Posted on by Abe Austin

The Basis for Following the Commandments: Part One

There was a time when the morals of traditional Christianity were more or less in harmony with the Western world as a whole. Even those that didn’t consider themselves religious had essentially the same ethical code, with a shared understanding for what behavior was acceptable and what behavior was not. Times have changed, though, and principles that once needed no explanation are not only debated, but outright rejected by millions.

The question naturally arises: do the commandments really matter? What are the underlying principles that have to be considered when determining whether one should pursue every selfish appetite or not? Is it reasonable to think that living outside of traditional Christian ethics is evil, or is it not?

As I’ve considered these questions, I find that the answer rests on three essential premises. In order to excuse oneself in violating the commandments taught in tradition Christianity, they must overcome at least one of these three pillars upon which the Judeo-Christian commandments stand:

  1. Is the Judeo-Christian God real?
  2. Are the words of scripture His real commandments?
  3. Are His real commandments essential for happiness in life?

If God isn’t real, then who cares what His pastors say? If He is real, but the words of scripture are not actually His, then why would we follow them? If He is real, and the words of scripture contain His actual commandments, but one can disobey that law without any consequences, then why not take advantage of that situation?

With the rest of this series I will explore these three points in greater detail. I will leave it to the reader to search his or her own heart, and determine whether the answer to all three points is “yes,” and if it is, whether there can remain any justifiable reason to disobey the traditional Christian moral code.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:17

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

The final commandment is a unique one. It goes deeper than the acted out behaviors to address the inner, conceptual thoughts and desires. It is not enough to refrain from stealing our neighbor’s things, it is wrong to even lust for those things. It is not enough to refrain from committing adultery with our neighbor’s wife, it is wrong to even lust for her.

Desires, of course, are not entirely in our control. By our lifestyle we can foster certain positive or negative trends in them, but even with the purest of habits we will surely encounter invasive thoughts that would be impure to put into practice. Thankfully, having a random impulse is not the same as “coveting.” Coveting is making a choice to dwell on the unholy notion, to entertain it, to fantasize over it.

Also, we are not told that all things are wrong for us to hold a long and burning passion for. God’s commandment does not tell us that we cannot aspire to obtain a certain status in life, or to earn a certain accomplishment, or to marry a certain spouse. What we are not to obsess over is that which already belongs to another. We are each meant to seek our own. We have no justification in lusting for that which God has already given to our neighbor.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:16

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

The penultimate commandment is that we do not bear false witness towards our neighbor. Bearing “false witness” applies in a formal, legalistic sense, meaning that we must not falsely testify against someone before a court. It also applies in a more informal, social sense, meaning that we must not tells rumors and gossip, tearing down the reputation of another on spurious claims.

Of course, this commandment is specifically decrying “false” claims. It is not saying that we must never sue for justice when our neighbor has genuinely wronged us, nor that we cannot give genuine cautions against the real and perverse behaviors of a neighbor. This commandment assumes that there is such a thing as the “truth,” and that we are to align ourselves to it. We may never know the entire truth of another person, but we do know when we are concocting a lie about them, and that is what is forbidden.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:15

15 Thou shalt not steal.

The eighth commandment tells us that we must not take the things that belong to another. Perhaps more than any other, this commandment shows us the transcendental nature of morality. It is something that goes beyond our physical nature, into a realm that can only be called spiritual.

For certainly the idea that we “own” anything is only an illusion, at least from a natural point of view. What makes something belong to us? We might say that we own something and have that claim recognized by society, but nature does not respect that claim at all. Nature isn’t convinced that an item belongs to me just because my toil and labor brought it into being, or because some made-up standard says I “earned” it, or because I made some marks on it that match the initials of my name, or because I found it and touched it first. None of those things fundamentally bind that item to me in the eyes of nature. Nature does not see the item as an unextractable part of my person, nor will it make the item perish when I do, nor will it prevent the item from being given to another, nor will it stop the item from being lost or destroyed at any moment.

And yet, even a toddler knows that something is his. Even a toddler knows when something is stolen from him. We may not be able to explain ownership and theft materialistically, but we know they are real. God, evidently, knows they are real also, and He forbids it directly.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:14

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Another very brief commandment, this one forbidding married individuals from breaking their marriage covenant and having sexual relations with anyone other than their spouse. Of course, this one commandment does not cover the entire breadth of sexual sin. It does not mention anything about fornication, or bestiality, or incest, or homosexuality. However, just because all these matters are not covered in the ten commandments does not mean that they are not covered elsewhere in the word of God. Here in the mountain Moses received the foundational rules of God’s law, but there were other visits to the mountain, and other details yet to come. Leviticus, for example, has several chapters that cover the other sexual perversions that are expressly forbidden by God.

I think it is fair to say, though, that adultery is the root evil that all other sexual perversions are an extension of, and this explains why it would be forbidden first in the ten commandments. Calling out adultery points to the fact that sexuality is fundamental to the union between a man and a woman in the covenant of marriage, and so it is the perversion of that order that constitutes a sin. Whether we also pervert that order by having sexual relations before we are married, or with people that we cannot be married to, or with animals, it all follows the idea of breaking apart the marriage covenant and taking the things which belongs to it elsewhere. All sexual sin is in the spirit of adultery.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:13

13 Thou shalt not kill.

A very brief and succinct commandment, one that speaks to the sanctity of life, and the immense evil when one takes it from another. Of course, though the words here are simple, there is some nuance that applies to this commandment. For while the Israelites had been ordered not to kill, they were also going to be commanded to go to war with the Canaanites, and thus would kill tens of thousands of their enemies. And they were also commanded to kill animals at the altar as an offering to the Lord. How can these commandments coexist with one another?

The confusion goes away when we consider the original Greek word that has been translated to our English word “kill.” In fact, there are two Greek words that get turned into “kill” or other variations of that word in the English translation.

One of them is שָׁחַט (shachat), which is used elsewhere in Leviticus 14:13 as it describes how the priest will kill the offering that is being made in the temple.

The other one is רָצַח (ratsach), which is used elsewhere in Numbers 35:16 as it describes how a man who kills another with an iron weapon is a murderer.

So there is a word for “to kill,” and another word for “to murder.” And the word used here in the 10 commandments is the second one: רָצַח (ratsach), which is “to murder.” We could consider the English translation of this verse to be more accurate if we rendered it as, “Thou shalt not murder.” And now we see how the Israelites could be commanded to go to war against the Lord’s enemies, and to slay animals in their offerings, because both of those would be examples of “killing,” but not of “murdering.” If the distinction between those two does not matter to some, it does apparently matter to God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:12

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

The fifth commandment describes the attitude that children should have towards their parents. One may wonder why there isn’t a commandment pointing the other direction, telling parents how they ought to feel towards their children. Having been both a child and a parent, I would say that the nature of the parent is already to love the child and seek what is best for him. Though the parents may give unwanted advice, they generally only do so with a sincere desire to help. The nature of the child, however, is often one of defiance, with an impulse to disobey for the sole purpose to be contrary. That is the tendency that needs to be reigned in, and so a commandment to spell that out.

It is interesting how this commandment links honoring one’s parents and living long upon the land. It seems to suggest that to not honor one’s parents is likely to result in a premature death. Why is that? One explanation could be that it is a divine promise, an assurance from God that He will intervene in the cause of the honorable child to preserve life. Another explanation might be that it is an observation of the natural trends in humanity. Perhaps when a generation as a whole decides to dishonor the generations that came before they are carving their own foundation out from under themselves, and will inevitably fall back to a more barbaric and violent lifestyle, and that will certainly result in their days being shorter upon the land.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:8-11

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The fourth commandment is one of only two that begin with something other than “thou shalt not.” Instead, the primary injunction with this commandment is to “remember.” God’s command to remember the sabbath shows that it already is the sabbath day whether we adhere to it or not. The sabbath’s existence is not contingent upon our observation of it, our choice is simply whether we “keep it holy,” or ignore it.

God then goes into greater detail, making clear that “work” is the primary thing that would desecrate the sabbath. That is, in fact, the only thing that he prohibits on that day. With that in mind, we can see how the pharisees building up a hedge around the law, adding rules such as a maximum number of steps that an Israelite could walk in a day, would necessarily prohibit things that the Lord never intended to prohibit. From the words here in Exodus, there would be no crime in traveling a long distance on the sabbath to see a new city, or to walk along a coast, or to visit a distant relation, or for any reason at all, except for travel as part of labor or work.

I personally grew up with many behaviors being prohibited on the sabbath, such as playing games or watching movies. While there can certainly be an argument for having a day disconnected from worldly influences in order to more fully sanctify the day, it would be inappropriate to give as a reason “because God said so in the fourth commandment.” The only time that the fourth commandment would be violated is if our activity caused anyone to work.

And God’s words are very explicit that our responsibility goes beyond keeping just ourselves from work: “neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” Not only are we not to do any labor ourselves, but also we are not to cause anyone else to labor either. Even to the “strangers” who aren’t converted to our beliefs and will be violating the sabbath day anyway, we are not justified in making them additionally work for us.

On the seventh day God rested. This was both rest for Him, and also for the world which He ceased imposing commands upon for that day. Apparently there was something in that experience that the Lord saw was good, that He saw was right, and He decided to extend that season of work and season of rest outward across the whole of humanity. The sabbath day is established in our creation and remains a constant part of us. It is there for us to take refuge in, if we only remember to do so.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:7

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Here we have the third commandment, not to take the name of the Lord in vain. When I was a child, I was told this meant not to use religious profanity. For example, spitting out the name of “Jesus Christ” to express anger or shock. And while I still do believe it is particularly wrong to curse in ways that desecrate the divine, I don’t believe that this is the practice specifically being called out in this verse.

The “taking of the name of the Lord,” calls to mind how Christians “take upon themselves the name of Christ.” Taking the Lord’s name means taking His covenant, calling yourself one of His people, declaring your intention to live as He would have you do.

And that should most definitely not be a commitment made in vain. It is to be a most serious promise. If you are making the commitment to follow Christ lightheartedly, or abandoning him soon thereafter, or trying to twist his words to match your preferences, then you are taking his name in vain. You are saying that you are a follower of the Lord, when you’re really not at all.

Sadly, in our Western civilization where most of us were born under the umbrella of Christianity, I believe that “taking of his name in vain” is one of our most common sins. We take our status as “Christians” for granted, assuming that since we were born with that title it belongs to us no matter what we say, think, or do. Our lighthearted approach to our faith cheapens the name of Christendom to the rest of the world, and makes a mockery of our God. The message from God in today’s verse is, “if you’re going to take my name, mean it!”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 20:4-6

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Yesterday we spoke about the commandment to not have any false gods, and now the second commandment is not to have any graven images or idols. Obviously, the graven images and idols that Israel would find themselves bowing down to were representations of false gods, so there is a connection between the two, but they aren’t quite the same thing.

The false gods were only conceptual. They were a name and an idea, but no one saw the gods or had them in their home. The idols were the physical representation of the gods. The idol was the actual statuette that you might have in your home, that you would see and hold and bow down to. In the first two commandments God is telling the Israelites both to not worship the false idea, and to not worship the false symbol.

Today, wealth might be considered a false god, as it is merely a concept, whereas fast cars and fancy clothes are the idols that are physical representations of that wealth. We both lust for wealth as a concept, and we love to be seen with expensive accoutrements, resulting in both false god worship and idolatry.

There are all manner of other worldly, physical things that we idolize as well: phones, watches, jewelry, computers, collectibles, homes, trophies, and certifications. These all become idols when we pursue them over and beyond our pursuit of God. And why are they false idols? Because each of these physical things is based on a worship of a conceptual false god such as status, vanity, entertainment, or fun. Those all become false gods when we depend on them for our happiness rather than God.

God wants us to worship Him both in concept, adopting His principles and priorities as our own, and in practice, dedicating our physical time and effort to securing the things that He has chosen for us. If we do these things in our mind, our heart, and our behavior, then we are keeping the first two commandments.