Is This for Real?

Ten Commandments – yep, I said it.

May 27, 2008 on 6:35 pm | In Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Western Culture | Comments Off

Food for thought:

Do the rules listed below sound bad to you? They sound good to me, but apparently there are leaders of our country who think these words should be banned from the public setting. I guess freedom of speech only applies to those who agree with their ideology.

Maybe you don’t believe in God, but don’t you think if we read and applied these words to some degree then maybe we wouldn’t have some of the trouble we have in our country like Murder, Rape, Theft, School Shootings, Corporate Plunder, Political Corruption, Suicide, Drug Addiction, Alcoholism, Sexual Immorality, broken homes, Racism, Fraud, Child Abuse, and even heath issues related to stress? Maybe, just maybe if we started with these rules, things would be a little better. And don’t we all want that?

God Said:

- You shall have no other gods before me.
- You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
- You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
- Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
- Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Click on Read More to see a simple breakdown of how these rules could be helpful.

Think about it. Give it a try.

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While I am a believer in Jesus resting firmly on the authority of the Scriptures, I will attempt in my own feable way to place practical argument aligned with the 10 Commandments as they are called.

- You shall have no other gods before me.

Would not putting God or for you agnostics out there a “higher power” first in our lives steer away our own natural tendency to live for ourselves help us be better people? Is not selfish ambition really the root of all crime and social offense?

- You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything ….

All too often we engage in a self-centered pursuit of our own happiness, and put first or idolize things that we believe will make us happy. There is nothing wrong with being happy, but it’s when we pursue other things at the expense of doing right and at the expense of other’s well-being, that we sacrifice our very souls by living for something that in the end doesn’t bring true and lasting joy. We end up being empty and depressed. And of course our Creator deserves first-place in everything.

- You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Imagine for a moment this Creator I am describing who deserves all of our respect simply for who He is. Wouldn’t we be better off living in such a way out of respect? Would we not take pause in our actions and reflect as to whether or not we should do certain things?

- Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy….

Imagine a set day off for everyone. Health would be better with less stress

- Honor your father and your mother,…

How much better our homes and family relationships would be. Yeah, nobody’s perfect. My parents weren’t but my respectful attitude towards them made and makes a big difference.

- You shall not murder.

Well, wouldn’t the scene at Columbine be different… or in our cities and towns?

- You shall not commit adultery.

The institution of marriage has been under attack ever since the beginning of time. The family is the building block of society. The ideal and strongest family is one that is comprised of a faithful, loving, monogamous relationship between a man and a woman who lead their home together teaching their children how to grow to be good people and repeat the process. How very disrespected and degraded the family has become, because we are not respecting morality.

- You shall not steal.

From petty theft to corporate plunder to the abuse of eminent domain. How different would the lives of countless victims be if people did not move to satisfy their own greed.

- You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

No one will ever forget words like “I did not touch that woman”, “no new taxes”, “cooking the books”. How much damage has it caused to hear someone make a statement only to find out later that is was a lie. Whether it’s in everyday interpersonal relationships or national leaders, lying destroys. Lack of integrity is rampant. It is a battle that individuals must wage within themselves. If we deteriorate to the point where no one can trust the word of another, life with each other will be most miserable.

- You shall not covet …

At the core of our society, coveting is vogue. Shame on us. If we did not covet, you would not see the rash of corporate fraud, or the epidemic of credit debt. We see things, and we want them and put ourselves and our livelihood at risk to have them some people are dumb enough to blame capitalism for these kinds of problems. Not so. Capitalism is free and healthy and allows people the freedom to take care of themselves and others, as they should. The problem is covetousness. We need to break the ‘keeping up with the Jones’ scenario, and learn to work hard, plan, earn, store, and help.

I quickly typed out these observations. I could have poured more into it, waxed more eloquent, and engaged in more Bible apologetics. But again, my intent is to appeal to a common-sense analysis of the problems we face in our culture today and offer some observations as to how these timeless rules are still relevant, and how the application of them today could help us resolve the issues we face.

One final thought. If these are good, practical ideas that came from the ancient Judeo-Christian Scripture, what more beneficial guidence might they have to offer. Shouldn’t we pursure this knowledge.