The Tenth Commandment

This is the last of the Ten Commandments. This series has taken me a bit longer than I anticipated it would, but I also did not want to just hit each of the 10 commandments in a row. I wanted to give each of you time to meditate on the commandments individually as well. I hope you were able to take some time and meditate on each of these and try to figure out how each one could be better applied to your life. I know I sure have.

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:17 - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy nieghbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. (KJV)

New Testament:
Romans 7:7 - What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. (KJV)

To covet entails wanting anything that is not yours, from what I understand. That could include anything and everything. We are instructed to not want our neighbor's house, wife (or husband), servants, maids, nor his animals or anything in his house. Who is our neighbor? Our neighbor is anyone. Jesus has instructed us on that many times, saying that a neighbor is anyone who is not family.

To say that we do not want anything another person has is probably not the truth if we are being honest with ourselves. It seems it is human nature to want what another person has, as the saying goes "the grass is greener on the otherside". This does not make it right, but this is something that I think most of us struggle with as we are all human.

As with anything we struggle with, we cannot succeed without God's help. We must rely on His help to obey His commandments. I don't see any other way.

Blessings in Christ,

The Ninth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:16 - Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 19:18 - He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, (KJV)
AND
Romans 13:9 - For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (KJV)

To bear false witness means to testify against someone falsely. Whether we want to say it involves speaking under wrong motives (ie. to retalliate against someone) or to speak a lie about someone, I do not think it matters. Both are wrong. To retaliate is to have hatred towards someone and to hate someone is to murder. To lie about someone is to bear false witness. Both break commandments which we as Christians are instructed to obey. I would consider even leaving "bits and pieces" out of a story to be bearing false witness since the parts left out could change the outcome of the situation.

Just as we are expected to tell the truth in the government's world, we are ordered to tell the truth in God's world.

Blessings in Christ,

The Eighth Commandment

This commandment has given me some problems trying to figure out how to elaborate on what Jesus has said. I am a fairly literal person, taking what has been said near word for word. I do look to definitions of words and try to elaborate that way, but truthfully I was not able to elaborate on this one very much.

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:15 - Thou shalt not steal (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 19:18 - He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, (KJV)
AND
1 Corinthians 6:10 - Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (KJV)

There are a few other places in the NT where we are instructed not to steal and that theives will not inherit the kingdom of God.

What does steal mean? Webster's defines steal as: to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice.

Great treasures says steal is defined as "to steal, take by stealth (not by violence)" -- this is the definition for the greek word for steal.

Just because the greek word for steal does not include taking by use of violence, I do not think that it is allowable. We are taught by Jesus' example to do no harm to anyone. We know that stealing, by both government law and by Biblical law is wrong. Even though sometiems we may think of it as "borrowing and I'll return it later before she notices it's gone", that is still stealing, is it not?

I prefer to think of stealing as taking without permission. That is the definition I grew up knowing and I think even though it is more broad, it is a definition that I will be teaching my children if I am blessed to have any in the future.

If anyone has anything they would like to add to this, as always, your comments and thoughts are welcome :)

Blessings in Christ,

The Seventh Commandment

Lovely spring weather we are having here...it is the very end of March and we had a couple inches of snow dumped on us this afternoon! It wasn't supposed to stick (according to the weather people) but it certainly did stick! Hopefully some of you are having better spring weather than me!

Anyway, I have three more commandments after this one to post on and I am praying I can convey my thoughts in a manner which will be understood.

The seventh commandment...

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 5:27-28 - Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (KJV)
and
Matthew 5:32 - But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause fo fornication, causeth her to commit adulter: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (KJV)

To me, this commandment is stated rather clearly...at least knowing that if you lust after a woman that it is considered adultery (or lusting after a man if you are a woman). But, what is considered lust? I do not consider lust to include the comments of "I like her hair" or "I like her smile", but that is my conviction. I get stuck on is that little skip of your heart lusting? In some ways I think it is, but in another way I'm not sure. It's kind of a natural reaction when you see someone who you are interested in. If this person is married then yes, I think that is considered adultery. But if the person is single? I'm not sure. How do we stop these natural reactions from happening? The commentary in my Bible says that Jesus did this to take the listener's attention off the physical and onto the spiritual side of a person. It seems that we would need to take our eyes off the physical image of a person and put it on their spiritual image and if we do that then there is less of a chance for us to fall into lust with someone.

An easy thing to say would be if all women would dress modestly then the men would be able to keep pure thougths easier. I agree with this, but is it realistic? In our society today, no I don't think so. I think it is wonderful when women respect their bodies enough to dress modestly and want to help the men stay pure, but unfortunately, not all women think this way. How would we train up our boys (and girls) to not lust after another person? Teaching them the right kinds of people to share company with would be a wonderful way to begin. Also, we must teach them that they should not get to know someone physically until they have married, but rather get to know the person on a spiritual and emotional level first. These are the two levels that will help them to understand if the relationship will work or not.

I do not think we can get rid of lust all together, but as with any sin, we must strive to avoid it and rely on God to help us keep away from it knowing full well that He will forgive us if we sin and ask for forgiveness.

There is another verse in Matthew that discusses adultery. The Bible also states in Matthew 5:32 that anyone who divorces, except for biblical reasons -- the only reason given is fornication, causees their spouse to commit adultery. And furthermore, if he himself remarries while his wife is still alive, he commits adultery as well! To me, this verse is pretty plainly stated...divorce results in adultery which is sin.

Now do I belive that someone who divorced and remarried and is now saved should divorce their current husband? I don't think that's for me or anyone besides God to say. That is for the couple to pray about. I don't necessarily believe that they should divorce just to escape that sin, because then they would both be living in sin once again. If I were in that situation, I would rely on Jesus' forgiveness and follow what I feel He is leading me to do. It's a tough decision and a touchy topic so if I have offended anyone I do apologize and ask for forgiveness, that was not my intention.

Blessings in Christ,

The Sixth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:13 - Thou shalt not kill (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 5:21-22 - Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (KJV)
*It is sidenoted in my Bible that "kill" in v. 21 means murder and in v. 22, Raca literally means "empty head".

It is easy for most of us to not kill someone, and as long as we do not kill anyone then we are following this commandment...but according to the New Testament, that is not the case. Jesus expanded on this commandment. We must now in addition to not literally killing anyone, we have to control our anger towards our brothers and sisters. If we get angry with a brother or a sister for no reason, then we have broken the sixth commandment.

Keeping our anger under control is more difficult for more of us than simply not killing someone. How do we control our anger? The most important part to this is prayer. Before we rush to anger, we should stop, take a deep breath and whisper a prayer for the ability to stop the anger brewing inside of us dead in its tracks. For some people this will be the end of it for that episode, but for others they will need to continue to keep praying for the strength and ability to let their anger go.

What if our anger is "justified" as we see it? Like we have a reason to be angry (maybe someone caused us harm in one way or another). Well, we need to forgive that person and when we forgive then we will be able to be released from the grasp of anger.

Blessings in Christ,

The Fifth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:12 - Honor thy father and they mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (KJV)

New Testament:
Matthew 19:19 - Honor thy father and they mother... (KJV)
Jesus says this commandment in the section where the young ruler came to Him and asked Him what good thing shall he do that he may have eternal life. After this question, Jesus said to keep the commandments and the young ruler asked which. Jesus recited six of the 10 commandments to this young ruler.

Honoring our fathers and mothers seems like it should be a simple command. But how do we really honor them (in God's eyes)? Is it listening to what our parents say? If that is the case then there are many instances where I have gone wrong, but if I had listened to what my parents had said, in some of those cases I would be going against what I felt led to do by God. Who is more important? In my opinion, God is.

Paul says several times throughout his letters Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise (Ephesians 6:1-2 KJV).

This is one that I definitely need to continue to work on. Even though I no longer live under my father's roof, I still respect my mom and dad and want to make them proud of me, but to me, there is a balance between making them proud/honoring them, and doing what I feel led to do. I also would like to stick in there my happiness, but does that make me selfish? To want to be happy and enjoy what I am doing with my life? In some ways I do think so because I may be putting my wants before what both God and my parents want for me, but in other ways, the happier I am with what I am doing, the easier it is to be a good Christian to others. Maybe it's not always supposed to be easy to be a good Christian, but I don't think it should be hard to be one all the time.

As much as most people want to honor their parents, honoring our parents is harder than it seems like it would be at times, but it is something which we all must strive to do since Jesus commanded we do.

Blessings in Christ,

The Fourth Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:8 - Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (KJV)

New Testament:
Mark 2:27-28 - And he said unto them, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (KJV)

This is the one commandment that some Christian "scholars" say today's Christian's do not keep. In reading their reasoning, I understand. The sabbath is the Jewish term for the 7th day, if we think about it, the 7th day of the week (as most commonly recognized by people today) is Saturday. However, we should look at it as keeping the Lord's day holy. Most Christians now-a-days have service on Sunday and would consider that the Lord's day. This practice fell into place (from what I understand) based off the principle that Jesus rose on the 3rd day and we know that He was crucified on a Friday so the 3rd day would put it to Sunday.

We know that Jesus healed on the Sabbath saying Is it lawful to do good ont he sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? (Mark 3:4 KJV). The Pharisees later plotted against Jesus trying to figure out how to destroy Him because of His actions (Mark 3:6), but Jesus kept on healing those who needed to be healed whether it was the Sabbath or not.

How does one go about keeping the Lord's day holy? Most likely that would include fellowship with like minded believers. But what kind of work is prohibited on Sundays? I know some groups where cooking is not allowed so the women will prepare Sundays meals on Saturday. Most people would agree doing laundry would be considered work, but some go as far as not allowing wash to be hanging out on the line on a Sunday. I was told by someone that anything we could do on another day of the week, we should refrain from doing on Sundays. I believe the gentleman who told me this was meaning to not fuel up cars, not do house chores, not work at a job, and other things like that, but he had no objections to a woman cooking on a Sunday.

What types of activities would be allowed? A lot of churches near where I live would go with fellowship and napping :) I myself am not one for naps, although I have found myself enjoying one every couple weeks, so I will often sew, read a book, play a game or work on a puzzle. Things that I do not generally have time for during the week...however, as I mentioned before, if I begin to feel frustrated with anything, I will stop because I do not feel that an activity in which I become frustrated is one to be done on Sundays. With the spring and summer months coming upon us rather quickly now, I may also take a walk and just enjoy God's creations :)

How do you keep the Lord's day holy? Is there any work that you would believe to be okay and allowable on the Lord's day?

Blessings in Christ,

The Third Commandment

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:7 - Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (KJV)

New Testament:
1 Timothy 6:1 - Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worth of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. (KJV)
AND
Matthew 5:33-34 - Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: (KJV)

As with all scripture, this part definitely deserves mediation in order to find what God is directing you to do. Is He simply saying do not use my name except in prayer or prophesying? Or is He saying do not say "common" phrases that include "God" or "Lord" in them? I guess maybe these two are the same? Because if you are using His name in vain then you are not using it to promote Him and His wonderful Word that He left us with.

Then what about the swearing of oaths that is discussed in the New Testament? In following verses it is stated to let our "yays" be "yays" and "nays" be "nays"... I think it means that instead of saying "I swear" that we say "yes" or "no" depending on what is being asked of us. The most common example that I can think of this is if anyone has had to testify in a court of law, rememer the oath that they have you take before heading up to the witness stand? That is it :) But, in many places they have an "affirmation" that they will give you instead of the "oath" if you say something beforehand about it being for religious reasons why you will not take the "oath". This may not be offered in all places yet, but as far as I know, it is offered in many.

Blessings in Christ,

The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment :)

Old Testament:
Exodus 20:4 - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (KJV)

New Testament:
1 Corinthians 10:14 - Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. (KJV)

There are numerous mentions in scripture of the second commandment in the New Testament. I think the second commandment is where I got the word "idols" that I had mentioned during my post on the first commandment. But I don't think that idols would be an inappropriate word instead of gods either for the first commandment. Anyway... I digress :)

I believe that the second commandment is expounding on the first commandment. I believe that God is reiterating his point on not having anything before Him. What would constitute a graven image? As most of us know, the Amish (the more conservative groups) believe this would include pictures. There are some who would simply say that posed pictures would be graven images while non-posed pictures would be okay, and there are others who would say any picture at all would be a graven image. Other groups of Christians would say this would mean anything that we would worship or other groups of people would worship -- an elephant or buddha for the Buddhists. And still yet, some would say this means pictures or images of what we would believe Christ to be like. This last part would link in with the pictures of "heaven above"...but I would also say that it would include pictures of what we imagine heaven might be like. The "earth beneath" part would imply that we should not paint pictures of what hell might look like.

My stance on the "graven images" portion of this verse is that photographs would be allowed AS LONG AS we do not worship these images. The moment we begin to worship images/photographs instead of Christ Jesus, they should be removed from our lives until we can re-focus back on the Lord. As for pictures of heaven and hell, I prefer those remain part of my imagination (as for the looks because we know from scripture what each place will be like) and not until I die will I know for sure what either place would be like. I was raised in a church that did have a crucifix hanging at the front, do I believe it is right? According to this scripture verse, no, but growing up I thought it to be "normal". Anyway, I think that all the crucifixes and the pictures of Jesus are made up because the Bible does not describe Jesus physically. It simply describes His personality and other characteristics about Him, but none physically. I think we will all be surprised as to how Jesus looks when we reach heaven... and until then, we should leave it to our imaginations :)

Blessings in Christ,

The First Commandment

I have been debating on doing a series on the 10 Commandments. I like this idea and have had it on my mind for a few months now, but I fear that I will not be able to draw out enough on them to make the posts more than just a statement. So for now, I will start on this series, but I am not sure for how long I will continue it and if I will cover all 10 Commandments or pick a few.

I was told a little while back, a little over a year, that as Christians, we do not follow the 10 Commandments because they are only listed in the Old Testament and as Christians, we do not abide by the Law of the OT since we believe that Jesus was sent to save us from our sins. I was shocked by this, but I came to realize that even though this gentleman who was telling me this was a Conservative Mennonite (yes that is right...) that he was the only one who I had heard this from! I have since attended several other Conservative Mennonite churches and the majority of them have the 10 Commandments displayed in their church house somewhere!! Anyway, I hope my side rant can shed a little bit of light onto why I feel led to discussing each one.

In doing a little bit of research before I started writing this post, I found an interesting article saying that Christians today only obey 9 of the 10 commandments...the one we do not keep is the 4th commandment. Now enough of me getting ahead of myself :)

The First Commandment:
Exodus 2:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (KJV)

In the New Testament, this command is worded as:
Matthew 4:10 - Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (KJV)

This seems like a straight forward command, right?? Growing up, I used to take "gods" as the gods from mythology, so the god of rain, the god of sun, etc, and that was it.

Now as I look at it, one thing I noticed right off the bat is "gods" is not capitalized... So what constitutes a "god" in this sense? I think god can be anything really. It includes the gods from mythology and anything else! To me, this commandment means that we should not worship anything or anyone before we worship GOD.

What if we were to change "gods" to "idols" (as some versions have), would this change the meaning of the verse for you? In a way, I think "idols" may make it easier to realize all that was being included in the verse here. Idols can vary from so many different things/people, athletes, to musicians, to statues, etc. The list is endless. I believe each and every one of these things or people would be included in what is worded as "gods".

Do you have anything to add? I am always open to new ideas. If you have anything you would like added to one of the remaining commandments, please share and I will add it in :)

Blessings in Christ,