I am going to put this in a perspective that our youth today can fully grasp. I know the parents and adults understand them but it is also important that our children and youth do too.
These commandments were not merely suggestions or recommendation from God to the people of Israel, but laws that must be followed and obeyed, to God’s satisfaction.
EXODUS: 20: 2-17; These verses are familiar to each and every human on the face of this earth. They hold the laws, the commandments spelled out to Moses by God etched into concrete and have been etched into the minds of every man woman and child from that day forward.
More than six thousand years ago, Almighty God, "I AM", decided that it was time for mankind to know their creator and to know that to be able to know Him and to worship Him, that He as God expected man to live and be civil to one another so He created His 10 basic laws, later known as His "10 Commandments", laws rules that man had to follow in order to please God and also inorder to establish some form of civility amongst one another.
As citizens of the world today we look at these 10 commandments and ask ourselves why God would feel it necessary to enact and enforce such laws, as for the most part they seem pretty much common place and common sense, rules that one would think would be for the most part pretty much automatically followed without having to become written.
Only the first three commandments might seem necessary in order to please God and keep Him happy as they dealt specifically with how one should worship a God.
(1) "I am the Lord Thy God: Thou shalt not have strange gods before me." Seems pretty straight-forward to me. I am your God, and, I am a jealous God, If you choose to worship me, then you must worship me alone no other gods or idols of gods are you permitted to worship if you worship me.
(2) "Thou shat not make unto thee any graven image or likeness of anything" God wishes our devoutness in our worship of him. We should not pray to or worship any statues that are not of God or Jesus Only Jesus is worthy of being an Icon image. The Catholic church manages to break this one by having statues and pictures of saints and praying to these saints for intercession instead of asking Jesus our only intercessor to help.
(3) "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." This too, seems pretty straihgt-forward. Do not curse at someone, or curse someone invoking God or Jesus the Son of God. In other words, if your child or someone else does something bad, never tell them that God will punish them or use the name of Jesus in anger.
(4) "Remember thou keep ‘Holy’ the Sabbath day." As God worked His miracles of creation six days and then rested, God desires us to do the same, reserving one day in seven to worship Him and permit our bodies and minds and spirits a chance to simply commune with God and with nature and with each other. These three first commandments God establishes with man so that we might worship God our Creator in a peaceful, loving, respectful manner, giving back to our creator the homage he deserves.
The next (6) commandments at first glance would seem to be common-sense regulations that any civilization would have been able to figure out by themselves, without God having to spell them out, but God sees a necessity to establish them in writing for man to know and learn.
(5) "Honor thy father and mother." Do nothing that would bring shame to your parents showing them that you love them. Speak to them and act towards them with respect. When they become old, do not ignore them or their needs. Care for your parents as they cared for you as you grew up.
(6) "Thou shalt not kill" Respect all life and treat every human with the respect and dignity that you desire for yourself, which includes mercy killing, abortion, suicide, euthenasia, doing any deadly harm to the quality of life towards another.
(7) "Thou shalt not commit adultery." or, incest, or, molest, or, child abuse, or, do anything of a sexual nature to any person.
Carnal pleasures of the flesh, belong between husband and wife and none other.
Our Lord Jesus expanded upon this one by telling us that if we even thought the thought of lust in our minds, it is considered adultery by God and is a sin against that person or persons.
I believe that this would also include Homo-sexual tendencies man to man, woman to woman.
(8) "Thou shalt not steal" Well that says it all in a nutshell as far as I’m concerned. If it’s not belonging to you, you can’t just help yourself to it. If you need it, then ask and set a fair price for it and pay the fair price. This also includes such things as plagerizing someone’ s writing, or musical composition, or artful creation of any kind, or special skill-set.
(9) "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." In other words thou shalt not "Lie" to another person or about another person, even an ommission of the truth about someone or something is lying.
We all flatter others in order to not hurt their feelings or in order to make them feel special, but if our flattery is a lie or an embelishment on the truth, it is a lie and should not be spoken. We might try to excuse this by calling it a "Little White Lie" and calling it harmless, but a lie is still a lie.
(10) "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife." This commandment would also fit in under commandment (6) on adultery whether the deed is in thought or in deed, to covet or lust after your neighbor’s wife is a big no no! "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods."
Desiring their anything or taking anything of your neighbor’s their car, or lawnmower, or their servants, simply desiring or taking anything without their knowledge and their permission is to covet what is theirs and not yours.
We all know of God’s love for man and His desire to establish and keep a loving and intimate relationship with all man, yet we continuously with or without personal knowledge bend or break God’s laws His commandments, and don’t try and kid yourself into believeing that bending God’s law is ok, because it’s simply not true.
There is no such thing as a "White Lie" or a "Little Lie" or stretching the truth, or concealing the truth. a lie is a lie, plain and simple.
There is also no such thing as being sort of pregnant either. Yes is Yes and No is No.
As a man if you see some really hot looking woman and desire her in your mind, you have desired her also in your heart and lust is lust. The same thing goes for the women.
When you envy the pay raise or promotion of a co-worker it is lust and lust is covetousness. "Keeping up with the Jones" is envy, covetousness.
Think about your own lifestyle and see if it is in keeping with God and the life he has provided or are you desiring the life of someone elses.
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