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“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.

No doubt the primary meaning has reference to answering under oath in a court of law. However…

‘Telling the truth in court is, of course, sacrosanct, but it would be hard to prove – or even imagine – that the more general associations of tale-bearing, innuendo and direct ‘character assassination’ are not equally prohibited. In imitation of the ‘God who does not lie’ (Tit.1:2), his redeemed should be people of the truthful word.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The Message of Exodus’, p.230.

We would no doubt agree that we should not tell lies about others. At least, I hope we would. But what about those stories we are prone to tell ourselves about what other people are thinking and doing? Maybe some personalities are more prone to this than others. I’m sure that at least some who read this will know what it is to invent stories and believe them. We suffer at our own hands.

Of course, it may well be that certain things we perceive are true. There may be an element of clear-sighted discernment involved. (Maybe even prophetic revelation). But it strikes me that we should not tell lies about others – not even to ourselves! May God help us.

As someone said, to despise truth is to despise the God of truth.

PRAYER: Lord, keep me honest. You know my weakness even better than I do. Don’t allow me even to lie to myself

“You shall not steal.

As I recall, it was only a video recorder and a little bit of jewellery that was taken. We had only been out of the house for about thirty minutes, but the shock was palpable, and it lingered. To think that someone had broken into our home and taken away that which was our’s and not their’s!

Sadly, it happens all the time – probably taking place somewhere every day of the year – and is another mark of a society/culture/world out of step with its Maker.

‘The Decalogue does not go in for a ‘league table’ of sins-as is evident by the way in which it puts an offence against property alongside offences against life, marriage and truth. Currid notes ‘the lack of specifics’ following the prohibition of theft; the command ‘simply transcends any conditions or circumstances’, whether it is a matter of carrying off goods or kidnapping people and whether the thing stolen is valuable or trivial. In a word, Scripture respects private property and demands integrity over the whole range of personal, economic and commercial relationships.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.229.

That said, Tom Hale notes:

‘God owns everything in the universe; when we steal, we steal ultimately from Him. Furthermore, when we steal we hurt our neighbour; but God commands us to love our neighbour (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31).

The person guilty of stealing was required to compensate the injured party in accordance with the value of the stolen property. The death penalty was never demanded for theft, because God puts much higher value on human life and on marriage than He does on property.

Stealing can take more subtle forms: to deprive a person of his or her rights is stealing; to withhold just wages is stealing; to neglect paying a debt is stealing; to defraud a neighbour in any way is stealing (James 5:4).’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.244.

I think, for example, of the form of theft involved in plagiarism, when we pass someone else’s work off as our own. Is this not also a form of stealing? All theft is wrong

Believers should be known for their honesty. This moves us seamlessly into the next command.

“You shall not commit adultery.

‘In God’s order of priority, the sanctity of human life is followed by the importance of the marriage relationship…As a whole, the Bible reveals that God desires the establishment of harmonious marital relationships and that neither partner should do anything to undermine this.’ T.D.Alexander: ‘The New Bible Commentary’, p.108.

The Old Testament makes no distinction between crimes (committed against people) and sins (committed against God). In Amos 1:3-2:4 we find a long list of what we would call today ‘crimes against humanity’, but they are exposed as sins against the Lord, and He will punish. In Psalm 51:4, in view of his sins of adultery and murder, David can say to God, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.” We know he had sinned against Bathsheba, using his power and position to take her for himself; he had sinned against her husband, Uriah, by stealing his wife and having him killed, for no other reason than to cover his guilt (which, of course, he could not do).

According to Genesis 5:1,2, the image of God was reflected in the first man and woman, united in marriage. In their togetherness they bore the name “man”. So one of the things adultery does is to defile this image. God is the covenant-keeping God, but ‘Marital infidelity involves going back on one’s pledged word and therefore is a departure from the image of God.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.229. God is not like that. He is always faithful; He always keeps His Word.

It’s interesting that the next commandment is: “You shall not steal” because adultery is a form of theft, as already noted above.

Jesus had a very high standard for sexual behaviour. As in the case of murder, He was concerned with what was in a person’s heart (Matthew 5:27,28). Adultery is not only the act; it can also be in attitude.

‘Marriage,’ said the cynic, is like a besieged city: all those on the inside want to get out, and all those on the outside want to get in.’

Thankfully, that is not totally true, but there is some truth in there. What we can say is that marriage is under attack, and it behoves all of us who are married to guard our hearts, and seek God’s grace to be lovingly faithful in the marriages He has given us. The aim is that they may ‘preach the gospel’, and display to the world something of the wonder and beauty of Christ’s relationship with the church (see Ephesians 5:22-33).

“You shall not murder.

It could not be clearer could it? Yet these last few months, an evil tyrant who claims to believe in God (seems to believe, in fact, that God is on his side), endorsed by at least some members of his state church, has been authorising the mass murder of thousands upon thousands of innocent victims. (Yes, I do think also of the many in the Russian army he has consigned to premature death with his bloodthirsty orders).

God has vetoed killing, but, tragically, history is full of it.

‘The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.’

Genesis 9:6 makes clear that the creation of humankind in God’s image makes murder a sin and crime, and it provides justification for the death penalty.

Tom Hale writes: ‘The word “murder” means to “kill deliberately”; it does not apply to accidental killing. It may or may not apply to killing because of loss of self-control; such cases are difficult to judge. The term “murder” does not apply to the killing of animals. It does not apply to killing a person in self-defence or to executions carried out by legitimate state authorities.’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.243.

What should be of interest and concern to us is that Jesus taught that murder is not only an external act but an internal attitude (Matt.5:21,22; 1 John 3:13). That is disturbing because I know I can become very angry with certain people – even with some fellow-Christians.

Many preachers in by-gone ages emphasised the importance of preaching the Law in preparation for the Gospel. It catches us in its powerful searchlight, and we know we have no excuses. It convicts of sin and shows us our need of a Saviour. I therefore say again, ‘Where would any one of us be apart from the grace and mercy of God?’ We are all law-breakers.

PRAYER: “Scatter the nations who delight in war” (Ps.66:30b). I can pray this with zeal; I know you can too.

“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

‘When we step out of the arena of ‘duty to God’, we step into the arena of duty within the family, our foremost area of obligation in the world.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.227

The Bible is relevant to children.

The Bible does address children.

The fifth commandment speaks directly to children.      

 I became a Christian as a young child, and I knew undoubtedly, in my heart, that I was converted. I didn’t understand the whole Bible. (I still don’t…and don’t expect to while I remain on planet earth). But I did grasp enough to know I was a sinner, and Jesus had died for my sins, and I needed to ask Him to save me. My heart still burns – as it did back then – at just the thought of it.

Alec Motyer has something important to say about the position the fifth commandment holds within ‘the decalogue’- the list of ten:

‘…our first duty after our obedience to God (commandments 1-4) is within the family and, in the same way, this is our primary area of obligation before we consider our obligations to other people (commandments 6-10). The fifth commandment belongs neither in the first group nor in the second, but in its distinctiveness it recognises our first and primary earthy obligation…So, then, if we are to think biblically about the Ten Commandments, we do not have two ‘tables’ or sections but three. God comes first, the family comes second, and the community around us third. When we come out from God’s presence, our primary obligations are towards our families, and the obligations to the world around us are secondary’ (pp.219/220).

In the Bible, we see how the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ dimensions of life work together. John says: ‘anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen…Whoever loves God must also love his brother’ (1 John 4:20-21). Jesus said the second ‘great’ commandment is ‘like’ the first (Matt.22:39). So obedience to the first must be reflected in obedience to the second. Human relationships matter deeply, and the first set of relationships mentioned in this list concern home life.

PRAYER: Lord God, may it be that in our homes we put you first, and then live in the overflow of that in our love for one another.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

I have to admit I was deeply challenged by some words in a commentary, pointing to the literal rendering here: ‘Remember…so as to make holy.’ The commentator observed that this involves a thoughtful preparation so as to exclude all activities which detract from the central purpose of the day.

‘Thoughtful preparation’. Hmmm.

Do you sometimes think we’re getting a bit lax – a bit too casual and careless – in our approach to Sundays? This doesn’t apply to everyone, I’m sure, but I think many probably do need to take a long hard look in the mirror. As someone commented, ‘The Lord’s Day is fast becoming ‘the Lord’s half day.’ (Or maybe ‘the Lord’s once a fortnight/once a month day?). Are our own priorities, our own domestic plans, now more to the fore as we approach this special day? Is it becoming more about us, and our families than about Him?

I’m just wondering aloud…raising questions which weigh on my mind – and have done so for quite some time.

I was brought up in an era where many Christians were highly legalistic in their approach to Sunday’s. The churches added many more ‘thou shalt not’s’ into the mix. There were numerous things one could not do on this day, and it often made it quite miserable for children. (And not only for children!) We can’t live the Christian life by man-made rules, and should resist them. It’s not surprising there has been a reaction to such a stifling way of spending what should be a day of delight.

But ‘thoughtful preparation’ surely is required, if we’re going to mark one day in seven as a joyous, God-centred day of rest.

Again, I think Motyer helps us:

‘…the freedom to be enjoyed on the Sabbath imposed a duty of careful forethought.

The cessation of work is not…an end in itself but, so to speak, ‘clears a space’; as Childs put it, there was to be ‘the cessation of normal activity…in order to set aside the Sabbath for something special. What that ‘something special’ was is left vague by the commandment, but three principles are clear. The Sabbath was to be a day of holiness, that is a different day, a day set apart from all other days (8), a day belonging in some special way to the Lord and therefore to be lived uniquely for him (11). The vagueness is doubtless deliberate, leaving room for individual choice and personal preference, but the one thing that is common to all three principles is that it was to be a different day. And that surely remains true today. Sunday should not be a second Saturday every week (as the term ‘continental Sunday’ is found to mean)…but a day positively different because it is being lived specially for God.’ ‘The message of Exodus’, p.226.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

I remain slightly bemused by the widespread use of blasphemy: that people who don’t know God, or Jesus, and maybe don’t want to know Him, regularly take His Name upon their lips. But maybe by doing it in this slightly vitriolic way, they are distancing themselves from Him and pushing Him away (even though some may say they are atheists or agnostic!). Nowadays we have the divine name insulted and trivialised AS a common blasphemous expression is reduced to three letters: ‘OMG’.

One day I went to visit a family member in an EU country. It took effort and cost money to get there, but we really wanted to see him. We hadn’t been in his car for much more than five minutes when he horribly and violently misused the Name of Jesus. What was that about? He knew he had a Christian minister in His car, and his sister who loved Jesus, and a young child. Was it some sort of defence mechanism; or a deep subterranean demonic eruption from within; or…?? You tell me. I don’t really know. But I find it’s not unusual for people to break the third commandment in my company. I hate it, but it happens. It almost feels like evidence For God’s existence – in some odd, convoluted fashion.

The Lord’s Name stands for all that He is; all that He has revealed Himself to be. To misuse His Name is to insult Him personally. Traditionally, we knew this as ‘taking the Lord’s Name in vain.’ Even little children I went to school with knew you shouldn’t do it! It literally means ‘lift up the name…to emptiness.’

‘The most obvious meaning of ‘lifting up the name’ is an abbreviation of ‘lift up upon one’s lips.’ The use of the name ‘God’ or the name of Jesus or the title ‘Christ’ as an expletive would certainly fall within this condemnation and, on a more serious level, so would the giving of one’s loyalty to, or taking one’s oath by, a false god – though this…would be an extension of the primary meaning.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.224.

Motyer goes on to point out that the sanction attached to this commandment is all the more scary for being left vague: “…for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”

‘The implication is that the Lord’s name is intensely precious to him. It is he who notes its misuse and who matches the the punishment to the crime in each and every case’ (p.225).

PRAYER: Lord, where would any of us be apart from your mercy. We are all commandment-breakers. We look to you alone for forgiveness. We have no hope apart from you.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 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.

For centuries upon centuries, the Jewish people observed the Sabbath as a special day in the week, and they still continue to do so. (Notice the theological reason given in verse 11 for honouring the Sabbath).

But the first century Jews who came to believe in Jesus as Messiah, changed their day of worship from a Saturday to a Sunday – because of their conviction that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. In fact, this is a significant piece of evidence for Christ’s resurrection – that Jews, who were so committed to observing the Sabbath, were prepared to change their day of worship in the way they did.

The sabbath rest is now fulfilled in Jesus. The gospel calls us to ‘rest’ from our own labours (i.e. our own attempts at self-salvation by good works), and rest upon the finished work of Christ (Matthew 11:28-30;Hebrews 4:9,10).

But the principle of the Sabbath holds good still today:

‘Our responsibility to live our lives in imitation of God is the heart of the fourth commandment, for did not the Creator perform his perfect work of creation – the work which he pronounced ‘good’ (Gen.1:31) – by working six days and resting one day? What is then the perfect life pattern for humans in the image of God? Is it not to work for six days and rest for one?… the Creator prescribes his pattern of working and resting for us because we are made in his image and this is our proper functioning procedure. It is ours because it was his. Our calling is to live out  his pattern, to make his example the way we order our lives, to reflect what we are-beings created in the image of God.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, p.225.

The observing of Sabbath entailed faith and obedience back then. When having your daily bread was dependant on your daily labours, then ceasing for a day each week must have posed a challenge. Similarly now, as we stop for a day every week, we have to trust that life will go on without us, without our efforts. The world will still turn; God will go on running the universe. Sabbath faces us with our limits, with our smallness. It is humbling. It keeps us in our place. We are not God! We are here for a very short time, and the world will keep spinning in space when we have left it.

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 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 parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

If the first commandment is about the object of our worship, the second concerns its manner. We can worship the true God in a false way.

We may argue that an image will help us in our worship of the true God (a priest I was I in conversation with on one occasion, likened it to carrying a photograph of a loved one in your wallet); but how long will it be before we are worshipping the picture itself and not the Lord.

God wants worship “in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) In other words, worship led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and fed and guided by revealed truth.

‘The first commandment, though it does not mention love, is concerned with our loving loyalty to the Lord; the second commandment, with its reference to his jealousy, raises the topic of his love to us, for ‘jealousy’ is part of the essence of true love, and the Lord so loves us that he cannot bear it when our desires and loyalties go elsewhere…Sinai brought no vision to the eyes, only a voice to the ears. Everything in worship must be ordered according to the word of God – a truth Jesus reiterated in Matthew 15:6b-9.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, pp.223, 224.

‘…true religion ought to be conformed to God’s will as to a universal rule.’ John Calvin.

THOUGHT: ‘Lord, keep me true to truth as truth is true to you.’