The Ten Commandments: Do You Know Them?

The Ten Commandments

I have taken these from Exodus 20: 3-17.

I have presented them in my own way in the first section (the comments in parenthesis are mine).  The following listing, below my comments, is taken from the NKJV (New King James Version) of the Bible.

1. No Gods (in place of the God revealed in the Bible)
2. No idols (nothing that takes first place in your affections ahead of the God of the Bible)
3. No blasphemy (i.e. using any of God’s names carelessly or as a swear word or expletive of any sort)
4. Remember the Sabbath (for me, after a lifetime of reflection, this has exclusive reference for the believer to the ‘rest of faith’  discussed in Hebrews 4:1-13 and specifically stated in verse 10 in these words, ‘For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.’  These ‘works’ are all attempts at achieving salvation through personal effort.  Paul stated it this way, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is  the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast.’  Ephesians 2:8-9.  So, we can say the 4th Commandment may be stated  this way: ‘Remember, God is my Sabbath/salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.  Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’ Isaiah 12:2-4
5. Honour your parents (honour means to have respect for, and be respectful of, ones parents)
6. No murder (society is held accountable by God, the supreme judge, for administering justice to the murderer)
7. No adultery (God takes unfaithfulness very seriously as it is a breach of promise and a cause of much pain and dislocation in society)
8. No stealing (theft is again very serious in its implications for disquiet and disharmony in any civilised society)
9. No lying (all prevarication is lying; dishonesty in any form is prohibited and is sin; so called ‘white’ lies are still lies.  Honesty and truthfulness are a challenge to us all.  It is interesting and instructive that God spoke these words of Himself through the lips of Balak the prophet, ‘God is not a man that He should lie…” Numbers 23:19
10. No coveting (when we fail to discipline our envy and jealousy for other people and their possessions it induces a corrosion of spirit that causes great damage to our inner selves and opens the door to all the other evils listed here)

It is worth noting that this particular list of prohibitions may be categorised thus:

• Commandments 1, 2, 3, are all to do with God.

• Commandment No 4 is to do with both God and man. It is the salvation commandment.  God is our Sabbath, our salvation.  We can develop this further by reflecting that God our Saviour affected our salvation by becoming, Himself, the sacrifice for the broken law, which is what sin is -the breaking of the law.  This we are all, without exception, guilty of.  ‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’.  Romans 3:23.  But God, in His great mercy, took our place, was punished instead of us, of me, and finally died accepting upon Himself the full punishment for the broken law.  He is my Sabbath.  He is my rest.  I can accept, by faith, His sacrificial death on my behalf and be forgiven for breaking the law, these ten commandments, and go gloriously free.  Further, He gives me the gift of justification.  This is a legal term that means I am justified, or literally ‘made righteousness’.  It is as if I’d never sinned.  ‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…‘  Romans 5:1

• Commandments 5 through 10 are all to do with man.  They are social laws -and we have all broken them, without exception.  We are guilty before God.  We have most certainly broken some or all of the first three as well, and if you haven’t trusted God for salvation, the 4th likewise.  The just punishment for breaking just one of these laws, and we are all guilty many times over of many of them, is eternal separation from God for ever in the Lake of Fire, Gehenna. Let me remind you that ten out of ten people die.  If you don’t ask God to forgive you for breaking His law now, you risk losing everything.  It’s exactly like knowing the plane your flying in is going to crash very shortly.  You don’t exactly know when, but you know it will.  The smart thing is to put the parachute on now.  Don’t wait around.  Don’t put it off. Do it now.  Make sure of eternal life.  Certainly, there will be times when the parachute will feel uncomfortable, even embarrassing.  Who cares?  It will save your life.  When your moment of departure comes, when the body crashes, dies, stops working, you will have the wonderful assurance of peace with God and the promise of eternal life.  This is the Most Important Thing in the World.

Below are the ten commandments again from Exodus stated as the Bible states them.  Ponder them carefully and thoughtfully with the thoughts I’ve shared above in mind.  May God Bless you with the faith to trust Him with all your heart, mind and soul for the salvation that only He can, and has, provided.

1. “You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol 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 fathers 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.
3. You shall not misuse (blaspheme, take in vain, use loosely or as a swear word) the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
4. 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  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.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
6. 6. You shall not murder.
7. 7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. 8. You shall not steal.
9. 9. You shall not give false testimony (lie) against your neighbor.
10. 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.”

We All Need To Be Sure of Eternal Life