The 10 Commandments
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The 10 Commandments are something that everyone knows about—if they don’t know all of them, they at least know some of them. If nothing else, you watched the movie with Charlton Heston that’s called “The 10 Commandments”. Others remember the 10 Commandments posted in schools, also other government buildings, and so on and so forth. Some people use the 10 Commandments to minister to people, like Ray Comfort does. Some people just remember the story because the finger of God wrote them in stone. (Exodus 31:18, Deuteronomy 9:10)
But. For your reference here lets list all 10 commands.
Let’s see what the commandments are all about.
#1 Put God first, got it! Actually, Jesus says we are supposed to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, loving Him more than anything else. Oh, okay, FAILED!
#2 No idols, no problem. I don’t make statues. We are good. Oh, never mind. It means you just put something in front of God again. Okay, FAILED!
#3 Don’t misuse Gods name, okay no problem, no “OMG”. No “JC” (when hitting my finger). No, “GD”. Man, this is easy. A little self-control, but I got this!
Well, let’s take a moment on this one. What if it’s actually talking about taking on Gods name, and saying you’re a “Christian”, and saying you love God, but you still hate your neighbor? Or saying you follow Jesus while you’re walking in the opposite direction? Jesus talked about all the commandments, right? Okay, but did he reference taking the Lord’s name in vain? Most folks will say yes, he talked about it in (Matthew 5:33-37).
But did he really? Wasn’t he talking about making vows and swearing? Same thing, right? I don’t think so. We shouldn’t use his name as a cuss word. We should respect His Holy name, but God is not talking about that. God actually said don’t speak the name of foreign gods or other gods, only His name, but we should be respectful and keep His name Holy. But what Jesus says about it is, Don’t call me Lord and then don’t do what I say. They honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They claim to be a prophet and then speak lies. They claim to be leading the flock when you’re leading them into a wolfs den. They claim they love Jesus while they show no love to others. (Matthew 6:1-18, Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 15:8-9, Matthew 18:6, Matthew 23:1-36, Matthew 24:5)
This is one of the biggest reasons we’re in the state we are today. So many people claim to be “Christians,” but their hearts are far from God, and this my friends leads countless others astray. People follow religion like it's a god of its own, and they put it before the Creator, the Great I AM!
If you think going to “church” makes you right with God, you’ve just created a works-based religion. You’ve placed something else another god, before Him.
If you think repeating “the sinner’s prayer,” dressing nicely, following some life principles, and trying to live clean makes you holy—you’ve built another idol. That’s a form of godliness without the power.
If you had a spiritual experience, and now the church you attend doesn’t quite match what you believe, so you start a whole new “church” or denomination because you’ve found the truth, guess what? That’s still a works religion, and you’ve put your own idea of truth above the Truth Himself.
It’s the same when people think they’re saved because they serve on a ministry team, or they tithe regularly, or they were baptized as a baby, or their family has “always been Christian.” None of that gets you to the Father.
Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven!
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)
No pastor, no tradition, no rulebook, no “statute” or statue 😉, no church standards, no denomination, no good deeds, no spiritual performance none of it can save you. Only Jesus. The One and Only Savior. The Creator. The Great I AM!
So, long story short, we FAILED!
#4 Go to church! I mean… Keep the sabbath day, easy peasy! Go to “church” and don’t work, Got it! But, Jesus actually said He made sabbath for man, not man for the sabbath, so we are supposed to be doing the Fathers will on the sabbath, what’s that mean? Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving others, Oh crap!, okay FAILED!
I could keep going down the list, but I think y’all get the point, at least I hope so, but if not let me make it clear, The 10 Commandments are powerful. But they don’t save you; they don’t heal you, they don’t clean you from your sin, they don’t give life, they literally just point you to the Savior, because trying to abide by all those 10 Commandments on your own is absolutely impossible, because it all boils down to one thing, YOUR HEART, and Jesus is the only thing that can change your heart and make that right, The commandments are 10 moral guidelines from God, given to the Israelites to show them and us what His standard is, and to explain that no matter how hard we try, we are imperfect sinful humans, that desperately need a Savior Jesus Christ. (Exodus 20:1–17, Romans 3:20, Galatians 3:24).
I’ve been reading through Exodus a lot here lately, and it just struck me hard this time how misused the whole concept of the 10 Commandments is these days. Some people will tell others about Jesus, and then they’ll say, “Now go follow the 10 Commandments.” You can’t point someone to Jesus and then tell them to go back and follow the law. It just doesn’t work like that. We all know the story of the Rich Young Ruler when he came and asked Jesus what he must do to be saved. It’s not about following the 10 Commandments. It’s not about following a set guideline. It’s all about the heart. Jesus could care a fart less about what ordinance you uphold in your “church”, or what you say you believe or how you dress or the proper words you speak. He wants to know where your heart is. Are you dying to the old way of law, the system of this world, and following Jesus or not? (Mark 10:17–22, Matthew 22:37–40, Romans 10:4, Galatians 2:19–21, Colossians 2:20–23)
Paul talks about how he would not know that he was a sinner without knowing the law. If you break the moral law of God, that automatically means you’re a sinner in need of a Savior, It’s as simple as that. (Romans 3:23, Romans 7:7)
God gave the Israelites so many rules to follow, so many commands down to the last little detail, but they could not follow them—and that’s the point. In Ezekiel, God talks about how He gave the Israelites rules and laws that could not lead to life because of their disobedience and rejection of Him (Ezekiel 20:25–26).
If people do know the story about the 10 Commandments, they probably know about the Israelites and Aaron building the golden calf for the people to worship. But what most people do not put together is this: that was happening at the same time God came down and talked to the people. The people were so terrified of God that they begged Moses just to talk to God and leave them out of it because they were scared that God would destroy them. God wanted to be their leader, but they didn’t want God to be their leader; they wanted Moses or some other man that they could look up to for a leader, Sound familiar? (Exodus 19:9–20:21, Exodus 20:18–19, Exodus 32, 1 Samuel 8:7)
Well, let’s not get too off track here. God spoke to Moses about all the rules and laws, especially the one about having no other gods before Him and creating idols, handcrafting altars, and so forth. Moses told the people what God had said, and they all together agreed to follow what God said to the very last detail. Moses then goes back up on the mountain to talk to God while God hands down the 10 Commandments. It says Moses was gone for 40 days on the mountain, but who knows exactly what the timeframe was that these people revolted? But sometime along this time frame, they did not have a leader, and they panicked. All they had to do was reach out to God and let Him be their leader. But they wanted to look to a man, and this man was Moses at the time. But now Moses was gone, so they tried to get another leader—Aaron—to build a god for them so they could worship. Literally less than 40 days after God directly told them not to build any altars or idols, at the exact same time God was handwriting the 10 Commandments for Moses to take to the people (Exodus 20:1–26, Exodus 24:3, Exodus 32:1–8).
Do you see the problem here? They could care less about what God said, because their heart was not in it (Isaiah 29:13). You can say whatever you want to. You can look great on the outside, just like Jesus told the Pharisees: You are whitewashed tombs—look great on the outside, but inside are stinky dead men’s bones (Matthew 23:27–28). There was no difference back in the day right here on the mountain, and there is still no difference today right here right now in modern-day churches and any type of religion.
You can’t get to the Father by following the 10 Commandments. You cannot get to the Father by following all Jewish laws and commands. If you go back through all Moses’ writings, there are so many laws and guidelines to follow that I cannot keep track of them—hundreds and hundreds of laws and deeds to follow. But God did not want any of this. All He wanted was a sacrificial offering of yourself. He didn’t want Isaac to be burnt on the altar. He loved Isaac. What He wanted was Abraham to be willing to give his promised blessed God given son Isaac to Him as a selfless sacrifice (Genesis 22:1–12, Matthew 16:24-26, John 14:6, Romans 12:1).
God tells the children of Israel that He wants their firstborn children and their firstborn cows, sheep, and goats, but if you read Isaiah, you’ll clearly see that God hates sacrifices, burnt offerings, new moon festivals—any type of religious practice—because people’s hearts are not in it. All God wants is for you to be willing to give Him your firstborn cow, sheep, or goats deep down from your heart, being thankful to Him for blessing you with so much that you will gladly, with a joyous heart, give Him the cream of the crop. That’s what it’s always been about. (Exodus 13:2, Numbers 18:17, Isaiah 1:11–14)
God has never changed. All He wants is for us to love Him like He loves us. And when we do that, we will love our neighbor as ourselves as well. Paul says every commandment can be summed up with one commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. If you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you will love each other. That’s just the way it goes. (Malachi 3:6, Mark 12:30–31), Romans 13:9–10, Hebrews 13:8)
If you follow Jesus, you will love others like Jesus loves you. John says you cannot love God and hate your brother. It does not work. You either love God or you hate God. You either love the things God loves or you hate the things God loves (John 13:34, 1 John 4:20–21).
So please, do me and yourself a favor. Get rid of all these preconceived ideas on what you think you need to do, what laws you think you should follow, what guidelines you think you need. Pick up the Bible, start reading in Genesis, read all the way through Revelation, and when you get done, start over again. And in the meantime, every day, all the time, pray without ceasing. Talk to your Heavenly Father through the power of Jesus. Follow Jesus, the Savior of this world, the One who was, the One who is, and the One who is still to come—the One who gave His life for you and me on that cross that faithful day and rose again just like He said on the third day, to make a way to eternity for each and every one of us. (Matthew 28:5–6, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Revelation 1:8)
And all He asks is for us to pick up our cross, die to ourselves, die to this world, and follow Him today! (Luke 9:23, Galatians 6:14)
I don’t know about you, but I think that is the greatest gift imaginable, very undeserved, and way beyond a fair trade, so please take Him up on it today!
Until next time and from now on, may the good Lord bless you.
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~ Joe Lester ~