What About The 10 Commandments?

10 simple/basic rules to follow from Exodus 20:1-17:

1. Do not worship any gods other than God. Speaks for itself, the number one and most important of all the commandments. Some people ask or wonder if God is conceited by always talking about Himself. Why not? Isn’t He God? If He elevated anything or anyone over Himself, God would be breaking His own first commandment.
2. Don’t make and worship any images of anything created by God, but love God and obey Him. Idol worship is huge all over Asia. Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism all have idol worship where people bow down to statues of images over bowing before the Creator of those images. We also make images in our hearts- anything we put before God is showing that we love that thing over God, and He tells us to love Him with all of our hearts by obeying Him.
3. Do not misuse God’s name. Using God’s name as a curse word. How easy we do it when we are angry. Even further- don’t use God’s name to profit. So many people over the history of the world have used God’s name to make money, go to war, kill, etc. That is misuse of God’s name, and He says He will punish those who do so.
4. Remember the Sabbath Day. There is a lot of controversy is over this commandment. Work for 6 days, but on the 7th day do no work and rest. God gave us at least one day of rest in the week- a day that we should take and dedicate to God. Many people think it has to be Sunday, which is for church gatherings to dedicate and worship God. Actually, Sunday is the first day of the week, so the seventh day is Saturday (I am not a 7th Day Adventist). Sunday is a day when most people around the world take off from work, so it was the day that was set to worship God and gather in church, and has remained the traditional day to set aside for church gatherings. God only wants us to take a day of rest for our health. God did not need rest- he never needs rest, but He set up a day of rest for us, and with that we should remember our God in our hearts. It doesn’t matter what day, just that one of those 7 days should be set aside for rest and to replenish our spirits by resting in God.
5. Respect your father and mother. Give them the honor that they deserve, but do not honor them over God, and if they break God’s commands and reject Him, still respect them, but follow God in every way. “What if they tell me to not follow God? Do I still respect them and honor them?” God takes precedence over this. We follow His commandment to love Him and no one or thing above Him. There may come a time when we shake the dust off our feet if this relationship interferes with our relationship with God- we honor God first and most, but through that love of God we also love our parents.
6. Do not murder. We make the argument that we are good people because we have not murdered anyone. That’s good, but Jesus takes this commandment further. He says that if we have anger in our hearts toward another person- if we hate them, then we commit murder in our hearts. God is concerned not only by our physical obedience, but our spiritual obedience, and that comes from our heart.
7. Do not commit adultery. Be faithful to your spouse in marriage. Perhaps easy enough, but Jesus takes this one further also. He says when we look at another woman and wanter her or lust after her, we have already committed the act of adultery in our hearts.
8. Do not steal. This means anything. If we don’t rob banks, we think we’re okay. But, if we steal anything, even something very small, which means taking something without paying for it, we are guilty of breaking this commandment. Some controversy has come up from this commandment also. What if someone is starving, and they have to steal to eat? Stealing is bad, and it is in the heart that we conceive the plot to steal. If we confess to follow God, we put our trust in Him to provide EVERYTHING we need, and He will provide. When we steal, we jump over what God plans to bless us with- we go behind His back or around His plan. Wait on the Lord, and He will give you what you need.
9. Don’t tell lies. Be truthful always. When we lie, it does no good. Satan is the father of all lies, and when we start to lie, we wind up in ruins. We can lie to men, but when that lie is told, God knows it and we cannot hide from Him. Annanais and Sapphira learned this rule in Acts 5. We will know it when we face judgment, that God knows all our secrets that we try to hide from men, and those will be judged by God.
10. Don’t want your neighbor’s stuff. Be happy with what you have. If you wallow in pity over not having what someone else has, you will be really unhappy, and you are showing that you are not trusting in God. If you lust after the things that someone else has, you will begin to have evil thoughts, jealousy, anger and greed.

The 10 Commandments are not just a guideline, they are commands given to us by the One True God of the universe. We are to keep them in our hearts so that when difficult temptations come, we can remember God’s commands and obey them, which is a way that we show Him our love.