For the last eleven weeks, I’ve been writing on the Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20:1-17. As we’ve explored these commandments, we’ve seen how they’re not just for the people of Israel back in the Old Testament but for us today as well, though with some contextual differences of course.
But with today being Christmas Eve, what do the Ten Commandments have to do with Christmas? A lot, actually.
The connection between the commandments and Christmas actually goes back all the way to the book of Genesis. Genesis 2:15-17 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” A little while later in Genesis 3, the serpent tempts Eve and she and Adam both fall into sin. Ever since then, all humanity has been sinful and separated from God.
Fast forward a bit to Genesis 15, where God makes the covenant with Abraham. In that covenant, God promised Abraham that He would save him. Traditionally in a covenant such as that, two people would walk through the carcass halves together, meaning that if either one of them broke it, that person would be as good as dead. But in this situation, only God Himself went through the carcass halves as a smoking firepot and a blazing torch. This means that if God breaks the covenant, He should die for it; but if Abraham (or his offspring) breaks the covenant, God will still die for it.
Fast forward a bit more to the book of Exodus. Abraham’s grandson was Jacob, aka Israel, whose offspring from his twelve sons became the people of Israel. When this multitude of people left Egypt years later, they were in the process of becoming a unified nation - God’s chosen people. We read in Exodus 19 that on the first day of the third month after leaving Egypt, the people camped at Mt. Sinai. It was here that God gave their leader, Moses, the law for the people of Israel.
But why did this law matter? And what does that have to do with Jesus? We’re getting there.
If we don’t know what the rules are, we can’t know that we’ve broken them. Way back in Genesis 2, we saw that God clearly told Adam the rule: don’t eat from that one specific tree. Adam (and Eve) broke that rule, and they knew they had broken it because they knew what the rule was. The people of Israel were a sinful people, but they may not have known specifically how they were sinning until God gave them the law, the Ten Commandments. Now, they would know exactly what they were supposed to do (or not do). They also knew that anytime they broke God’s law, that separated them from Him, because God is holy and cannot be around sin.
The problem is, not one single person has been able to fully keep that law. Every last person who has ever lived or will ever live will break God’s law. I have; you have; everyone you know has. That means that we’re all separated from God because of our sin.
That’s where Christmas comes in. Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We know that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit inside Mary (Luke 1:26-38), so He is both fully God and fully human. Jesus had to be fully God in order to live a perfect, sinless life and never break a single one of the Commandments. Jesus had to be fully human in order to be an acceptable sacrifice for all of humanity who has sinned. Jesus couldn’t be fully human without being born of a woman, so that’s exactly what happened.
Jesus’ birth that we celebrate at Christmas time is the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham back in Genesis 15, because He had to be born as a human. Jesus’ death and resurrection truly fulfilled that covenant by dying for the sins of all of humanity - every single time that every person who has ever lived or will ever lived has broken or will break any one of the Ten Commandments. That’s how amazing, powerful, and loving our God is!
What are you celebrating this Christmas? Are you celebrating the happiness you get from being around your friends and family, eating good food, and exchanging gifts? I encourage you this Christmas to celebrate way more than that: celebrate the law that was given to us and the Savior who fulfilled it.
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“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17b)
Last week I wrote about why Exodus 20:17 is split into two commandments, so this week we’re looking at the latter part of the verse, which is the tenth and final commandment in this passage.
Again, we’re talking about coveting here. Coveting basically means a yearning, a longing, a craving, or a desire to have something. Our neighbor is any other person. Wanting anything that belongs to someone else is coveting that thing from our neighbor.
The first part of this verse talked about coveting our neighbor’s house, and this verse goes into more detail about other thing we may covet. However, this list seems a bit dated to our culture; personally, I can’t say I’ve ever coveted a donkey!
But we have to remember the context of this passage, that God gave these commandments to Moses and the people of Israel while they were wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt. In their culture, servants and livestock were their most valued possessions. Even a wife was considered property to some extent back then, so it’s definitely a different culture than we have today. Even the explanation of this commandment from Luther’s Small Catechism (written in 1529) seems a bit dated to today’s culture: “We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.”
However, the principle still applies: we should not covet anything that belongs to some else, out of our love for God. Today, perhaps this commandment would instruct us to not covet your neighbor’s car, cell phone, or money, and to not desire to do unlawful things to get what’s not yours. As with all of the commandments, we desire to follow this one out of our love for God. God has created all people in His image, and because of that we should desire to not harm any person in any way, including by even desiring what they have.
This is definitely a hard commandment to follow, especially in this commercialized Christmas season. The entire advertising business is built on getting people to want what they don’t have! The intent of this commandment is not to make us all be minimalists, but specifically to not desire to take away what belongs to another person. It’s not that we can’t desire to have anything, but we should not desire that which belongs to another person. That desire can lead to envy, which often leads us to sin against God, perhaps even by breaking another commandment and stealing.
Jesus included coveting in a list of things that defiles a person, as recorded in Mark 7:20-23: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Even Paul touches on coveting when explaining the law in Romans 7:7: “What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”
We know that we should not desire to have what another person has, and as we approach the Christmas holiday I encourage you to keep that in mind in all aspects of your life.
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“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.“ (Exodus 20:17a)
As we come close to wrapping up our look through the Ten Commandments, I’m again intrigued at how they’re numbered, as I brought up in my first post in the series. Many traditions put all of Exodus 20:17 into one commandment, while splitting the first commandment into two so it still make a total of ten. I can definitely see the logic in this method, since verse 17 is all about coveting, so why did the Lutheran tradition I grew up in make it into two commandments?
As it turns out, that commandment division goes all the way back to St. Augustine around the 4th century AD. Augustine is commonly viewed as one of the most important early church fathers, and his Confessions, both an autobiography and theological work, spanned 13 volumes! He followed the Talmud (the book of Jewish religious law) by putting verses 3-6 together as the first commandment, then then split up verse 17 into two. Both Romans Catholics and Lutherans continue using this tradition, although the wording of the last two commandments differs some between the two.
Now that we know that, let’s take a look at what this commandment means. First of all, what is this word “covet”? Coveting basically means a yearning, a longing, a craving, or a desire to have something. If I want that delicious looking piece of chocolate that you have, I would be coveting the chocolate. As we talked about last week, your neighbor is every person, no matter whether we have things in common with them or not.
This commandment specifically looks at coveting your neighbor’s house, so desiring the house of any other person. I enjoy TV shows about houses - remodeling them, selling them, redecorating them, etc. I also enjoy houses in general; my husband and I currently own 6 of them, 5 rental houses plus the one we live in. While I do like the house we live in, there are definitely times I covet other people’s houses, or even features of other people’s houses. I’m sure we could all find things in our own living spaces that we would like to change, where we see someone else having a better version.
But this commandment doesn’t apply to only the structure of the place where we live. According to Luther’s Small Catechism, the meaning of this commandment is: “We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.”
Coveting another’s house doesn’t just mean the place they live, but also their inheritance. An inheritance can be monetary, but it can also be the legacy they leave after they’re gone. We are commanded to not only not desire after his house or inheritance, but to actually help our neighbor keep his house.
I’m blessed to have pretty good neighbors where I live. Some neighbors keep to themselves while others are more outgoing and friendly, but they’re all respectful. But when a neighbor goes the extra mile to actually help us with things around the house, that really shows God’s love. One neighbor of ours will often mow our front yard for us when she does her own lawn; while that may be because they’d rather not look at our yard being long, we believe it’s because they truly want to help us out and it’s a way they can do that.
Coveting comes down to being a matter of contentment. If we are content with what we have, we will not want what someone else has. The apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:11-12, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” Paul was completely content while writing that, even while chained in a miserable prison. If we have place to call home, shouldn’t we be content as well with what God has given us?
Are you struggling with coveting your neighbor’s house? What can you do to change your attitude to be one of contentment toward what God has given you? Remember what Proverbs 14:30 says: “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.“
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“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
You know how some things from your childhood have a way of sticking with you for years? This is one of those for me. I went to a parochial school, and at my kindergarten graduation ceremony, each student had to recite one of the ten commandments, usually with a partner. This, the eighth commandment, was the one I memorized and recited with my classmate Karla. The wording of it then was “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” and at 5 years old I didn’t fully understand those words, but I did get the general concept: don’t tell lies or in any other way be false with what you say.
Luther’s Small Catechism gives the meaning of this commandment as, “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” As we’ve been seeing with the commandments, this meaning takes things further than being commanded to not do something, but rather it instructs us on what we should do instead. Don’t just not lie about or betray our neighbor, but we should speak well of him or her in all situations.
This brings up the question of who is our neighbor? Jesus answered that question very well with the story of the Good Samaritan, which you can find in Luke 10:25-37. The teacher of the law had this very same question of who exactly is one’s neighbor, though his motivation was to make himself look good. But Jesus’ answer remains true, that every person is our neighbor, whether they’re like us in certain ways or not.
We see many other places in the Bible where the idea this commandment is echoed. Proverbs 19:5 says, “A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will not go free.” Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” Proverbs 6:19 says, “A false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”
The opposite of speaking falsely is, of course, speaking truthfully. We honor God and show that we love Him when we speak truthfully to others instead of lying and saying false things. For more on what the Bible says about truth, check out this blog post.
In the original Hebrew, this commandment could be literally translated as, “You shall not answer your neighbor as a witness of deception.” When you’re a witness to something, you’re sharing your experience of that event or person. We should be witnesses of truth, especially God’s truth, instead of being witnesses of falsity and deception.
It may not seem like a big deal if we tell a little while lie to someone else, and we may not experience immediate negative consequences for it. But any time we do not speak truthfully, we are sinning against God. Whenever we sin, we separate ourselves from God - and that goes for ANY sin, not just the ones we consider to be “big.” If we can’t be faithful and truthful in our speech, then it’s unlikely we’ll be faithful and truthful in the bigger things in life (Luke 16:10).
Where in your life are you struggling with being truthful? Are there particular people or situations who seem to bring out falsehood from your mouth? I encourage you to examine your speech this week to see where you can ask the Spirit to help you be more truthful and encouraging, rather than being false and bringing others down.
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“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
Ever seen two toddlers fight over one toy? We’re a selfish people by nature, so we’re taught from a very young age that stealing is wrong - we aren’t supposed to take what doesn't belong to us. We realize how it feels when someone takes what is ours, so we should learn that just like it hurts us when our belongings are taken against our will, it hurts others when we do that to them. Seems simple enough, right?
But even that motivation is somewhat self-motivated in nature. Being stolen from makes us feel bad, so likewise we shouldn’t do that to others. It’s clear that taking what isn’t ours without the owner’s permission is wrong, but what about our motivation?
Luther’s Small Catechism gives the meaning for this commandment as, “We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” Just as with the other commandments, this meaning starts out with, “We should fear and love God so that…” Our motivation for every action should always be our love for God. Because we love God, we love the people and things He has created and desire to treat them well out of that love.
The other part of that meaning is that we should “help him to improve his possessions and income.” That takes it one step further, doesn’t it? Not only should we not harm our neighbor (which, by the way, is every other person) but we should help them improve what they have!
Let’s say I ask my next door neighbor if I can borrow her lawn mower, and it has a full tank of gas. If I never return it, that’s clearly stealing. If I return it but with no gas in it and it’s filthy, I may tell myself that I didn’t steal it since I did return it, but in reality I did steal some of its value by not replacing the gas I used plus not cleaning my mess. If I return it full of gas and I cleaned it up all nice and shiny, even getting rid of some debris from her previous uses of it, then I have improved it. That’s what this commandment urges us to do.
How are you doing with this commandment? You may have been thinking you’re off the hook on this one since you’ve never shoplifted, but my guess would be we’re all guilty of some kind of stealing.
Stealing comes in more forms than simply taking a possession and not returning it, or taking something from a store without paying for it. We can also steal time from others. If I spend 3 hours telling you a story that I could have told you in 10 minutes, I stole your time. If I play solitaire at work for 8 hours instead of doing the tasks I’m supposed to do, that’s stealing time and money from my boss and the business. If I hear a great idea that someone else came up with and claim it as my own, that’s stealing. If I don’t give to God the money that He’s calling me to give to Him through whatever church or ministry, that’s stealing.
If we were able to love God totally and fully with our whole hearts, we would love Him so much that we wouldn’t desire to take anything (whether time, money, possessions, or anything else) from another person. I encourage you this week to take a look at where you might be stealing from others and therefore from God, and figure out how the Holy Spirit can help you correct that in your life.
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“You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)
Just as with last week’s commandment on not murdering, this one may seem like an easy commandment to follow for some people. If you’re not married and haven’t been romantically involved with a married person, you may think you’re definitely in the clear on this one. Or if you are married and haven’t had an affair with someone else, you may think you’re doing just fine on this. But as we’ll see, the truth of this commandment goes deeper than that.
Jesus elaborates on the meaning of this commandment in Matthew 5:27-30: “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. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
That seems a bit harsh, right? Even looking at a woman (or a man) lustfully means you’ve committed adultery. This commandment is not quite so easy to follow now, especially in our culture today where it seems that so many advertising campaigns are trying to get people to look at others in a lustful manner, just to sell their product.
While we know that breaking any of the commandments is sin and punishable by death (Romans 6:23), we see in the Old Testament that adultery specifically carried that consequence. Leviticus 20:10 says, “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.” Similarly, Deuteronomy 22:22 says, “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.”
Why is adultery, or any sexual sin for that matter, to be dealt with so harshly? All other sins are committed outside a person’s body, while sexual sins are committed inside one’s own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us this: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” For more on this, check out this post or this post.
As with the other commandments I’ve written about so far, I’d like to look at what Luther’s Small Catechism says about this one’s meaning: “We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.” This is a good paraphrase of what we should do, instead of simply hearing what we’re not supposed to do. It all comes back to loving and honoring God and therefore loving and honoring one another - in this case our spouses. To learn more about this, check out what the Bible says about sexual relationships both before marriage and after marriage.
How are you doing at staying pure on this commandment? Are you making intentional steps to keep your eyes away from the things that may cause you to break it? I encourage you this week to look at your life and what you allow yourself to see, and examine where you may be breaking this commandment.
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“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)
This commandment seems pretty straight-forward, right? Don’t kill anyone, and you’ve got this. But is that really all there is to it?
My guess is that the people of Israel thought this commandment was relatively simple to follow, which is why Jesus expounded upon it during His “Sermon on the Mount,” specifically in Matthew 5:21-26. That passage starts out with Jesus saying, “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. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (verses 21-22).
The Hebrew word used here for “murder” is pronounced like ratsah, which sounds very similar to the word raca that Jesus used in that passage in Matthew. Raca is an Aramaic word of contempt or insult. Hebrew and Aramaic are closely-related languages, and these two words are strikingly similar. This Hebrew ratsah has the idea of killing with intention. It’s not an accident that just happened, but the person means to commit this act of murder. Being commanded not to murder is to not have the intention of murdering or harming someone, even with just an insulting word. Hatred of another person can easily lead to wanting to do something about that hatred, which this commandment specifically forbids.
Being told to “not murder” is equivalent to being told to “not be angry” either. While I would guess that the majority of people reading this blog post have not actually killed another human being, how many of us could say that we’ve never been angry with someone else? Now, this commandment is a lot easier to break.
The Bible is clear that we are not to be angry with others in many places besides this commandment. To learn more on what the Bible says about anger, check out this post.
This commandment is brought up multiple other times in Scripture. Jesus quotes it when speaking with the rich young ruler as recorded in Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, and Luke 18:18-25. The Apostle Paul quotes it when discussing how love fulfills the law in Romans 13:8-10. James also writes about this commandment in James 2:8-11 when he talks about what it takes to be a lawbreaker. In addition, John writes, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him” (1 John 3:15), showing that any hatred is equal to murder.
Luther’s Small Catechism gives the meaning of this commandment as, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.” That takes it one step further: don’t just not kill your neighbor and don’t physically hurt your neighbor, but do support your neighbor in their physical needs. There will always be people who can use our help with their physical needs; read more about what the Bible says about caring for the poor among us here and here.
Just as with the other commandments, we should desire to keep this one because of our love for God. Murdering another person shows that we don’t value their life; God values all lives because He created every person in His image. If we love God, we will value what He values: life. Being angry or hateful toward another person is another way of devaluing their life, which is why this commandment extends into that meaning as well. If we truly love God, we will show Him our love by loving others, both with our actions and our intentions.
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“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
The 4th commandment in my series on the Ten Commandments is to honor your father and your mother. The meaning of this commandment according to Luther’s Small Catechism is, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I have fantastic parents! They raised my brother and me in a Christian home, taught us how to live our lives in a right and moral manner, provided well for us, and have always showed us love to the best of their abilities. A couple months ago, my parents came to my aid when I was injured in a motorcycle accident, making the nearly 2-hour drive to and from my house many times just to be with me and help out with whatever I needed. So this commandment may come easier for someone like me than for someone who had parents who didn’t seem to care much about their children. But, God doesn’t tell us to honor our parents only if they honor us as their children; there’s no stipulation on this.
As with all the commandments, why should we do this? Honoring our earthly parents shows that we honor God with our lives. We love God, so we should love our parents too, because He created them and gave us to them as their child. Our parents (even mine) aren’t perfect, but that’s no reason for us to break this commandment; we should honor them no matter what, as difficult as that may be at times.
Every time I ponder this commandment, I recall the Hebrew for it. The word that we translate as “honor” can also be translated as “to make fat” (because fat was a sign of wealth in that culture). It always makes me laugh when I think of this commandment as “Make your father and mother fat”! Clearly that’s not the intended meaning here, but it still makes me giggle because language can be funny.
You’ll notice that Luther’s meaning for this commandment also includes “other authorities.” This commandment doesn’t just apply to our biological parents but also to others in authority over us - grandparents, aunts and uncles, teachers, bosses, government officials, etc. For more on what the Bible says about authorities in our lives, check out this post.
This commandment is known as the only commandment with a promise. This one gives us the result of what will happen when we obey it: “so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” This was especially applicable to the people of Israel since they were journeying toward the Promised Land when they received these commandments from God. That was their goal in life, and they as a people would achieve it if they as individuals respected all of the authorities in their lives.
While you and I are likely not on a many-year journey to a promised land, we can still claim the promise this commandment gives us. When we honor our parents and other authorities in our lives, our lives will be better. Of course there is no guarantee that we will live to be over 100 years old if we honor our parents, but the idea behind it is that our lives will be fulfilling when we honor those around us, and in turn honor God with our lives. When we serve, love, and obey our parents, we serve, love, and obey God.
Do you truly honor your parents and others in authority in your life? What could you change this week to show more honor to those around you and in turn honor God by keeping this commandment?
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“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” This is the third commandment in my series on the Ten Commandments. The meaning of this commandment according to Luther’s Small Catechism is, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”
First of all, what is the Sabbath day? We need to know what it is before we can remember (or honor) it. Fortunately, the text from Exodus 20 above gives us a good explanation of it. The Sabbath day is the 7th day of the week; we work 6 days, and then we rest for 1 day (verses 9-10). The Jewish people generally consider Saturday to be the Sabbath, but most Christians consider the Sabbath to be Sunday, to honor the day that Jesus rose from the dead. The specific day that is the Sabbath is much less important than the meaning of this commandment, so don’t get too hung up on exactly when it is.
Also in the text, we see the reason for this commandment: because God did it (verse 11). Genesis 1 tells us of all the work God did during the six days of Creation, and Genesis 2:1-3 tells us how He rested after it was all completed: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
When we observe this commandment, we are honoring God by imitating what He did. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all, right? We show God how much we love Him by setting aside a day for Him, so that we can rest from the labor of this world and honor Him for a day. The commandment is very specific too, in that it instructs all people to rest from their labors, not just the head of the household. Even the animals who work should take a Sabbath day!
But how do we observe the Sabbath in today’s culture? It’s definitely difficult, especially when our culture seems to be against this concept. Part of observing the Sabbath is what Luther referred to above: hearing the preaching of God’s Word and learning from it. Attending a church service is one way to honor God on our Sabbath day each week.
For many people in our culture, we have a 5-day work week instead of 6 days, so we get 2 days off from our paid labors. But what do we often do with those weekend days? We fill them with all the things we didn’t get done during the week, going to sporting events, running errands, cleaning the house, etc. While these things are not inherently bad, are we really focusing on God when we do them? Probably not. Are we resting from our labors and holding God as sacred in those times? Again, probably not.
What does a Sabbath day look like? It doesn’t mean you spend the entire day sitting around twiddling your thumbs and thinking about God, but perhaps it’s a time of fellowship with other believers. Perhaps it’s spending more time than usual in prayer, reading the Bible, or worshipping God through music. Perhaps it’s a day to just take things at a slower pace and do what energizes and relaxes you, so you’re less focused on the things of this world and more focused on God and what He created you to enjoy. Perhaps it means preparing extra meals or doing extra housework the day before so you don’t have to do those tasks on your Sabbath.
What would need to change in your life if you were to observe a true Sabbath day? Just as with all the commandments, we should desire to keep this one to show how we honor God with our whole lives, every day of the week.
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“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7)
This week, we’re looking at the second commandment in my series on the Ten Commandments: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. According to Luther’s Small Catechism, this commandment means that, “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”
But what does that mean? As we’ll see in the coming weeks, Luther’s meanings for these commandments basically all start with “We should fear and love God so that…” When I had to memorize the commandments and their meanings in grade school, I appreciated that part because it was always the same! Now, however, I see the meaning behind that: all of these commandments are not simply to control our behavior, but rather so we can express our fear (awe or reverence) and our love toward God. By obeying these commandments, we show God how much we respect and love Him.
This is especially notable with this particular commandment, regarding not misusing the name of God. A person’s name is linked closely to their reputation, so a name is very important. Have you ever met someone with the same name as a celebrity? Even before you get to know that person, you may think they’re just like that famous person with the same name, whether that’s good or bad. We name so many things in our lives because it helps us organize them, categorize them, or refer to them. We name our pets, and we even name our vehicles in my family (my little yellow hatchback is named Tweety, for example).
Names often tell us something about the identity of a person, especially in the Bible. God has many names in the Bible, and His names tell us about who He is. The first name for God that we see in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim in Hebrew. Elohim is the majestic name for God, since He is our majestic, awesome Creator. This particular name for God tells us something about who He is. In Hebrew, Elohim is a plural noun, but it’s always used with a singular verb, which doesn’t happen anywhere else in the Hebrew language. This shows us the triune nature of God - He is three persons in one God.
Another name for God is Yahweh, which is not really a word at all in Hebrew (see this post for more on that). When reading in Hebrew, the word we see as Yahweh, we generally pronounce as “Adonai,” which means Lord or master. This name of God is unpronounceable, because God is so amazing we can never fully understand Him or fully know His identity. Many Jewish people would pronounce that name of God as “Hashem,” which literally means “the name” in Hebrew (but always sounds like a sneeze to me).
So, God commands us to not misuse His name because His name is so important. We show our respect, love, and reverence for Him by treating His name with the utmost respect. Slandering a person’s name will harm their identity and their life, and the same is true with God. How we treat His name is how we treat God. When others see us treating God’s name with respect and not misusing it
But what exactly is misusing God’s name? Some examples are given in Luther’s explanation of this commandment above: “we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name.” Yes, saying “God d*mn it” or even saying “Oh my God” (unless you’re praying to Him) is misusing God’s name and breaking this commandment. Swearing on God’s name is too. Even lying or deceiving someone else with God’s name attached to it is misusing His name.
Swearing may not seem like a big deal in our culture today, but just because many people do it doesn’t make it right in God’s eyes. If you truly desire to follow Jesus Christ with your life, I encourage you to stand out from the crowd and honor God by honoring His name in your speech.
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“And God spoke all these words: ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:1-3)
As I wrote about last week, I’ll be spending the next couple months taking a look at each of the Ten Commandments and what they mean for us today. Today we’ll take a look at the first commandment, which simply put is, “You shall have no other gods.”
Growing up in the Lutheran church and going to a Lutheran school, I had to memorize much of Luther’s Small Catechism. Not only did I need to learn the commandments, but also their meanings according to Martin Luther. For this commandment, the meaning is simple: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That may be simple to memorize, but it’s VERY difficult to live!
Having another god is not just bowing down to a statue of an idol or something like that; every time we put any little thing above God in any way, we’re breaking this commandment. If I trust in the government to take care of me rather than putting my trust in God, I’ve broken this commandment. If I spend more time focusing on my phone and social media instead of reading the Word, I’ve broken this commandment. If I consider another person (even my spouse) to be more important in my life than God, I’ve broken this commandment. Any little thing we put more importance on in our lives than God is breaking this commandment.
In the original Hebrew text, this commandment can be translated more literally as, “It will not be for you to have any other gods upon My face.” It’s a common expression in Hebrew to say “upon my face” instead of saying “before me” or “in front of me.” Last week, I mentioned a book called God’s Brushstrokes, written by my friend Preston Hunteman. I want to share a section of his analysis of this commandment, as it gives a great picture of how we break this one:
An example for this is a beautiful hand painted mural. A man looked at the mural and thought, “Surely I can put something there that is more pleasing to the eye.” The man then took a hammer and hit a nail into the mural. He proceeded to hang his picture upon the nail. The nail punctured the mural, but the new picture hid the face of the mural. Every time that man looked upon his picture he did not see the mural. That man admired his work more than the art that was on the mural.
The mural, in this allegory, is God’s face. The man is us. We all have the choice to hang a picture on the mural. We can hang as many pictures up as we want. Each picture is a ‘god,’ something we admire and worship instead of worshiping the only true God. The nail is our stubbornness, our ‘I know best’ attitude toward God. Our God is merciful and gracious. God never tells us to take down our pictures and to take out our nails. We have the choice to do so. When we take down the picture we have admitted that we did wrong. The nail is still in the mural until we fully repent, then the nail comes out. The nail is the hardest thing to pull out of the mural. When we pull that nail out we then must let go of that nail, before God can come and fix the hole. God fills all the holes with grace, and then we are truly forgiven of putting our gods before His face.
As you can see, this commandment is one we all break, many times a day. If you claim you don’t break this one, then you’re not being truthful (1 John 1:8). But fortunately for us, Jesus, who is God, came to this earth in human form, lived a perfect life including never ever breaking this commandment, died, and was raised so that we might be forgiven from all of our sin when we repent of it (1 John 1:9). We know that we will break this commandment, as hard as we may try not to. But praise God that because of our faith in Jesus and the grace that He gives us, we may be forgiven!
What kind of pictures are you putting up over the mural of God in your life? What things do you place your trust in, rather than trusting in God above all else? Consider that as you go about your day and your week.
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The Ten Commandments, given by God through Moses to the people of Israel, are a foundational piece of the Old Testament and the history of Israel. Even though they were given a few thousand years ago, these laws that God wrote for His people are still very much applicable today. Over the next few months, I’ll be taking a look at each individual commandment, what it means, and why they are still important to followers of Jesus today.
To start this series, I’d like to give some background on the commandments. The commandments are found in the passage of Exodus 20:1-17:
And God spoke all these words:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Honor 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 neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The commandments are also repeated nearly verbatim in Deuteronomy 5:1-21, with some additional intro text. If you’re curious on the differences between these two passages and other analysis of the commandments, I’d highly recommend you check out the book God’s Brushstrokes, written by my friend and a former student of mine, Preston Hunteman.
When I was growing up in the Lutheran tradition, I learned the commandments in this way:
- You shall have no other gods.
- You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
- Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
It wasn’t until I was attending seminary about ten years ago that I learned how other Christian traditions number them differently. Some combine what I knew to be #9 and #10 together, while adding in a different #2: “You shall not make for yourselves any idols.” The same ideas are still present, as having no other gods implies not making any idols. At the time, I was surprised to see that traditions disagree on the numbering, but at the same time it’s also not a surprise given the variety of other disagreements between denominations and such. As I go through these, I’ll be using the order listed above.
When the Israelites received the commandments, they had already been wandering in the wilderness. They were camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, and Moses went up on the mountain to speak with God (Exodus 19). While Moses is relaying the commandments to the people in this passage, he’s sharing what God told him, so these commandments are from God.
In the Hebrew text, this passage is less than 200 words - pretty amazing when you consider that this is God’s foundational law that united a nation! Prior to this, they were related through family lines, but their nation didn’t have much unity. They had left Egypt as a freed people, but without any real structure to their nation. These commandments defined their morality, gave them unity, and provided a way of living that would help them live together as God’s people.
But what about us? Most of us reading this post today would not consider ourselves part of the nation of Israel, and our nations already have laws that govern what we should and should not do. You’ll notice, however, that many of our nation’s laws are based on these commandments from God. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to live at a higher standard than the world. While some of the laws overlap (to not murder, for example), others such as having no other gods call us to a higher standard of living. We are called to follow God first and foremost, and these commandments are great guidelines to follow in doing that.
The other important factor is that we are living under grace, not the law. The people of Israel were required to follow these laws, and their favor in God’s eyes was based on that to some extent. We, however, recognize that we will break these laws, and we have faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who died so that we can be forgiven when we mess up and are unable to follow all of God’s laws. Because we love God and desire to follow Him, we desire to follow these laws, but Jesus’ sacrifice has offered us forgiveness for when we can’t.
I’m looking forward to digging into these commandments with you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
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