Exodus 20:12-17 comments: the Ten Commandments, part II

Exodus 20:12 ¶  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 13  Thou shalt not kill. 14  Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15  Thou shalt not steal. 16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Paul reinforces these commandments again for the Christian.

Romans 13:8  Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 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 neighbour as thyself. 10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

The commandment to honor one’s father and mother is interestingly brought up through Paul by the Holy Spirit in the context of family relations.

Ephesians 6:1 ¶  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4  And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Jesus defined verse 13 and clarified it for us showing it to be a reference to killing an innocent person.

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,

This is not a commandment against defending yourself or an innocent third-party from attack.

Luke 22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 36  Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. 37  For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. 38  And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

Adultery, a type of fornication where the marriage vows are broken is very serious to God. Jesus, in the following passage insists that you have committed adultery when you desire to seek after someone other than your spouse, long before any physical action is committed. It would be better if you were to blind or cripple yourself rather than do such a thing.

Matthew 5:27 ¶  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. 29  And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30  And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 31  It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced  committeth adultery. [This sentence should be interpreted as shall marry her that is divorced for any other reason just as James 1:13 should be interpreted with evil at the end of it because the context calls for that understanding and it is not necessary to add the words in the text.]

Of course, sermons can be made about how adultery symbolizes the Hebrew people and the individual Christian holding something other than God in high esteem.

Theft undermines the very basis on which security within any civilization rests; the right of property. Outside of a Buddhist monk and his begging bowl I doubt there is any culture that doesn’t condemn stealing from someone. There will be many regulations regarding theft in the Law explained in more detail. For examples, see Leviticus, chapters 6 and 19.

Bearing false witness, lying to accuse someone falsely, is not only lying but is the most malicious gossip and the most unjust legal proceeding. God called His people not to lie to one another, true.

Leviticus 19:11 ¶  Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.

But, lying to accuse someone falsely played an important part in the actions that resulted in Christ’s crucifixion for our sins.

Matthew 26:57 ¶  And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 58  But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end. 59  Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; 60  But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, 61  And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.

We like to call something gossip when someone tells something true about us when we are not present but the gossip referred to in the Bible is malicious and false.

Coveting something that belongs to someone else is the foundation of stealing. Coveting is also a type of idolatry.

Colossians 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

We have built a very successful culture in America based on coveting. We are never to be satisfied with what we have but to always want more. It is not surprising that the “more” that people of weak or bad character want belongs to someone else. Paul warns us of the dangers.

1Timothy 6:6 ¶  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

This links these commandments together in many ways. Coveting and stealing of the affections of another person’s spouse is theft. In this verse defraud is to rob in context when an employer doesn’t pay you that day for the work you did that day.

Leviticus 19:13  Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

And here, in the following passage, it refers to adultery and fornication in defrauding someone.

1Thessalonians 4:1 ¶  Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. 2  For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. 3  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 4  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; 5  Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6  That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8  He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

Ethics are the standards we ascribe to if we are civilized and morals are our real and everyday actions. If our ethics are no higher than our morals we are a pretty sad lot. These commandments are God’s ethical standard for the Hebrew society, the culture, to live by. They are as true or even more true than any so-called laws of physics. The violation of these commandments almost invariably causes awful consequences. As if you deny that gravity applies to you may result in your breaking a leg of worse if you jump off the roof so stealing, lying, and sexual immorality lead to certain dismal consequences almost all of the time. Someone not being hurt jumping out of a tree does not make gravity a lie any more than someone committing adultery and no one finding out except God makes the commandment false. The damage done sometimes takes years to bear fruit. But you can be certain it will. As preachers say, sin will take you further than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make you pay more than you want to pay. And, to violate one of these commandments is to violate all of them.

James 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

The Ten Commandments are vitally important to understanding the history of Christian nations and terribly important for you to regard in your life. Of course, our inability to keep God’s law is one of the reasons we need Christ so badly and to depend on His righteousness and not our own. If you depended on your righteousness to gain eternal life with God you would be sorely disappointed in your failure.