The Ten Commandments
LOVING AND HELPING OTHERS
(Ex. 20:12-21; KJV)
Golden Text
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Lev. 19:18).
Plan of the Lesson
Honoring Parents (v. 12)
The Sanctity of Life (v. 13)
The Law of Purity (v. 14)
The Law of Honesty (v. 15)
The Law of Truth (v. 16)
The Law of Unselfishness (v. 17)
The Fear of God (vv. 18-21)
Setting of the Lesson
Time: On the second month (April-May) the Israelites reached the wilderness of Sin, and on the first day of the third month (May-June) they reached the wilderness of Sinai.
Place: The mountainous region of Sinai, between the two arms of the Red Sea. Mt. Sinai and its plains and valleys.
Questions addressed in our study
What does the 5th Commandment require?
What promise is attached to it?
Why is that promise an appropriate one?
What kind of killing is forbidden by the 6th Commandment?
What kind is not forbidden?
How did Christ broaden the 7th Commandment?
What forms of stealing are common today?
In what ways do men bear false witness against their neighbors?
How does the 10th Commandment differ from the others?
What is the essential sin of covetousness?
Why did the people fear to speak with God?
Why did they ask Moses to speak to them instead of God?
Re: Adult Study
In our last lesson it was suggested that adult students focus on circumstances regarding the giving of the Law. Most of that lesson was devoted to the first four Commandments, especially their present-day applications. Hopefully, it offered a warning against worldliness and cultivating a godly reverence, a love for and understanding of the Sabbath, a delight in God’s house and God’s Word. In this lesson we will briefly study each of the remaining six Commandments and consider the question: What can be done to bring about a better understanding of the Ten Commandments?
Re: Youth Study
In our last lesson, we suggested that younger students, as well as new born babes in Christ, consider the circumstances attending the giving of the Ten Commandments, and focus on the majestic scenes that inspire awe and reverence for God, hopefully filling the young and inexperienced mind with veneration for Divine commands. In this lesson we suggest that special emphasis be placed on the Commandments against swearing, Sabbath desecration (as it applies today concerning the Lord’s Day), lying, covetousness, and the command to honor father and mother.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:12
Honoring Parents
The Commandments were written on two stone tablets, and it is possible that the first four, which we briefly studied in the last lesson, occupied the first table or tablet, because they all relate to our duties to God; the remaining six, relating to our duties to men, perhaps occupied the second table or tablet of the law. Of course, no one knows for sure and Scripture does not reveal such. The duty of honoring parents is a suitable transition, because during the years before we can understand the first elements of religion, our parents stand in God’s place for us.
5th Commandment
20:12 … “Honor thy father and thy mother.” The eternal law requires the reverent loyalty of son and daughter. It exalts in their eyes a father’s honor; and, let us note with profound recollection a mother’s honor side by side with his. In proportion as this great virtue of filial obedience is engrafted into the manners of any country, in the same proportion will decency and good order prevail, and every precept of the Gospel be more deeply engraven on the minds and uniformly displayed in the actions of the people of that nation. What if our fathers are not honorable? Then we can at least honor parenthood in them. But if we look with the eyes of love, we can surely find something to honor and much for which to be grateful. Some are tempted not to honor their fathers on one ground, some on another; some have tolerable excuses for their sin, some have poor excuses. Some honor their fathers and not their mothers, or their mothers and not their fathers. Some scarcely know what honoring means; they can only think of themselves and their own importance. And how bitter the anguish of recollecting honor that was never rendered when the time for it is gone; when their gray hairs are in the dust; when they no longer want the services withheld; the reverence and love refused them.
20:12 … That thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.” The reference is to the Canaan to which the Israelites were journeying, but it applies as well to us and to our country. This is, as Paul calls it, “the first commandment with promise” (Eph. 6:2). A spirit of filial respect implies a well-ordered life in general, and so tends to secure prosperity both to the individual and the nation. Reduced to the simplest terms this is the law of self-preservation.
Illustration
There is an old saying, “Take care of yourself and you yourself will be taken care of.” Johnson, the traveler, was witness to hellish scenes in the South Sea Islands, where old people who had reached the age of helplessness and infirmity were deliberately buried alive. But the poor savage wretch who tramped the dirt down on the grave did not realize that he was tramping the dirt down on his own grave, that this act of horrible barbarism, performed upon old age, was an act that in the end involved him as a victim.
We are living in an age that especially needs this commandment, for children have seized on a liberty of action which would have horrified earlier generations, and in many cases the liberty has become license, all honor and obedience to parents are forgotten or laughed at, the home is virtually abandoned, and often lives are wrecked. There is scarcely anything more needed in our times than a return to filial love and loyalty, and the return can be only by way of loving and earnest Christian education.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:13
The Sanctity of Life
6th Commandment
20:13 … “Thou shalt not kill.” Since the advent of terrorism is teaching a new generation the art of murder, the sanctity of human life seems less than ever before. Around the world there appears to be wave upon wave of crime, and the crimes have often been those of violence. Places that in times past have been known as centers of relaxation and dining can today become hotbeds of fierce passions and death. It seems that mankind’s greed has no limit when it comes to the illicit manufacture and selling of pornography. More than ever there is need for a sterner emphasis on the 6th Commandment.
But we must not insist on the literal command in all cases. It is evident enough that the 6th Commandment never was intended to conflict with the necessity of taking the life of another in one’s own self-defense. Also, if we see one unjustly attacked and someone’s life is in peril we may defend that life as our own. The right of a person to defend the lives of family is as clear as the right to defend one’s own life. So it is with the right of the policeman to take life in protection of society and the right of a judge to send a murderer to the electric chair or some other means of death and the right of a soldier to kill the enemies of his country. However, while such legal killings are justified, still, it is the prayer of all Christians that they shall cease to be needed – that our society will come to repentance.
Christianity carries this commandment to its extreme in teaching that “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15); and if we once come under the sway of Christ’s law of love, murderous thoughts will be as abhorrent to us as murderous deeds. And still further, a true regard for the sanctity of life will not stop with prohibiting the slaying of men, but will do all it can to build up their lives, enacting and carrying out pure food laws, abolishing “sweat shops” and foul tenements; extending a knowledge of hygiene in the hope of abolishing many diseases throughout the world, weakening the hold of many more, and working to increase human strength and the joy of living. Life is so sacred that it must be lived to its best.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:14
The Law of Purity
7th Commandment
20:14 … “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Our country is shamefully conspicuous among the nations in the appalling number of divorces, and sadly a growing number of these are simply legal sanctions of adultery. As the preceding commandment declares the sanctity of life, so this asserts the sanctity of marriage. We must restore that high conception of marriage in which even the Roman code defined as “the partnership of the whole life, the participation of all rights, human and divine.” We must insist on the recognition by all Christians of its holy mystery as signifying the mystical union between Christ and His Church. We must think of it as Tertullian in one age described it: “One hope, one vow, one worship, one discipline; a happiness which the church ratifies, the obligation confirms, the benediction seals, angels announce, the Father declares valid”; as shut up and secured by all the arts of heaven, by honor and reputation, by fear and shame, by interest and high regards.
Our Lord, Who broadened and at the same time deepened all the Commandments (which we consider in following lessons), declared that the lustful thought and desire are as bad as the lustful act (Matt. 5:28). We cannot consider ourselves truly pure unless the heart is pure. If we delight in pornographic pictures and books; in films that are suggestive, which contain indecent anecdotes, abominable imaginations, and the like, then we have brought ourselves under the ban of this Commandment.
If we are guilty of this sin, we should not let the day pass without repenting. If we are living in some secret sin, or fostering impure thoughts, we need to make up our minds that by the grace of God we will be delivered. Even in this life adultery and uncleanness bring their awful results, both physical and mental. Vice carries a sting in its tail, like the scorpion. The body is sinned against, and the body sooner or later suffers. This sin drags a person lower than the beasts. It stains the memory, and as D.L. Moody often said, “memory is the worm that never dies.” Only the pure Savior can save us from the memory of obscene stories, obscene pictures, and unclean acts – only Jesus Christ can strengthen us to live a pure life.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:15
The Law of Honesty
8th Commandment
20:15 … “Thou shalt not steal.” Honesty is within the reach of everybody. There is always one thing that every human being is able to say: “I can be honest.” And yet it seems to be as hard now to be honest as it was thousands of years ago. “I intended to make a list of the words that expressed the many shades and grades and forms of dishonesty, but when I began to write them down it became evident that I could not get them into my sermon and still leave room for the other things that needed to be said. I started with ‘thief,’ ‘burglar,’ ‘robber,’ ‘pickpocket,’ ‘shoplifter;’ then I went on to ‘forger,’ ‘defaulter,’ ‘embezzler,’ ‘swindler,’ ‘cheat;’ and then so many other crowds of dark words came trooping around me that I decided to let each listener make out the list for themselves. Then I asked myself, ‘Why do we have such bad and ugly names?’ And the answer was plain: Because we are members of a dishonest race; because so many of us break the 8th Commandment” (Dr. William Harrison).
The forms of stealing are almost endless. Men steal by cornering the market, by selling drugs (even though they know that by doing so they will harm the buyer), by winning bets and other forms of gambling, by cut-throat competition, by taking advantage of a clerk’s giving too much in change, by withholding wages when they are due or failing to pay one’s bills promptly, by driving hard bargains, by adulterating commodities, by evading taxes, etc. The violent and bloody ways in which barbarism robs have given place to the pacific ways of civilization. The club and the sword have been laid by for the smooth tongue, noiseless pen, and computer keyboard. But the spoliation goes on, the stain of the primeval cave-dwellers clings to the splendor of the modern mart, and the hearer of the Gospel of the grace of God needs to be warned by the thunder of Mount Sinai, “Thou shalt not steal.” Honesty will never take anything from another without rendering a fair and full equivalent in money and/or service.
Religion seeks to plant in the conscience this law of honesty, built on the mutual obligation of man to man. We can give no better definition than in the Word of God, as stated by the Apostle Paul: “Provide things honest in the sight not only of the Lord, but of men.” It is a striking instance of the degeneracy in moral ideas, so often traceable in change of words, that honesty with us means strictness in the letter of a bargain, while in the New Testament it means honorable. To be honest is to be true to the largest spirit of social duty; it is “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” An honest man obeys this unwritten law; he is inflexible in hatred of any craft, in loyalty to the least claim of conscience; in a bargain of honor as in a written bond; in a penny as in a million; in all the nice relations which do not come within the letter, but are the essential aim of justice.
Only one law out of ten relates to what a man has and owns; the other nine laws concern what a man is, and what he does with himself. There are three hundred words in the Decalogue, and only four of them relate directly to the tenure and transfer of property. Thus, God teaches us that while He cares for the possessions of man, He cares much more for the man himself; and that He cares for the possessions only because they make or mar, help or hinder, heal or harm the man himself.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:16
The Law of Truth
9th Commandment
20:16 … “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” This commandment forbids the giving of lying testimony in law courts, a practice sadly common in Oriental lands. It is also a law against the horrible sin of slander in private life, the mean insinuations, the crafty silences and shrugs, the half-truths that are falsehoods, as well as the open slanders. All these are cowardly but often deadly means of attack and many a life is blasted by them. Such lies, once started, can never be completely overtaken. They are especially common in heated political campaigns, when candidates and newspapers come as near to libel of men of the opposite party as they dare. Trade competitions and social rivalries give rise to slanders. There is hardly a more despicable sin than this.
Chattering, gossiping busybodies are the devil’s best allies. One in a church can make a minister’s best work fruitless. Where they come nothing is sacred, and nothing safe. They poison the wine of friendship. They mingle wormwood and gall in the cup of the saintliest. They rob life of its choicest treasures, its trust, its confidence, its joy, and in their stead they bring in suspicion and worry and heartache. What are the sources from which these evils spring? We conclude that for the most part, they are not due to malicious and murderous intent. We sin with our tongue, not because we plan, but because we fail to govern and control the tongue. In other words, we talk too much. We enjoy creating a sensation. We like to pass judgment on others. We want to be considered sharp and witty, and care not at whose expense. We do not remember that exaggeration is a form of falsehood. We do not watch our speech as such a keen-edged tool should be watched.
Never before in the world’s history has lying been as dangerous as now. The great liars of antiquity and even of the Dark Ages were able to circulate their lies only in their own city, or at most in a limited and imperfect extent of territory; but now there is no end to the accurate circulation of a lie. There is only one way to blot out sins: “Repent ye, and turn ye, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:17
The Law of Unselfishness
10th Commandment
20:17 … “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house … nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” This is only another form of the great commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” To love the rich man as self means to have no desire to live in or posses his house, to drive his cars, or enjoy his income. If a statesman loves his rival as well as he loves himself, he will not envy his rival’s triumph, and desire his rival’s honor; the only motive that will induce him to strive for power will be the conviction that he is better able to serve the state. Sound like an impossible precept? Perhaps, but for those whom we love we gladly surrender personal comfort and ease. Their happiness and prosperity are dearer to us than our own. What father covets his son’s wealth? What mother covets her daughter’s beauty?
All the former commandments have forbidden overt acts. To disobey any of these is sooner or later to be detected by one’s fellow-men. This final word utters its solemn warning against sin in the inner and hidden life. This commandment may be broken without the knowledge of any human being. Sooner or later this also will reveal itself in some overt act.
In Jesus’ mind this 10th Commandment was indissolubly connected with the 1st, so that the Decalogue for Him began and ended on the same note. A man whose heart was set on acquiring wealth, no matter what lofty purpose he had in mind for it, was setting another god up beside the living Father on His throne of life. He was giving something else a consideration, a trust, a service, that belonged to God alone. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” And in entire accord with the Master, Paul constantly calls a covetous man an idolater.
Each added “Word” opened up some new region of social life. But the 10th annexes no additional providence of that sort. This profound Word, “Thou shalt not covet,” in effect doubled the whole law, because within its survey it swept the hidden as well as the outer life.
This commandment goes straight to the root of what we all feel to be the difficulty, when we are honest with ourselves. It puts its finger on the primary evil – selfishness. The law, “Thou shalt not covet,” has shown us that the desire for our own good at the expense of others, i.e., selfishness, is within us. Only the love of Christ can root out that evil growth. And so we see that this last Commandment is a sort of link between the Old Covenant and the New.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:18-21
The Fear of God
Our lesson includes not only the second table of the Law, but an account of the people’s awe before the Giver of the Law, indicating what should be our own feeling in the presence of these Divine Words.
20:18 … “And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.” Whether they were on the plain at the foot of the sacred mount, or in the mountain valleys leading up to it, all perceived these majestic and overpowering manifestations of Deity.
20:18 … “And when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.” The natural heart, conscious of its sin, draws away from God in great fear. It is only in Christ that we can come near to the Most High.
20:19 … “And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear.” They knew Moses; he was no stranger, but a man of like passions with them. They could understand him; he spoke their vernacular. He had all the attributes of their own humanity and was intelligible and acceptable. They had shamefully reviled him, but in fear they turned to his well-proved strength.
20:19 … “But let not God speak with us, lest we die.” Why were they so afraid? After all, God was doing them a great favor by conferring on them the blessing most needful for their welfare. Their alarm reveals a tendency that has manifested itself in every age. Transgression has formed a chasm between the creature and the Creator. It has severed man from God, predisposing Him to close ear and heart to His direct communications. There are always a great many people who live in perpetual anxiety that life will become too awful, too serious, too deep, and too solemn. Such people are always hiding behind effects to keep out of sight of their causes, behind events to keep out of sight of their meanings, behind facts to keep out of sight of principles, behind men to keep out of sight of God. However, the only real safety and happiness of life comes from bravely looking down into its depths when they are opened to us, and taking into account the profoundest meanings of existence.
20:20 … “And Moses said unto the people, Fear not.” God is to be feared because of His power, His majesty, His just anger against sin; but He is not to be feared as the Hebrews feared Him, when God had given them every reason to trust Him and love Him.
20:20 … “For God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not.” This would be the godly fear, the fear of sin, the dread of incurring Divine judgment. The Commandments were spoken to test the people; that by their obedience God might know the sincerity of their allegiance to Him.
20:21 … “And the people stood afar off [At a distance from the terrors of Sinai], and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was” (emphasis added). “As the people drew back, Moses drew near. The display that drove them off, attracted him. He did not even fear the ‘thick darkness’ – a thing from which human nature commonly shrinks. Where God was, he would be” (Pulpit Commentary). Someone wrote:
Alas, that they so soon, as afterward
So oft, on Israel should so terribly
Be wreaked the threats denounced from Sinai top –
Threats all in grace, although in wrath, fulfilled!
Grace even in wrath, a paradox of God,
Then wondrously resolved when on the cross
Mercy and judgment reconciled clasped hands
And kissed each other for eternal peace –
Met in the person of the Crucified,
The Lamb before the world was founded slain!
