The Ten Commandments

"And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Mat 22:35-40)

So here is what God decreed for His people, His Commandments that are valid now as they were then: Deu 5:6-21. The commandments of God tell His people how to live a life that pleases God, and so that it might be well with them and their children after them.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Mat 22:37) How? That's what you find in the First Table (Deu 5:6-16):

1)  "'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "'You shall have no other gods before me. Idolatry is the breaking of the covenant with God; having other gods means following someone else's law instead of God's Law. "For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry." (1Sa 15:23)

2)  "'You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. God's word is to be obeyed, not His picture to be revered.

3)  "'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Don't swear, let your yes be yes, and your no be no (Jas 5:12), but if you do take an oath, be sure to fulfill it (Num 30:2).

4)  "'Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 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, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

[Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.]

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. This does not mean "Gather on Sundays". Sunday worship has nothing to do with the Sabbath command which means what is says and says what it means: Rest.

5)  "'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

If you don't provide for your aging parents but stick them in a nursing home, you are worse than an infidel. (1Ti 5:8) This commandment, like all the others, is directed towards adults, not children.

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Mat 22:39) How? This you find in the Second Table (Deu 5:17-21): 6)  "'You shall not murder. You are not to murder or wish any brother ill, neither in your thoughts nor in practice, and you are not to permit a murderer to threaten the community. Besides, don't kill yourself by any means, also not by living an unhealthy lifestyle.

7)  "'And you shall not commit adultery. This is the equivalent to idolatry - covenant breaking ! Not even in your thoughts are you to stray from the covenant of marriage, just like you are not to stray from the covenant with God in any form or fashion.

8)  "'And you shall not steal. Rather, you are to be attentive to your neighbor's property too. Stealing includes withholding from widow, orphan and stranger within gates the charity they are due, and it also includes giving to the temple instead of to your aging parents (Mat 15:4-9). 9) "'And you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. On the word of two or three witnesses shall justice be done, it is a responsibility (Deu 17:6-7, Heb 10:28). Transgression in either way - that is, not bearing witness to a sin you witnessed (Lev 5:1) or bearing witness to a sin that has not been committed (Lev 19:16- 17, see also Joh 8:3-11) - makes you guilty of the same crime and subject to the same punishment as the one you accuse or protect. 10) "'And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.'” Don't try to talk a wedge between husband and wife, or parents and children, or master and servant, and don't be envious of what your neighbor has.