Our text for today is what we grew up calling the Ten Commandments. As we learned these Ten Commandments we often thought of them as a list of “dos” and “don’ts”. Even today, there are many “opinions” about the Ten Commandments. The opinions range from “Are you kidding?” to “I do not take them seriously.” to “I think rules were made to be broken” to “I’m glad we do not have to keep them anymore.” to “I think God loves us an awful lot to give them to us.” In answer to some of these opinions I guess I would suggest that we should be careful in our assessment of the Ten Commandments. I say that because, if we throw them out then we throw all of the Bible out, even the part about being saved by Jesus’ death on the cross. More often than not we see the Ten Commandments as harsh rules, and we do that because we are constantly breaking those rules. I would suggest that rather than being harsh rules, the Ten Commandments are God’s way of giving us the ability to respond to His great love for us. Notice how our Lord begins as He gives us the Ten Commandments. Our Lord begins by telling us what He has done. We begin at verse one, “1And God spoke all these words, saying, 2‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’” (v. 1-2). Today the slavery out of which our Lord brings us is our slavery to sin. So, it is because of what the Lord has done for us that He gives us the Ten Commandments and only because He works in and through us that we occasionally live according to these commandments.
The Ten Commandments can be divide into two tables. The first table deals with our relationship with God. We read at verse three, “3You shall have no other gods before me. 4You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 7You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy,” (v. 3-11).
We are not going to go through these commandments in depth this morning, or we might be here all day, but I do want to say a word or two about each one as we go. The first commandment reminds us that we are to worship God alone. And why do we worship God alone? Because He alone created the world and all things. We are to worship Him and not His creation. We are to worship Him alone because He is a jealous God. He is jealous, not in the sense that you and I think of being jealous, not that He is envious. He is jealous in that He demands our complete attention. Notice too, how He shows us that He is a God of love more than a God of harsh rules. He says that He punishes ‘the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Him, but how He shows love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.’ God’s Law and justice lasts a short time, three or four generations, compared to His Gospel, His grace and love, which lasts for a thousand generations. God’s grace always for outreaches His law.
Continuing on, we are to honor and not misuse God’s name. This is one of those commandments that makes us hang our heads. It is not if we misuse God’s name, but how often in a day we misuse God’s name, and how often in a day that we thoughtlessly misuse God’s name. There was an article in the paper a while back in the Religion section, discussing whether or not it was a misuse of God’s name to text the letters “OMG” which stand for “Oh, My God.” That shows how thoughtless we are in our use of God’s name. Instead of misusing God’s name, we are to call on the Lord and use His name in prayer, in praise, in giving thanks and in times of trouble.
We are to honor and worship the Lord on His Day. God knows how hard it is for us to keep His commandments, that is why He gives us this commandment. Because it is so hard to keep the commandments we need all the help we can get. Our Lord gives us His help through the means of His Holy Word. The Holy Spirit works through the Bible to help us to keep the commandments, even if it is only that we are able to keep them somewhat. Thus, as it is God’s will, as often as it is offered, we attend Divine Service and Bible Class, we have personal and family devotion and prayer time, and we read and study God’s Word as often as possible, to not do so is to refuse and reject the gifts God has to give.
The second table of the commandments deals with our relationship with each other. We read picking up at verse twelve, “12Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 13You shall not murder. 14You shall not commit adultery. 15You shall not steal. 16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (v.12-17). As we look at this second table of commandments we see them first and foremost as gifts from God. In looking at them as gifts from God we will realize our guilt in not seeing them as gifts of God and in our refusing them as gifts from God.
The first commandment in this second table sets the stage for all the rest. The first commandments is God’s gift of the family. The family is the basis for our living together as human beings in this world. Certainly there are those in our world who would like you to believe that they have in mind what is best for your family, but do not believe them. The only one who knows what is best for families is God, the giver of families. And interestingly enough, this commandment is the basis for all authority in our world, because God gives authority to our world through our families which includes our extended families, our work, and our government. God is the one who gives His authority through these people to keep good order in His world. It is only with good order that we feel safe and can have peace. Thus we are to honor all those in authority over us.
God gives the gift of life, all life, which we know, scientifically speaking, and theologically speaking begins with conception. Here we are reminded that the taking of life is not something we do only by actually killing another person. No, killing another person, in God’s eyes, begins with the thought and can be carried out with hurting, hating, or harming another in any way. Instead we are to help others in any way we can.
God gives us the gift of marriage and fidelity, which means faithfulness. The consequences of a world run amok with sexual promiscuity is seen in the many diseases with which we must now contend. Marriage is a beautiful gift which God has given to us and unfortunately many in our society have thrown this gift back into His face and said, we do not want it. Instead we are to honor God’s gifts of sexuality and marriage.
God gives the gift of possessions, not that God wants us to accumulate a bunch of things, but He does not want us to take the things which He has given to others. Here again, as with killing, we do not steal merely by taking something. We steal by the mere thought of stealing. Instead we are to rejoice with what others have.
God gives the gift of reputation. Here we are reminded that even if something is true, that does not mean we can go around sharing it with others. Instead we are to build up others and look for the best explanation in all situations.
God gives the gift of contentment. To be content is a difficult thing in our capitalistic society, yet it is a virtue that makes life so much more bearable.
I want to go back for a minute to verse five and to the part about God’s jealousy. Remember, God’s wrath is but for three or four generations. As we daily sin much and break these commandments, God is still only angry with us for a short time. And that does not mean that we have a right to keep on sinning and breaking His commandments, for to do so shows that we are not sorry that we have broken His commandments.
Yet, God’s mercy is for a thousand generations. God is a loving God who wants to love us. God does not want to punish us. God wants only what is best for us, His love for us. He is always right there waiting, even moving in us to repent and to be ready for His forgiveness.
I like to think of these Ten Commandments as God’s gift of boundaries. As a parent you know how important are boundaries. We set boundaries for our children telling them they are not to play with stray animals because we know if they do play with a stray animal they might get bitten. Boundaries set limits, not because we want to be restricting of the freedom of others, but because we love others. Boundaries are set in order to make us feel safe. Certainly we test those boundaries, but we do so to make sure they are there. In a classroom, children will test the rules because they know that if they get away with breaking a rule, then the rule means nothing and they do not feel safe. The Ten Commandments are boundaries concerning how we relate to God and how we relate to each other. They are given to us so that we might feel safe in a world that would make us feel something other than safe.
The summary of the commandments is “love.” Love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. The summary of the commandments is love, because if we could love God, exclusively, then we would not break any of the other commandments. And if we could love our neighbor as ourselves we would not break any of the last commandments. The problem is that we cannot love perfectly, thus we cannot keep the commandments perfectly.
Thanks be to God that there is another way. For you see, God knew that we would not be able to keep the commandments perfectly, that is why He sent His one and only Son, Jesus. Jesus is true God and true man. He lived perfectly. He obeyed the commandments, all the commandment perfectly for us, because we cannot. Then He gave Himself. He suffered and died on the cross for us. He shed His blood for us. He gave His life for ours, so that we might have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. And once again we see how God’s Gospel love so much out weighs His Law. And to that we say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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