds of lies:
1. Saying something that is not true,
2. Telling the truth, but only part of it, and
3. Remaining silent and acting ignorant of the facts, thus causing someone to believe something that you know is not true.
God is “the God of truth,” and He hates all lies. We tend to think that some lies are excusable. We speak of “little white lies.” We call other “social lies,” or “business lies.” But any lie is a lie, regardless of when it is told or why. Jesus said that all lies come from Satan, the father of lies. The Lord Jesus said of Satan,
“..there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own:
for he is a liar, and the father of it.” –John 8:44
Because He is righteous and holy, God will not tolerate liars in His presence. The Bible says,
“And there shall in no wise enter into it(Heaven) anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. ” –Revelation 21:27
David said, “I have chosen the way of truth.” May God help us to make the same choice. (James 3:8, Titus 3:2, Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 119:30)
Commandment No. 10
“Thou shalt not covet..”
–Exodus 20:17
To covet means to have a strong desire for something that belongs to someone else. You can covet a person’s good looks, or his money, or possessions. You can covet a person’s husband or wife. You can covet something one’s position.
Coveting is an inward sin. It is a sin of the thought life. No one can tell if you break this commandment except you and God. God hates this sin and He says that no covetous person shall inherit the kingdom of God.
The sin of covetousness often leads to other sins. A covetous person sees something and begins to desire it. When the opportunity comes, he steals it. David coveted another man’s wife and this sin led to the sins of adultery and murder. Coveting causes men to use God’s appointed day of rest as a day to make money. In the Bible a person who covets money is called an “idolator” because he makes money his god. Jesus said,
“And He said unto them, take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” –Luke 12:15
We consider stealing and drunkenness to be great sins, but the Bible says far more about the sin of covetousness than it does about either stealing or drunkenness. In fact, the Bible list covetousness along with the worst sins imaginable. God’s Word says,
“Know ye not that the unrighteousness shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals),
Nor thieves, NOR COVETOUS, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God.” -1 Corinthians 6:9-10
-A New life in Christ
-A New life in Christ
0 comments:
Post a Comment