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As a young child, I had hanging on my bedroom wall a plaque containing the Ten Commandments. I remember reading them often, wondering if I had committed any of them that day. “Thou shall not worship a graven image.” Nope, didn’t do that today. “Thou shall not murder.” Definitely not. “Thou shall not commit adultery.” I don’t know. Maybe I should pray and ask God to forgive me just in case. The Ten Commandments combined with the nighttime prayer that included the words, “If I should die before I wake…” terrified me as a kid. What if I broke a commandment and didn’t know it? I better ask for forgiveness for all of them.
To many, the Ten Commandments seem somewhat irrelevant. We read, “You shall not murder,” and think, “I haven’t murdered!” Or, “You shall not steal,” and think, “I haven’t stolen!” Maybe we assume that the Ten Commandments were written to confront only really wicked people. They don’t seem to address more widespread global and cultural issues that we face today, like inflation, refugee crises, and the Stanley Cup finals.
As we will see today, the Ten Commandments are foundational to community health and the well-being of society. When we understand how these instructions get to the root of many of the issues in the world today, we can embrace them as a way to bring renewal and hope to our community.
Last week, we reviewed the first three commandments, which were all about loving God. The Israelites are in the wilderness, three months after being rescued by God from the oppressive rule of the Egyptians. They have been depending on God’s provision of food and water. Now, they are at the base of Mount Sinai where God is instructing them on how to live as his people.
Today we will be reviewing commandments five through ten. We will see that these six words of instruction tell us how to love our family, love our neighbour, and love the vulnerable.
Let’s read from Exodus 20:12-17:
“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
Loving our Family
“Honour your father and mother” and “do not commit adultery” speak to loving our family.
Honouring parents would have meant more than mere obedience. The word honour had a connection to their relationship with God. Children were meant to see their parents as representatives of God, teaching them and disciplining them in the ways of Yahweh. Deuteronomy 6 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
When children honour their parents, it is as though they honour God. It is also related to the covenant that God made with Israel. If the children receive from their parents the instruction given by God for how to live as his people, and they honour their parents by living according to that instruction, they will also receive and carry forward the blessings of God’s favour on them. This is why the command to honour your father and mother comes with a promise: “so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
In Ephesians 6:1-4 we see the same sort of instruction for how Christians are to love our families:“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honour your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise—’so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’”
If children choose not to honour their parents and decide to live according to what is wise in their own eyes, they will lose the blessings of God. In Matthew 15, Jesus is dealing fairly harshly with some Pharisees who have forgotten what it means to honour their father and mother. The Pharisees were so concerned about protecting their own religious elitism that they even excluded their own parents from their lives. He said to them, “you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
A common question related to this command is whether or not we should obey parents who are giving instruction or living in a way that you believe is contrary to the Bible. If you sense that your parents are trying to lead you astray, to live in a way that is not in line with God’s ways, is it possible to still honour them? What does this look like?
This is not an easy question to answer because every situation is different. I definitely don’t want to give anyone an excuse to dishonour your parents. Yet, this command is not about blind obedience, but about a respectful attitude. What is really vital to a relationship with parents who live in a way contrary to your understanding of Scripture is to have a posture of humility and curiosity. Pray for insight into how God has taught you through your parents. Look for ways to honour them. Instead of focusing on what is different about how you behave or what you believe, focus on what is the same.
It is so easy to justify our own behaviour by appealing to Scripture. We can become really proud when we think that our way is better than their way. What it really comes down to is your attitude toward your parents and your motives for living in a way that is different from your parents. An example in how we raise our kids. It is not uncommon for us to reject some of the decisions that our parents made when raising us. Lynn and I did not lead our kids in that prayer that caused a great deal of fear to me. We led them in a prayer of blessing. Making a decision to do things differently than our parents can be done in an honourable way. I am grateful that my parents taught me to pray. We honour them by teaching our children to pray. We just chose a different prayer.
The Pharisees justified their behaviour because they said that it is more important to be righteous than to honour their parents. But what they didn’t realize is that you cannot be righteous if you are dishonouring your parents. This is because the essence of the law is love. And, the very first relationship you have as a person is with your parents.
The other area of our life that this commandment speaks to is how we honour authority figures in general. The assumption among the Israelites was that if children are raised to honour their parents, they will honour other authority figures. They are deeply related to one another. How we honour those in authority over us, whether it is our parents, teachers, or government officials, speaks to how we view God. Remember, this does not mean blind obedience to individual people. It is about your attitude toward the position they hold. We can disagree with those in authority over us, but in the end, they are in a position that God has instructed us to honour by how we treat them.
There is so much more to say about this, so if you feel the need to talk about it some more, please let me know. Let’s look briefly now at another way to love our family, which is faithfulness in marriage.
The command is this: No adultery. That’s the best way to translate it. When it is simplified in this way, the key to interpreting the command is to understand what adultery means. Jesus interpreted it this way in Matthew 5:27-28 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus is expanding on an assumption about adultery. What was this assumption? In the Old Testament law, adultery occurred when a married woman had intercourse with a man other than her husband.1 What about the man? Because of the customs in the culture, for a man to commit adultery with the wife of another man was to violate the husband’s relationship with her and the fact that he had paid a bride price to her family so she could become his wife. This made the marital relationship legally binding.2
Exodus 22:16-17 says, “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgins.” In this case, the woman did not commit adultery because she was not committed to a man. Did the man commit adultery? Apparently not, but he was required to pay the bride-price in order to uphold the requirements of the law. However, if the woman was already engaged to another man, it was then a case of adultery and both the man and the woman were to be executed for it.3
This is the assumption that Jesus was expanding on. The assumption is that adultery is only when intercourse happened outside of a legally binding marriage covenant. He expands this command to include our thought life. In other words, if you desire intimacy with someone you are not married to, you have committed adultery. Why? Jesus wants us to desire what is good according to God’s character. Marriage is meant to reflect the covenant between God and his people. When we desire someone other than our spouse, we are not reflecting the sort of relationship we are meant to have with God. We are also damaging the marriage relationship by adding into the marriage what doesn’t belong. Your thought life may not be visible to others, but what you give attention to in your mind will bear fruit in your attitudes and actions.
All of this is to say that loving our family is the foundation to living a life that shows the world who God is and what he desires for his people. This includes how we treat the members of our family, but also includes how we invest our thought life. Let’s move on to loving our neighbour.
Loving our Neighbour
No murder, no stealing, no false testimony against your neighbour. These are foundational laws in our society, so it is not difficult to convince anyone of these. As is the case with adultery, there is more to this than simply meeting the legal requirements of these commands. It is not just about what is allowed or not allowed for the Christian, but about what it means to really love our neighbour. It is unlikely that most of us will disobey the commands to not murder or steal literally. But, the commands point to something deeper within us, mainly the condition of our hearts.
Matthew 5:21 – “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” This expansion on the command to not murder is not new.
Leviticus 19:17-18 – “ ‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so you will not share in their guilt. “ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Similar to holding something in our hearts against someone, stealing takes different forms. In its essence, it is about gaining at the expense of someone else. We, as God’s people, are meant to increase the flourishing of others, to extend the benefits of God’s favour, or blessings, to others. If we are gaining at the expense of someone else, we are stealing.
What about the ninth commandment, which is appropriately understood not as lying but, in its original understanding, is about saying something that compromises the integrity of the legal system. In Deuteronomy 19, the Israelites are told that if someone is caught lying in their testimony about someone else, then that person will receive the same sentence that the accused person would have received. So, if the accused person would have been found guilty of murder based on the false testimony of another person, then the person who gave the false testimony would have been sentenced to death.
Loving our neighbour means not oppressing them with your behaviour. It means seeking the best possible outcome for them. Speaking highly of them, being generous toward them, and showing them the good character of God by how we treat them.
This begins in the heart. If you catch yourself thinking negatively about others, speak truth to your heart. Psalm 51 is a good passage to memorize. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Another thing you can do to change the condition of your heart is to take positive action that is opposite to how you’re feeling. Ask yourself how you can pray for the one you are angry with. What can you do as an act of kindness toward them, as a way of blessing them instead of allowing bitterness to fester.
Consider this question: what would people say about God if the only thing they knew about him was based on how you treated them? In the coming week, consider one specific action you could take that would demonstrate love for a neighbour in your life. This brings us to the final command.
Loving the Vulnerable
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.” In other words, do not desire what does not or cannot possibly belong to you. To covet is to want something even if it disadvantages another person. This, out of all of the commands, is first and foremost a matter of the heart and demonstrates a lack of compassion and empathy toward other people. It is impossible to legislate. You and God are the only judges of whether or not you are breaking this commandment.
In most cases, the way that coveting something becomes unloving toward our neighbour is when someone powerful takes from someone who is vulnerable. The root of this action is the belief that I deserve something more than another person. It is the opposite of how we are meant to live. When Jesus died for us, he demonstrated that taking hold of something, clinging to power or personal rights and freedoms, is not the way of God. The way of God is by giving up my preferences, my comforts, for the sake of others.
In the communal context of the Bible, God commanded the Israelites to leave some of the gleanings in their fields for the poor. This signified that God’s people were to treat the stranger and the fatherless as their own family. In other words, Israel was to extend to vulnerable people the kind of protection and sustenance that is appropriate for their own people.4
What about for us? How do we contribute to the well-being of the vulnerable in our community? There indirect and direct ways. We can give to charity, to the food bank, or participating in fundraising efforts for organizations like the Mustard Seed or a Pregnancy Care Centre. There are direct ways, such as volunteering at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, bringing a meal to someone in need, or doing the yard work for someone who is sick or injured. This is actually a question that I would love to hear back from you on. Let me know how you participate in helping the vulnerable.
This sort of lifestyle of loving the vulnerable begins in the heart. You will reflect God’s character well when you genuinely believe that others are equally deserving of God’s blessings as you are. The single most effective way to cultivate this sort of attitude is by praying for those you currently see as less deserving than you. Pray that they would be blessed, that they would experience the benefits of God’s favour in their lives. And ask, how you can be a part of them experiencing God’s blessings.
I want to close by reading from Romans 13:8-10, which summarizes what I have been saying this morning:
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
The Ten Commandments are not just about rules to follow in order to make sure we go to heaven when we die. They are not just a way for us to prove our righteousness. They are a call to love others, to be the presence of God in our communities.
1 Richard E. Averbeck, The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022), 137.
2 Richard E. Averbeck, The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022), 138.
3 Richard E. Averbeck, The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022), 139.
4 Mark Glanville, Improvising Church, 23.
Pentateuch Series Bibliography
Alexander, T. Desmond. From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. Fourth Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022.
Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Averbeck, Richard E. The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022.
Brueggemann, Walter. Preaching from the Old Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.
Glanville, Mark. Freed to Be God’s Family: The Book of Exodus. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2021.
Longman III, Tremper. Genesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Lynch, Matthew J. Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III. A Biblical History of Israel. Second Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
Smith, James E. The Torah. 2nd ed. Old Testament Survey Series. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1993.
Walton, John H and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.