Ethics 5: The Ten Commandments (1)

Note: For new readers, welcome! I greatly recommend you start back at the beginning of this series so that this makes sense. Just go to the search bar and type in "ethics" and all the ethics articles will pop up.

In this article, I will be briefly going over the first four of the Ten Commandments.

1. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

What God is telling the Israelites (and us!) is that we shall not have any other gods before Him. Basically, not worshipping anything except God. The first sentence about Egypt is there because in the context of the story, God had just rescued the Israelites from Egypt.

2. "You shall not make idols*; you shall not bow down to them nor 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 fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

Whoa, that's a mouthful. What it says is simply this: do not make any idols. Do not worship them, or serve them. It's related a little to the first commandment where God says not to have any other Gods before Him. The next part says that God is a jealous God. This means that He is jealous of us. He wants us. The rest just explains what He will do to the Israelites in regards of keeping His Commandments.

3. You shall not use the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Swearing and using God's name in vain is wrong. That's just part of our being. And now God is telling the Israelites that if they use His name in vain, then he will not hold him/her guiltless. Note that this is in the Old Testament and God forgives our sins after He died for us, but we still shouldn't use His name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

That is a lot to read--alone understand. I'm no Bible scholar, but I can help summarize this commandment a bit:

1. Remember the Sabbath day. Rest on this day.
2. God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh.
3. God is telling the Israelites that nobody should be doing work on the Sabbath.

Nowadays, the culture is busy. People are busy. It may sound ridiculous to take off an entire day. However, this is something God told us to do. "Going to church" is a good thing to do and we know that it is right. Well, usually, Saturday or Sunday could be considered your "Sabbath" and you take time that day to worship God and learn more about him.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

This command is straight forward, but so important. Honor your father and your mother. This isn't just something that you have to do. God tells us to honor our parents. So. There you go!

Thanks so much for reading. Next time I will do a short overview again of the last five commandments.

See you next time
~Caleb