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Man Sets A Low Bar, But God Holds Us To A Higher Standard
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
(Matthew 5:21-22 ESV)
A few days ago, as part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus stated that no one can earn their way to heaven by our behavior – either doing certain things and/or not doing certain things. We learned that our behavior can be superficial or hypocritical. God instead looks at our heart. Beginning today and over the next few days Jesus will give some specific examples.
The first example Jesus gives pertains to murder. Commandment number six of the Ten Commandments is “You shall not murder“. Every Jew would have been familiar with this command, as is pretty much everyone today. The word “murder” here refers to a selfish, criminal act. It does not refer to self-defense, manslaughter and the like.
Back then the religious leaders had diluted this commandment much like we do today. We’ve come up with all kinds of excuses and loopholes such as “justifiable homicide”, “crimes of passion”, or the infamous “Twinkie defense”. Human beings are very experienced at lowering the bar to raise our egos. But God holds us to a higher standard.
Jesus, who is God and has the authority to define sin (But I say to you), says that everyone who is angry with his brother or whoever insults his brother or whoever says ‘You fool!’ to another person is liable to judgment. According to Jesus anger and insults directed at another person is sin equivalent of murder.
Every human being was made in the image of God [Genesis 1:27] – they are extremely valuable to Him. When we are angry with another person or insult them we are devaluing them: we are murdering them in our heart.
We know that not all anger is sin. We learned this in our study of Ephesians. The anger that Jesus is talking about here via the use of the Greek word οργιζο (pronounced: or-gid’-zo) is selfish, unforgiving anger derived because we believe that we have been wronged.
Sin is an act of the will. Before we ever commit a physical sinful act, like murder, we first had to have thoughts and emotions that are sinful. As any psychologist will confirm, our actions are driven by our thoughts. Our thoughts are fed by our heart [Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:19].
This is why man can never create a righteous planet. Through threats of incarceration or by promoting “tolerance” we may alter our outward behavior. But we can never change our hearts, which is what we really need. Only God can do that [Exodus 36:26; Ezekiel 11:19; Romans 2:29]. Hence, our world will only get worse.
While we might stop short of murdering someone, everyone of us has been angry with another human being. Therefore, none of us are truly innocent of murder [1 John 3:15].
God is not interested in our external keeping of rules. That is a low bar. He wants our heart to be right. It is the state of our heart that is the true measure of one’s guilt.
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Obeying Parents Brings Mutual Benefit
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
(Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV)
We are currently studying a passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in which he is discussing mutual submission in various relationships. This mutual submission is one of the results of being filled with the Holy Spirit [Ephesians 5:18] and is something we do out of reverence for Christ [Ephesians 5:21]. After spending quite a few verses discussing how husbands and wives should serve each other, Paul now moves on to discuss mutual submission between children and parents.
Simply put, children should obey their parents. This is the right thing for them to do. To further his point, Paul quotes from the Ten Commandments: “Honor your father and mother”, which is command number five.
Notice the phrase in the Lord. Children should obey their parents because obeying their parents means obeying God. God has established all authorities on earth. And while we may not always understand or agree with their decisions, when we practice obedience we are honoring God. But just like we learned with husbands and wives, we are under no obligation to obey authorities (including parents) who ask us to do something that goes against God’s will. This would include something that is illegal or violates one of God’s commands in the Bible.
When we consider that in their early years children are too young to read and understand this verse we see that parents have an obligation to teach their children the importance of obedience. If parents wait until their children are old enough to understand it will be too late. Obedience, and the value of obedience, need to be taught at an early age as we are all predisposed to rebel from the time we are very young.
The Greek word for “children” in this verse is τέκνον (pronounced: tek’-non) which means “offspring”. Notice that it doesn’t necessarily mean “young child”. No matter how old we are, we are all someone’s offspring as long as one of our parents is alive. Certainly as we get older we don’t have to “obey” our parents in the sense that they make our decisions for us. But we should always honor them. This would include the way we interact with them throughout our adult life regardless of how they treated us as children [Proverbs 20:20, 23:22] as well as how we live our lives once we are on our own [Proverbs 10:1, 17:25]. Adult children who lead troublesome lives dishonor their parents.
Sacrificial living in relationships – the context of these verses – is always better than living for self. God promises that one who honors her parents will experience quality of life (it may go well with you) and quantity of life (you may live long in the land). When a child submits himself to his parents he brings honor to them and benefit to himself.
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First We Have To Follow
Today’s Bible Reading: Jeremiah 49:23-50:46; Titus 1:1-16; Psalm 97-98:9; Proverbs 26:13-16
Old Testament
Jeremiah delivers more prophesies to nations and cities surrounding Israel in our reading today. We know these cities and nations used to exist from historical artifacts. We also know that, with the exception of Damascus, none of them exist today. We’ve never heard a news story about the nations of Elam or Hazor. They were wiped out just as God said they would be.
One bright spot in these prophesies is Jeremiah 50:4 in which God says that after Babylon is destroyed the people of Israel and Judah will return home. The common strategy of conquering nations back then was to forcibly remove the smartest and most talented people from their land and take them back to the conquering nation.
This served two purposes. It benefited the conquerer by having more bright people in their society. And it also weakened the conquered nation and kept the remaining people under control. Some of the prophets we have yet to read, including Daniel, wrote from Babylon after being exiled from Judah.
But God promised to destroy Babylon which He did by sending Persia against it. After Persia conquered Babylon, its king, Artaxerces, allowed the Jews to return home. We read about this when we read the books of Nehemiah and Ezra earlier this year. This fulfilled the prophecy recorded by Jeremiah here in Jeremiah 50:4
Notice the reason God gives for destroying these sovereign nations: they loved their idols and did not love God (Jeremiah 50:38). Human beings are sinful creatures. We lie. We steal. We are arrogant. The list goes on. God knows this. But God didn’t destroy any of these nations for these reasons. He destroyed them because they didn’t acknowledge Him.
The first of the Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other god before Me” (Exodus 20:2). When asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). All our other sins stem from not loving God. Just like we can’t get cured of a disease if we don’t go to a doctor, God can’t heal our brokenness if we don’t have a relationship with Him.
So God sends warnings to nations who blatantly disregard Him. If they don’t respond the warnings get “louder”. If all else fails, He will destroy them. He does all this in the hopes that its citizens will be humbled and turn to Him. Its only at this point that can He fix all the rest of the things that are wrong with us. After all, Jesus’ first command to His disciples wasn’t an order to “Change!” it was a request to “Follow?” First we have to follow God. Then He can turn us into better people.
New Testament
In the opening line of Paul’s letter to Titus he calls himself a “slave” of God (Titus 1:1). The Greek word Paul used is “duolos” which is the word used for someone who was a slave by choice. Obviously, someone would work for someone else only if that employer treated him well.
Christians, being slaves to God, have an “owner” who isn’t intent on mistreating us, as some would conclude when they read the word “slave”. We voluntarily put ourselves under God’s authority because we know that He can, and will, take great care of us. The Biblical concept of being God’s “slave” is nothing like the modern-day concept of slavery. I know a lot of people who reject the Bible because they misunderstand this.
God’s word is all about truth. God wants us to understand the truth about Him, the truth about us, the truth about life. This truth teaches us how to live and also gives us confidence that we have eternal life (Titus 1:1-2). Notice that eternal life was always in God’s plan. Even before the earth was created it was God’s intention to create people so that we could live with Him forever.
Have you ever wondered by Jesus came to earth at the time He did? He came at “just the right time” (Titus 1:3). Evil as the Roman Empire was, its existence actually made it relatively easy to spread the Gospel. The Roman Empire covered a large land area (pretty much all of modern Europe, most of the Middle East and north Africa) and at this time was enjoying the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) so it was pretty safe and easy to get around. There was also a common language used throughout the empire – Greek – so that documents didn’t have to be translated and people from different areas could communicate verbally.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me about this post.
We Fall For It Every Time
Today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 4-6:11; Romans 7:1-13; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 19:22-23
Old Testament
Solomon builds the furnishings for the Temple in 2 Chronicles 4 and completes the Temple in 2 Chronicles 5. The Temple was not actually complete until the Ark of the Covenant had been set in its place. This was a very special event and was treated as such (2 Chronicles 5:2-5).
Originally there were three items in the Ark: the 2 stone tables on which were written the 10 Commandments, the jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod. But by this point in history only the stone tablets remain (2 Chronicles 5:10). Apparently the other items were removed at some point – possibly while the Ark was in the possession of the Philistines.
Once the Ark was in the Holy of Holies a concert breaks out (2 Chronicles 5:12-13) showing us that the use of music during important events is very biblical.
After everything is set in place in the Temple God fills the Temple in the form of a cloud (2 Chronicles 5:13). Because of this cloud the priests could not continue their work (2 Chronicles 5:14). Similarly when God comes into the life of a believer that person cannot continue “as usual”. They are a new creation – incapable of doing what they were doing before. God’s presence makes all the difference.
New Testament
Paul continues his discussion of how believers are not to live under the law any longer in Romans 7.
Once a person dies, that person is no longer bound to any contracts. Just as a wife is free from the laws of marriage when her husband dies, so, too, are born-again believers free from the law once we “die” to it – at the moment we are born-again (Romans 7:2-3). The old law no longer applies because that person – our old self – is dead (Romans 7:4). Just like a criminal wouldn’t continue serving his sentence after it expired, we should not continue to serve sin once we have been set free from it.
But more than that, we are now “united” to Christ (“the one raised from the dead”) and we belong to Him. Serving sin would be the equivalent of committing adultery. Jesus is our Lord now. It is He whom we should serve.
Now that we have been released from the bondage of the law, we can serve God in a new way (Romans 7:6). Whereas before we served God by trying and failing to keep commandments through guilt, we are now to serve Him out of thankfulness. We do this by living according to the Spirit – by being led by God rather than by temptation.
Although the law cannot save anyone, the law does do one important thing: it reveals our sinful nature. How would someone know if they were speeding without a speed limit sign? How would someone know if they had a tumor without an X-ray machine? Just like these things the law showed us what was wrong with us. And, that is a good thing. Because without knowing that we were sinful, there is no way anyone could have found the cure: a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
If you tell a child not to do something, that becomes the thing that he wants to do and as adults we are pretty much the same. The law worked in a similar way (Romans 7:8). Sometimes I see a sign stating “Do Not Do Such-And-Such”. Well, I never would have thought of doing such-and-such if the sign wasn’t there. In the same way we misused God’s good laws for evil. That is not the fault of the law, Paul argues (correctly). It is the fault of our evil hearts. We look for ways to do wrong and are more than willing to take our cue from a command that warns us against doing that very thing. We’re all pretty messed up, aren’t we?
The problem is we fall for Satan’s lie – the same one he used in the Garden with Adam & Eve and continues to use to this day: that God is trying to keep us from having fun with all His “do”s and “don’t”s. We fall for it every time.
Psalms
In Psalm 17 David appeals to God for justice (Psalm 17:1-2), and protection (Psalm 17:7-9). So often we turn to something/someone other than God for what only He can provide. We sue each other, looking for justice. We pack guns or expect the police or judicial system to protect us. But man is flawed. He cannot offer perfect justice or perfect protection. Only God can do that. Only God is 100% willing to do that with no ulterior motives or political influence.
I think its pretty hard to become very wealthy without at least a bit of dishonesty along the way. But is that fulfilling? Not according to Proverbs 19:22. It would be better to be dirt poor than to have gained wealth dishonestly.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me about this post
Very Scary
Today’s Bible reading: Deuteronomy 5-6:25; Luke 7:11-35; Psalm 68:19-35; Proverbs 11:29-31
In Deuteronomy 5 Moses reminds the people of the covenant (agreement) God made with them at Mount Sinai. Like any agreement, both parties (in this case God and Israel) promised to do certain things. This agreement was not made with the people who were currently alive but with their ancestors. Nevertheless, God’s promises were still binding and He would continue to fulfill them with this current generation and subsequent generations (Deuteronomy 5:3).
The Ten Commandments are repeated in this chapter after having been originally given in Exodus 20.
The point of God’s commands for us is not so He can control us. He could control us by His inherent power if He wanted to. No, God’s commands for us are for our benefit (Deuteronomy 5:29, 6:3). If we follow them things will go well for us. If we don’t, then they won’t. It’s pretty simple in concept. The hard part is keeping God’s commands. We don’t because we are sinful. That is why we need a savior.
God tells Israel the way to keep the commands He has given them is to repeat them over and over (Deuteronomy 5:7-9). The word “repeat” is bit vague here and I think that is intentional. Repeat can mean to either tell them to ourselves over and over in our mind or aloud. But it can also mean to do them over and over in practice. I think both are necessary. We need to meditate on God’s word (this is a common theme throughout the Bible) but we also have to intentionally do the things God tells us. They aren’t going to just happen. These are things that go against our sinful nature. We have to make them happen.
Notice too that we are to teach them to our children. I spend a lot of time around high school kids. From what I can tell it seems that the values God has tried to teach us have all but been extinguished in this generation. Although I was an atheist at their age I can recall that back then at least there was some attempt by most people to live lives that adhered to God’s values even if the values themselves were not attributed to God. But now, just one generation later, these values are almost nowhere to be found and are even mocked. It’s very scary how fast our society has crumbled.
When asked what the most important commandment was Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the Lord your God with all your heat, all your soul, and all your strength”.
God knows the future and He knows how frail our will power is and how strong is the sin that is within us. So He is constantly warning us and Deuteronomy 6:14 is a good example. He knew that it would be tempting for Israel to worship the gods of the people they were conquering. Sure enough, as we will see, Israel gives in to these temptations and falls away from the true God. We need to see God’s commands as warnings from a loving, caring Father and not as nagging demands from someone who is a control-freak.
Jesus shows His compassion for us human beings and our struggles on this earth in Luke 7:12-15. The only son of a widow had died. This put the woman in a very troublesome situation as, without a husband or a son to take care of her, her future would be nothing but poverty. So Jesus raised the boyfrom the dead and gave him back to his mother. God is not just interested in our eternity. He is also interested in what is happening here on earth. After all, earth is just as much a part of our existence as is eternity. We are eternal beings and may spend much less time here on earth. But that doesn’t make our present circumstances any less important to God.
When we are in discouraging situations it is easy to lose sight of Jesus. This precisely what happened to John the Baptist in Luke 7:18-23. John was in prison at this time and was apparently doubting that Jesus was the Messiah. But our circumstances never change who God is.
Yet John the Baptist was correct about Jesus all along even though he may now have doubts. John was given a very special place in history. He is the only prophet who was prophesied about. This was in Malachi 3:1 which Jesus quotes in Luke 7:27. But the Pharisees, who should have known the Old Testament better than anyone, had rejected John’s message. So Jesus compares them to selfish children who want others to behave according to their expectations (Luke 7:31-32). The religious leaders didn’t approve of John (Luke 7:33) nor Jesus (Luke 7:34). But Jesus confirms that what is right is verified by the changed lives of those who are followers of Him (Luke 7:35).
Psalm 68 continues today. This Psalm celebrates the victories that God gives us in our lives. It is God who bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19) and rescues us from being consumed by our enemies (Psalm 68:20). Note that this Psalm refers to human enemies of Israel at the time but today can refer to any enemy whether human or spiritual.
God is always on the side of the weak being oppressed by the strong. When the weak cry out to God He will hear and come to their rescue and in the process humble the oppressors (Psalm 68:28-31). For this reason we should praise Him and tell everyone how awesome He is (Psalm 68:33-35).
Proverbs 11:29 tells us that someone who creates trouble in their own family will inherit the wind (i.e. nothing). But someone who lives a life according to God’s will (as best he or she can) will create future generations of wise people (Proverbs 11:30) who are filled with life.
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The Wise Way To Live
Today’s Bible reading: Exodus 37-38:31; Matthew 28:1-20; Psalm 34:11-22; Proverbs 9:9-10
Old Testament
Our reading in Exodus today is pretty self-explanatory. The people build the Ark of the Covenant, the Table, the Lampstand, the Incense Altar, the Altar of Burnt Offering, the Washbasin, the Courtyard, and all the materials for the structure of the Tabernacle.
The Ark of the Covenant is the most holy of all these items. It was placed in the most holy part of the Tabernacle and later was placed in the similar part of the permanent Temple built in Jerusalem. Inside the Ark were the Ten Commandments (2 tablets of stone), a jar of manna, and Aaron’s rod that had budded. Here is a picture of what the Ark may have looked like:
It was above the wings of the cherubim that God would meet with the high priest once a year when the priest went into the most holy part of the Tabernacle/Temple.
What struck me when reading these verses was that the people built all the items to God’s exact specifications. They did not take any liberties with the dimensions of the items or the materials used to build them. In subsequent generations the people will fail to listen to God and do what He says. They will end up in less-than-ideal situations. Its always better to follow what God tells us to do. He is not telling us because He is a dictator. He is telling us because He loves us and can see our future. He has such a better life in store for us than we could ever provide for ourselves. That is why it is best to obey Him. But they word “obey” is such a hard word for us to swallow. None of us want to obey. We want to call the shots. We want “freedom”. I understand that. But the type of “freedom” we want comes at a cost. In the end we end up not being “free” at all. But God offers true freedom – freedom from the striving we go through to have our “false freedom”. In fact, all that striving actually puts us in bondage. The solution: relax and let God lead. He’s better at it than we are.
Isn’t it interesting that the bronze washbasin built in Exodus 38:8 was made from the mirrors donated by some women. Although mirrors certainly have useful function they are a symbol of vanity. In essence, these women were giving up their vanity to help build the Tabernacle.
The amount of gold alone used to build the Tabernacle (Exodus 38:24) would cost almost $6 million dollars today. The silver would cost over $3.5 million. This was the gold and silver that the Egyptians had given Israel when they ordered the Israelites out of Egypt. God blessed the people after being in slavery for centuries and then used what He gave them to glorify Himself. That is exactly how God works, even today.
New Testament
After reading the heart-wrenching passages about Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion over the past two days in Matthew, we read the uplifting story of His resurrection today. Notice that a terrible and tragic event gives way to a wonderful event. God is the Master at turning the sins and failures of human being into joyous events. For example, after the terrible Holocaust came the birth of Israel. God continues to do this type of thing on a lesser-scale in the lives of everyday people all the time. I can’t tell you the number of people who I have met who were in bad situations (addictions, abusive relationships, restrictive countries, etc) who, because of those situations, came to know Jesus Christ and be saved. It happens all the time.
Notice that the stone was rolled away from the front of the tomb. As we will read about in Acts and other parts of the New Testament, the resurrected Jesus was not restricted by material barriers – He could walk through walls and such. Therefore, the stone was not rolled away to let Him out. It was rolled away to let us see in — so witnesses could see that He truly was not there.
Its interesting that the first people to receive the news of Jesus’s resurrection were women. The Bible takes a lot of heat because (some claim) that all the major players are men. That isn’t really true and these passages are a case-in-point. What a privilege it must have been for these women to be the first to discover the empty tomb and have the honor of telling everyone else what had happened.
In Matthew 28:9 the women meet Jesus on the road and worship Him. This is one of the many times where Jesus accepts worship from people (I’ve mentioned 1 or 2 before) and it shows, therefore, that He was God. If He wasn’t God then it would have been very wrong of Him to allow others to worship Him. Of course, if He weren’t God He would not have come back to life after dying, but that goes without saying. The disciples will meet the resurrected Jesus in Matthew 28:17 and will also worship Him.
The resurrection of Jesus was one more chance for the Jewish religious leaders to recognize Jesus as the long awaited Messiah. They could have admitted that they were wrong, as difficult as it would have been to do so. Jesus would have forgiven them – no sin is too big to be forgiven even the sin of killing God. But instead they clung to their pride. It was more important for them to be perceived as being right (even as now they knew they were wrong) and as such they probably ended up leading many people astray and away from heaven due to their made-up story. This is a great lesson for those of you who don’t believe in Jesus. Don’t believe what you hear from people who themselves don’t believe. They almost certainly don’t know what they are talking about. The only thing you do by agreeing with them is promote their ego. Very few people are willing to go out on a limb with their beliefs. They find comfort in having others believe the same things they do whether they are right or wrong. If you are a non-believer I urge you to go gather the facts for yourself. That is what I did 21 years ago as an atheist. I found information and evidence that I didn’t know existed and I changed my mind. As famous economist John Maynard Keynes said: “When the facts change, I change my mind”. That is a very wise way to live.
The resurrection of Jesus was very public. The evidence was right in front of them. There is only one reason not to believe it – pride. That is the same reason people make up all kinds of alternate stories today about what happened to Jesus’s body. But there is no way any of us, living over 2,000 years after the fact, can question the eye-witness accounts of what happened. I was very guilty of this type of thinking myself when I was an atheist until some people pointed out how arrogant it was of me to think that I knew more about what happened than the people who were there. I had no evidence to contest what has been recorded in the Bible. If you question the Biblical account of Jesus’s death and resurrection I hope that you will consider whether you have any valid reason to doubt what the Bible says. Spoiler alert: you don’t.
Matthew 28:16-20 is known as the Great Commission. In these passages Jesus instructs His disciples to “go” and spread the great news of salvation offered by God through Jesus. It is the main reason why Christians feel compelled to tell others how they can get to heaven. As annoying and stupid as I used to think Christians were, I am now one of them :). Although I don’t think I’ve done a very good job to this point of obeying what Jesus commands in these passages, I hope that the rest of my life can be spent teaching people this awesome news so that they, too, can have life in heaven for all eternity. This blog is just one way to do that.
Psalms
Psalm 34:19 tells us that the righteous person will face trouble in life. Even though someone may be born-again and have a relationship with God, they will not be immune to hard times. God doesn’t promise us that life on this earth will be easy. In fact, as we have seen, God uses difficult circumstances to grow us and to glorify Himself. People don’t learn from their successes. We learn from our failures. We learn from difficulty, not from ease. But even though a righteous person will find herself in difficult situations, God will “come to the rescue each time”. How great is that? Not some times. Not a few times. But “each” time. God will never leave you alone if you belong to Him.
But notice that God does not give the same promise to unbelievers. They will be overtaken by calamities (Psalm 34:21). Anyone who hates God’s people will be punished. I used to be on that side of the fence, as I mentioned above. I’m glad I am not there any longer.
Proverbs
I really like Proverbs 9:9. Wise people love to learn. They don’t mind having someone else teach them because they will be even wiser. It takes humility to admit that you don’t know something and to allow someone else to teach you. But it is the wise way to live.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me about this post
The Ten Commandments
Today’s Bible reading: Exodus 19:16-25, 20, 21:1-21 Matthew 23:13-39; Psalms 28:1-9; Proverbs 7:1-5
Exodus 19:15-25, 20, 21:1-21
God’s presence is experienced by the Israelites in our reading of Exodus today. God comes down from heaven in a way that could be heard (thunder), seen (cloud), smelled (smoke) and felt (the ground shook). Certainly the people would have been both in awe and somewhat afraid. As I read this passage in Exodus 19 I thought about Moses and the esteem the people must have held him in after this event. After watching Moses go up to the top of Mt. Sinai, alone, to speak with God the people must have thought Moses to be quite special. I don’t know exactly what they thought of him before this event but I would guess that they had a lot more respect for him after it. I thought that it was probably like a little kid watching his father meet with some important person, maybe the President. A kid could not help thinking that his dad is someone special after witnessing a meeting such as that.
I think the people must have realized they were special also. Who wouldn’t feel special after having the experience of being in God’s presence? God had already told them that He intended to make a convenant (contract) with them and was going to “meet” them in person. They must have been very excited as they anticipated what it would be like to meet with God. I’m sure they discussed it amongst themselves. During the three days of prior to meeting God they were to prepare themselves both outwardly (by washing their clothes) and inwardly (abstaining from distractions such as sex). This was clearly a big occasion.
In Exodus 20 God gives Moses the famous Ten Commandments. The first four commandments deal with our relationship to God. The next six deal with our relationships with each other. In fact, back in Matthew 22 we saw Jesus summarize the Ten Commandments into just two
In the first commandment God declares that we are not to have any other gods “before” Him. Nothing else in our life should come before God. Not money or fame or sex or power or anything. These things are called “idols” and will get in the way of an unbeliever knowing God. They will also distract a believer away from an existing relationship with God. None of us are immune to having idols and at times we all put something “before” God. The important thing is to realize it quickly and correct it by placing God in His rightful place in our life.
Notice that God is a “jealous” God. God isn’t jealous OF other gods/idols. God is jealous FOR His people. He doesn’t want us to be lead astray by false promises that these gods tempt us with. Its easy to think that we can find meaning and fulfillment in our career, or in drugs, alchohol, or sex. But we can’t and God knows this better than we do. He wants to protect us from this false thinking that we easily succumb to.
As you read through the Ten Commandments look at them not so much as “orders” from a dictatorial God but rather as “wise instruction” from a loving God who know the frailties of the human race. Each of these commandments addresses a clear weakness that exists in all of us. God is giving us these instructions not because He is a kill-joy. No, He gives us these instructions because He is a fill-joy: He knows that these things will actually take away our joy if we give in to them.
I think the commandments are pretty self-explanatory so I won’t go into each one. But just a couple of interesting notes…
- The Catholic church does sanction the use of images in its worship so they removed the second commandment (Catholics have their own Bible in which they have altered the original manuscripts to fit their views). But to keep the list at “10” they split the tenth commandment into two.
- The Ten Commandments weren’t just for Old Testament Israel. Each one is repeated in the New Testament so they are still valid for us today.
- The fourth commandment declares a day of rest for everyone, even servants/slaves in a household. This would have been a radical concept back then. This goes to show that just because we think the world should operate one way doesn’t mean that God does. Too often in our society we think the Bible is “out of touch” with modern times. But, frankly, the problem is that we are out of touch with who we really are.
Matthew 23:13-29
Jesus really points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees today. He condemns them for leading people away from heaven and even tells them that they are not going to heaven either (verse 13). This must have really offended them especially since Jesus is saying these things in front of a crowd. These are the religious leaders of Israel and Jesus is basically telling them and everyone else that they don’t know what they are talking about.
The Pharisees also spent too much effort on non-essential matters but neglected the important things like “justice, mercy, and faith” (verse 23). In the process of trying to exterminate the most minute violation of their own rules, they were ignorant of the fact that they were breaking the biggest of all God’s laws (verse 24). It was more important for the Pharisees to look good on the outside – not just their dress but also their behavior – but they were dirty on the inside. Their outward behavior was all for show as it was not influenced by a love for God.
While Jesus’ words are strong we see in verse 37 that He spoke to them harshly not because He hated them but because He loved them. If someone really loves another person they will tell that person when they are doing something to hurt themselves. But often the recipient of the advice takes it the wrong way and believes that such a conversation is confrontational. This is clearly what happens sometimes when a Christian tries to share the message of salvation with a non-believer. The non-believer can sometimes feel offended. But really the Christian is speaking out of love and concern. I’ve been on both sides of such a conversation. There were many times while I was an atheist that someone tried to talk to me about my “sin problem” and I thought that they were criticizing me or even looking down on me. But now as someone who is on the opposite side of these conversations I can tell you that the only thing motivating me is love and concern for the other person’s eternity.
Psalms 28:1-9
God will tear down those who care nothing for all that He has done (verse 5). Gods gives “His people” strength (verse 8). God is under no obligation to give anything to anyone who doesn’t recognize Him. And He doesn’t. Non believers can certainly have success in this world, but that success does not come from God.
Proverbs 7:1-5
Wisdom will protect us from flattery (verses 4-5). Flattery sounds great to our ears but, by definition, is hollow and only given for the benefit of the flatterer. It is easy for the recipient to be taken in by such pleasant compliments. But flattery is a trick. It is deception and wisdom is the antidote.
God’s instructions should be written on our hearts. This means they need to be a part of us… they need to come naturally to us. How does that happen when our natural tendency is to do our own thing? We need to saturate ourselves in God’s word. We need to study (not just read) the Bible and practice all the things that God tell us daily or even hourly until they become who we are.
Comments? Questions? I’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me about this post.
Walking Through The Word 