The Ten Commandments Part 2

Day one hundred thirty-two

There are days when I just lack motivation and this is one of them.  It was not a restful night at our house and I was feeling it this morning.  I just wanted to stay in bed and sleep some more, but the mom in me couldn't let my boys leave for school without visiting with them first.  I look forward to seeing them in the morning and making sure that they know that I love them before they go off and start their busy day.  Love is a powerful motivator.  And that is why I say my prayer every morning, because I love the Lord.  He has blessed and loved me so well that, like my morning visits with the boys, I look forward to my morning prayer with my Father.  I take the opportunity to thank Him for all He has given me and to share what is going on in my life.  Then to ask Him for the help that I have come to count on.  Needless to say after my prayer this morning I was feeling a little more motivated, He has a way of helping me with that!


Exodus 20 continued

Yesterday I focused on the first four commandments which dealt with our relationship with God.  Today I want to share what I learned about the last six commandments,  which deal with our relationships with other people:

Honour thy father and thy mother (Exodus 20:12).

• Purpose:  Establishes the importance of the family in the sight of the Lord
• "In obedience to this law the family unit and all other parts of society remain stable and healthy." (Old Testament Institute Manual)

Let’s face it, there aren’t that many children who hold their parents in high regard. Too often,  mom and dad are seen as obstacles to be overcome rather than wise guides to be followed and emulated. In this commandment, God lays down a principle for life that will determine how every relationship around you will turn out. The home is the foundational institution of society. No nation, or community of people, is stronger than the family structure that makes them up. As goes the home, so goes the nation, the community, the church, etc.

In the home, God has established an order that is to be strictly followed. There is a husband/father, a wife/mother, and their children.  Each has a part to fulfill, head of household, helpmeet, and learner and when they do their best to include God in their part, then the home will be blessed and will be a blessing to all those involved in it.

Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13).

• Purpose:  To recognize the sanctity of life.
• “One of the most serious of all sins and crimes against the Lord’s plan of salvation is the sin of murder or the destruction of human life. It seems clear that to be guilty of destroying life is the act of ‘rebellion’ against the plan of the Almighty by denying an individual . . . the privilege of a full experience in this earth-school of opportunity." (Harold B. Lee, in “The Sixth Commandment,” Part 1, The Ten Commandments Today, p. 88.)

One American is shot, stabbed, beaten, or strangled to death every minute. It seems that no matter where you turn in our society, or even our world, there are murders. It’s on the television and in movies as fiction. It’s on the streets and next door as a brutal reality. With a murder rate of 10 in every 100,000, your chances of being murdered are far greater than your chances of dying in an airplane or automobile crash.  More importantly, murder is a crime against God.
When someone takes a life they are stepping into God's territory.  He decides when a person enters and exits this life, not us.


God’s plan calls for us to show unconditional love (Matt. 33:37-39), and absolute forgiveness of others (Eph. 4:32).  If more emphasis was placed on these actions, then there would be no desire to kill.
 
Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

• Purpose:  To recognize the sanctity of intimacy.
• “The covenant of marriage, this sacred thing which was to go on eternally, was the heavenly institution which God provided under which his mortal children on earth were to reproduce themselves. There should be no human sex relationship outside of marriage."  (Mark E. Petersen, in “The Seventh Commandment,” Part 1, The Ten Commandments Today, pp. 104–5.)

We live in a time when sexuality, and the expression of it, are rampant in our society. Sex is found on the television, in magazines, on billboards. You name it, in this society, sex sells and it seems to be what people like, because no one stands against the tide of blatant sexual expression that is all around us. If our society were somehow found by researchers from a distant time, they would without a doubt agree that this is a society obsessed with sex!

Humans are sexual beings! Scientists tell us that our sex drive is virtually equal to our will to live. This is not a bad thing. We are this way because God has made us this way. He designed man with a sexual desire. When God made man, His first command to mankind was for them to multiply. Now, we all know how human reproduction is carried out. Therefore, we find that God has made man a sexual being. However, our sexuality has been corrupted by sin!

Adultery is a very destructive act, it damages your relationship with your spouse, yourself, society, and God. It is an act against the sacredness of marriage covenants and as we see in the divorce rates of our society it has the ability to affect the lives of those involved for generations. So many lives could be blessed if people would show the self-restraint and dedication needed to strengthen their marriage, instead of tearing it down.    

Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15).

• Purpose: To learn to respect other's property.
• “To all thievery's and dishonest acts, the Lord says, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ Four short common words He used. Perhaps He wearied of the long list He could have made of ways to steal, misrepresent, and take advantage, and He covered all methods of taking that which does not properly belong to one by saying, ‘Thou shalt not steal.’” ( "A Report and a Challenge," Ensign, Nov. 1976, p 6.)

Millions of dollars are lost every year in this country over the theft of goods and services. One estimate says that 1 out of every 52 shopper’s carries something out of the supermarket for which they haven’t paid. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 4 million people are caught shoplifting every year. But for every one caught, 35 others get away with it. This means that there are over 140 million incidents of shoplifting every year in America! What’s really tragic is that only 10% of all shoplifters come from low incomes. 70% are middle class and 20% are classified as wealthy.


God has authorized two primary methods by which people can legitimately increase their possession: As a reward for work or by the reception of a gift.  Any other way is considered stealing.  So how do we stop people from stealing?  The answer to that question is more than arrests and jail time, it will take a change of heart.


Thou shalt not bear false witness (Exodus 20:16).

• Purpose: Learning to control One's tongue.
• “To bear false witness is to testify to or to pass along reports, insinuations, speculations, or rumors as if they were true, to the hurt of a fellow human being." (Old Testament Institute Manual).

Few people realize the awesome, destructive power of the human tongue.  Because of a miss-spoken word, homes have been divided, reputations shattered and lives literally destroyed and even ended.  That is an awful lot of power we hold in our mouths.  The words we say can bless or bruise, heal or hurt, love or lambast.  It all depends on how we use it.


God says that we must never be guilty of lying about our neighbor thereby causing him to suffer.  We are exhorted to always be truthful and absolutely honest when dealing with another person.   It is important that we understand that every time we speak of another, we literally hold that person's reputation in our hands.


Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17).

• Purpose: To learn to appreciate what we have.
• "The earth holds plenty for all—and the urge to acquire for ourselves such good things as other men have is a productive quality of character—provided that we acquire them by honest effort, by lawful means, and by keeping life well-balanced. The danger comes when mere ‘things’ begin to matter too much.” (Richard L. Evans, in “The Tenth Commandment,” Part 1, The Ten Commandments Today, p. 142–44.)

While breaking all the rest of the Commandments has its origin in the heart and mind of man, they all find their ultimate expression in some type of physical activity.  This Commandment is different.  Whereas there is usually some evidence of breaking the other nine Commandments, it is not so with this Commandment. As a result, this is a sin that is rarely, if ever confessed and owned up to. In truth, we are all guilty, we just won't admit it to ourselves, others, or the Lord. Of all the Commandments listed, this is probably the one most often broken and the one that will most readily cause you to break the other nine.


Covetousness has been a problem as long as man has been in this world. It is still a problem in our time, men still want that which isn't theirs.  It makes men greedy, it denies God's laws, but worst of all, it demonstrates a lack of faith. When we lack the faith that God will bless us, we put the Lord in second place  which is never good (see Commandment number 1).


Our problem is not that we have too little, nor is it that we possess too much. Our problem is that we want more than we need. Epicurus wrote: "If you want to make a man happy, add not to his possessions, but take away from his desires."  


This post took a lot of work and I only included a small part of what I learned! I'm not sure how much others will get out of it, but for me it cemented that these are more than just 10 suggestions that the Lord put out there for us to look over, these are10 principles that when followed make better individuals, families, communities, nations, and world.  I learned that the best way for me to teach these principles is to live them myself and that they are just as pertinent today as they were when they were written.  God's words have a way of being that way!