And God spake all these words, saying,…

Exodus 20, KJV

The ten commandments are a subject that many people are familiar with. When we speak to others, we usually, at one point or another, speak about why we need God in our life. During these types of conversations people usually say that they are good people, and live morally, and isn’t that enough to go to heaven? The answer is NO. Throughout these types of conservations, we usually hear someone that says, “I am good, I have never murdered anyone nor have I ever committed adultery.” This is the reason I have decided to write about the ten commandments. I would like to go into what the word of God says on the ten commandments and to portray how easy it is to actually commit the sins that the ten commandments warn about, transgressing over God’s Law.

Exodus 20: 3-17 (KJV)

1. Thou shall have no other God before Me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 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.
3. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it Holy.
5. Honor thy father and mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shall not murder.
7. Thou shall not commit adultery.
8. Thou shall not steal.
9. Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

1^st Commandment

The first command states that we shall have no other God before the Lord. Which is a simple command, but hard for many to follow. There are a few that read this and say that you can have multiple gods in your life and worship them as well, but that the Lord God must be at the top. It does not mean that – it means that you must not have any other god, that this God, the true God, is the only God you should serve, praise and worship.

This command also reveals the love of God, the love that He has is so strong, so great that He does not want to share it with others. Your love should only be towards Him as the only true God. Why give it to any other false god? If we have a love that expands greater and further then the love of the True God then we are breaking this command about God in our lives. When the Word of God tells us that we must hate our brother or sister, mother or father, this is referring to hate which means you must not love them more than God, causing you to follow them and not God.

We must follow God with all that we have and give Him all our love without holding back. If anyone has ever loved someone else or something else, then they have broken this command in their life. If we prefer to spend more time on electronics, cars, games, clothing, hair, makeup, or jobs, among many others in our life that takes our time away and love from God, then we have broken the first commandment. 

2^nd Commandment

            The second command builds on the first command; the first command states that there should not be any other gods before God, the second commandment builds on the first, saying that you must not have any graven, or otherwise, images that are representative of anything in the heaven, earth or beneath the earth and that you must not worship or bow down to them. There are many religions that have multiple graven sculptures and images that are used in their worship and are considered holy or sacred by those practicing the religion. In the old testament, there were gods/idols/demons that were used by pagan religions, for example: Ashtoreth, Baal, Chemosh, the Golden Calf, Marduk, Horus, Moon gods, Egyptian gods, and Hindu gods. Today, this list even includes the Buddha sculpture and the saints of Roman Catholicism.

We that call ourselves children of God do not praise or worship images of any other false gods or demons or other people. But an image can also be money, shoes, even clothing for all this is an image that we try to be like or conform to or an image of yourself. An image can also be cars or our homes. We believe many times that an image must be a sculpture but an image of worship is what you consistently spend time on, and you are in awe of; what you have or seen, and you give praise and worship to it. If you have ever spent more time on yourself getting ready to go to church then you have spent being at church, giving worship and praise to your God, you need to start realizing that you yourself might be an image and you really are worshipping yourself more than you are God. We need to start realizing where our priorities are and see if we have created an image for ourselves rather than giving all the praise and worship to God.

3^rd Commandment

            The third command builds on the first and second commandments. This command states that we should not take the name of our Lord and God in vain. The first command covers that we should not have any other god, then the second command says we should not have any other graven images of anything to worship or consider our god other than the one true God. The third command states that we should not take the name of the true God in vain (rendering it worthless, useless, empty, insignificant, of no value).

The term “in vain” is to use something in an insignificant way, just as blasphemy means irreverence or using what is holy in an unholy way. We as children of God can not use His name in worthlessness or emptiness – when you hear someone use the name of Jesus Christ as a curse word, that is taking the name of God in vain/blasphemy. Or when you hear people say, “Oh my G**”: this is actually blasphemy. Or even just when you hear them say G**, whenever you use the name of God or Jesus Christ apart from what it stands for, you are using and/or taking the Lord God’s name in vain/blasphemy. When you use Their name, which is holy, apart from the holiness it deserves, it is the same thing again. When you speak the Lord’s name in emptiness or uselessness or irreverence of it, you are using His name in vain/blasphemy.

I believe this is one of the commandments that our generation breaks with the most frequency. Our generation uses these phrases in their everyday lives without realizing that they are breaking God’s command multiple times a day. Let’s be more observant and on guard of our words and what comes out of our mouths. If we do this, we can prevent ourselves from breaking this command.

4^th Commandment

            The fourth commandment speaks of a day of Sabbath that is dedicated to the Lord. Now, in what we call the Old Testament, this was given for them to keep the day holy because of what God had done. It was a day of rest when they were not supposed to work at all. It was a day given for resting, to dedicate a day to the Lord and worship. This day comes from: (1) God’s deliverance from the Egyptian bondage when Israel had no rest (Det. 5:15), and (2) the day of rest after creation. They were not allowed to work, clean the dishes, or make food among many other things that were forbidden to do and if you did any of those things, the punishment was death.

Now, the children of God keep this commandment to keep a day to the Lord in holiness without work. This is done to honor God, but it is also a day that we duplicate what Christ did on earth. We pray for people, help people, tell the word of God to others, and if God heals or does miracles through us it is accepted (unlike during Jesus’ time when performing miracles was seen as working). Overall, it is a day that is given fully to the Lord God and lawful to do good for the Lord.

We need to investigate ourselves and see if we use this day for the Lord our God or if we do not keep it holy and set apart and do what we desire and what we want. I would like to say here in this post that I will not go into the Holy day as Sunday or Saturday (Sabbath). I will discuss this in a future post that will explain this. I would like here for us to realize how simple it is to break the law of this Holy day. We hear many times that “it is Sunday or Saturday let’s go have fun, the day we don’t have to work.” But when we do that, it is not the work of God or holiness. We must clean our lives and consider what is holy in front of God, and what the work of God should be on the day of the sabbath/Holy Day.

5^th Commandment

            Honor your father and mother, says the fifth commandment. If we look at this command, this is the only command that comes with a promise attached to it. The promise that you may have long days on earth. The word “honor” in Greek is at its root meaning to “revere, prize and or value.” In Hebrew, it is “kavod” and the closest word in English would be “dignity.” The fifth commandment basically means to treat your mother and father with dignity (pride, respect).

We need to honor our parents in all ways and forms. This means with respect towards each other; this respect needs to supersede even when you do not agree with what they are saying. This does not mean you can not disagree, but even in disagreement you must be respectful with the way of your tone and attitude while speaking with them. We must deal with them with pride that they are our parents and we must honor that. We do not respond in hatred or by yelling towards them, but we need to control our tone, our words and how we interact with them even in cases of disagreement. This means even when they are gone. We must also take care of them in their elderly stages with care and comfort until they pass.

Furthermore, we must respect what they say and what they have learned. We need to respect their position in life and what they have to say. To give them dignity we must not treat them disgracefully, or by implying that they are unintelligent, we must realize they have lived life and do know about life; we must respect that. I would say this is one of the easiest commands to break, for being children we many times act with the opposite of dignity and respect towards our parents If we have broken a command of God, then we need repentance and to change our ways, including showing respect to our parents if we have not done so until now.

6^th Commandment

            Thou shall not commit murder. Earlier I was saying that when we speak to people this is one of the commandments that they bring up to prove that they are good people because they have never committed murder. Now, does that mean because you kept one out of the nine commandments that somehow you are OK? NO. How can someone say that they’ve broken 90 percent of the commandments, and still assume that they are a good person? Even going by a world view you would be considered a bad person and in front of God even that much more.

The thing is, Jesus says in 1 John 3:15 that if anyone hates a brother or sister, he has already committed murder in his heart. We need to ask ourselves if any one of us have hated a brother or sister or mother or father, which means that, according to God’s standards, we have already broken this law. Most of us have broken even this command many times. I ask those that pride themselves on being good because “they have not murdered” if they ever hated someone, in their hearts, and I always get the same answer, which is “yes.” This means that you have broken even this commandment, which means you have broken 100 percent of the commandments.

I would like us to realize how easy it is to really break this law. If you are reading this now, I would like you to think hard and see if you have done this and, if you have to, go into repentance and ask God for forgiveness for this.

7^th Commandment

            In addition to the sixth commandment above, there is another one that many will say they have not broken. They will say that they have never committed adultery. This means a voluntary act of sexual intercourse that is committed between a married person and a person that is not their spouse. I have heard many say they have never done this. This may be true, that you have not done it physically, but in Matthew 5:28, Jesus says that if anyone looks at someone and lusts after them, they have already committed adultery in their heart. If Jesus says ‘committed’ this means the act has already been done. This means that if anyone of us that lusts after a woman or man, especially if they are married, have already committed adultery in their own hearts according to God’s standards.

When we look at the commandments, we need to look at them according to God’s standards and not the world’s. Just as we discussed on the sixth commandment above, we need to realize that if you have ever looked at someone even in a show, movie, animation, or in real life at school, work, and stores – where ever you may be at – if you have looked at a woman or a man with lust you have committed adultery in front of God and we must ask for forgiveness from our Father in heaven for this action.

8^th Commandment

             Thou shall not steal. The word “steal” can be translated to “take what is not yours, with force, or without being known.” This means anyone that has ever taken something that does not belong to them, it is considered stealing. For younger people, this may include taking candy from the stores or taking money from your parent’s dresser which was not approved and it may even be taking something from school or friends that was not given to you among many other examples. For older individuals, it can still be the same thing as for the youngsters, but maybe even more advanced.

For example, stealing or cheating on your taxes to have a higher income tax credit. Also, adding more time to your timecard than what you worked to make more money. Taking tools from others. Lying on your application for food stamps or other sources of income. You are breaking the moral law of God as well as the secular laws in place for lying and stealing, which makes your acts punishable by both man and God. Furthermore, if a coworker gives you something to “borrow” (pencil, stapler, book, calculator, brushes, tools), to use for a short time while at the workplace, and you never give it back, this is stealing as well; your coworker didn’t give to you to have, but to borrow and if you do not return it, it is stealing. We need to start looking into our lives if we have done any action that has broken the command to not steal. If we have, we need to go in front of God and repent of what we have done.

9^th Commandment

            This command tells us not to bear false witness of our neighbor. The word neighbor here is used to refer to someone near you, that you have interacted with or come across. This can encompass to mean a brother, sister, mother, father, friends, neighbors, coworkers, employees, bosses, and even acquaintances. When we think about our lives as younger children, we most likely, on multiple occasions, said something to our parents that one of our siblings said something or did something, and it was not true. We blame others or say that others said something that was not said or done by them. Most likely, those responses were to make sure that we would not get in trouble and avoid that consequence for lying, cheating, stealing, speaking badly or whatever it could be.

At work, you do something wrong and when the boss asks, instead of saying it was you, you respond back saying it was someone else or you saw some else there during that time. I have realized throughout my life that this command is often abused and broken, even by those that call themselves Christians. We hear the phrase “survival of the fittest,” many times and we take this to mean that we need to say that it wasn’t us or that we didn’t commit something so that we can survive and prosper. But by doing so we have broken another commandment of God by bearing false witness towards someone in our lives or around us. We need to realize that being a child of God we are supposed to be the light and salt to this world and we must repent and ask for forgiveness if we’ve acted in such ways as to break this commandment before.  

10^th Commandment

            The tenth commandment is, in a way, an extension of the ninth; we must not covet (crave, want, desire) what our neighbors have in their possession. This one is especially one that we hear a lot of. In many circles or groups, when people get together, we hear people gossip (yet again another thing we should not do as children of God) about what people have and what they would do if they had that as well. In our world today, we hear many people say, “if you desire it, get it.” In a way, the word “desire” is the word “covet” here meaning, “if you covet it, get it.” The thing is that if we covet after something, we have just broken God’s command.

In this generation, we hear people say, “man did you see that car/house/motorcycle/clothes” and including “did you see that woman/man, wow, I want that too!” Many times, we don’t realize that by this alone we have coveted over our neighbor. At the same time, if you covet your neighbor’s wife/husband you may also be guilty of adultery as well, as coveting for someone’s wife or husband can easily lead into lusting after them as well. I have known and seen people that drive around people’s homes they know just to see what they have because they want it too. Putting it simply, this is coveting over what someone else has, and the tenth commandment tells us not covet over anything they have.

We must become honest with each other and ourselves to make sure we do not break this last, but not least, commandment of God.

Conclusion

            Let’s be honest with ourselves. We like to pretend that we are holy or that we have not broken the commands of God. It is time to examine ourselves, to start cleaning our lives our hearts and become true followers of Christ so that it is visible and seen by others. For a light shines bright and is visible in the dark world today. Salt is what makes everything taste better; it is time for us to be the true salt that people crave and not the one that is despised by some. Allow yourself to shine and give people a taste of Christ. This will only happen if you decide to be honest and truthful with yourself about your life and, if you have broken these commandments, that you stand up and ask God our Father in heaven for forgiveness. Live a true life of repentance and admission when you have fallen, but even if you fall we must get back up.

          If you’ve read this far, you have seen that it is very easy to break these commands of God’s. It is something that we see daily in others and possibly even in ourselves. It is time for us to stand firm and live in the Spirit of God because if He dwells in you, the fruits of the Spirits and its works will be visible in your life and around you. When you and I live in this Spirit, people will crave what you have: that love, peace, joy, kindness, and self-control among many others. By living this way, the light in us will shine and we will be the salt that people crave.