Bible Questions Answered: Ten Commandments

Bible Questions Answered:
Are the ten commandments for us today?
Richard/ Melbourne, Australia

Bible Answer:
Yes, Christ often referred to the commandments.
Christians, are not "saved, by keeping of the commandments", but neither are they saved "from not keeping the commandments."
These moral guides, are timeless, and so, true for all generations.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Exodus 20:1-17.

1: And God spake all these words, saying,
2: I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12: Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13: Thou shalt not kill.
14: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15: Thou shalt not steal.
16: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.:

These Codes For Conduct for Israel, and the whole world, bring with them the promise of God's blessing.

NUMBER ONE

Exodus 20:3:
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

The Commandments show the foreknowledge of God.
Our God knew from the beginning, that “things,” would try to usurp the place of God.
False gods all, money, power, social status,...etc,. are not to be more important than God!

Material worship, can be oh so easy. The love of power and goods, houses or lands whatever it might be, if not checked, can be all consuming.

"No other Gods," it means, nothing can usurp God's place! Nothing should ever take God's rightful worship!

Do people actually "worship" their money, their land, their power?
When something consumes our lives, leaving less room for God, it forces God from the position of being supreme.

I Chronicles 16:29 KJV
"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name..."

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NUMBER TWO

Exodus 20:4-6
4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;
6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

God's image is too great to be cast in stone!
No earthly man, or object is to be venerated!
No earthly object is to take the place of God, and be bowed down to!

In Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:9 John fell at the feet of a mighty angel
(Revelation 18:1/Revelation 22:8), after having received a vision of future events, but the angel told John...

Revelation 19:10
"And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: Worship God: ..."

Ungodly men unwilling to bow to the God of the universe, and Redeemer of Calvary, gladly in Pomp and Circumstance, will bow to one lifeless shrine or another in open "self-righteous piety."

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Interesting note:
One denomination, cuts verses four, five, and six from the Commandment list, and to make up for the loss of one commandment, they divide the tenth Commandment into two parts (verse 17), namely coveting a neighbors mate, and house/ and coveting all his goods.

And why, would they do this?
They do it, because their churches are "full," of "graven images."
Full of images of saints and angles from heaven and earth, who they bow down to, that is why.

Oh how easy it is to murder the plain word of God for our own hidden agendas! We can do that, but we will answer to God one day if we do.

Revelation 22:18,19 KJV
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book,If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plaques that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

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NUMBER THREE

Exodus 20:7
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

Men are not to take the name of the Lord in vain, cursing, oaths etc.
God knew from the beginning, that man under sin would come to the place of disappointment and wrath, in his anger.
And in that anger, he would have the desire to curse, e.g. Lot's wife's instructions to Job, upon all of his losses (Job 2:9).

God knows when things, anger and upset us!
God knew from the beginning that things would.
And God's message to mankind is ..."Be Above it!" Master the things that want to overwhelm you....or they will master you!

Homily:
I just happen to be old enough to remember as a kid growing up....that if in a restaurant, someone took the name of the Lord in vain, some dear Christian saint would get up and go over to the gentleman, and kindly point out the fact that there were women and children present, and that taking God's name in vain was not appropriate in public.
And believe it or not, the offender would often say, that he was sorry...loud enough for those around him to hear.

How far, we have come from those days!
We need more Christian people to stand up! What are we afraid of? When you go to Mc Donalds, a children's fast food restaurant, and hear a bunch of truck drivers cursing using the name of our Saviour, there ought to be some kind of Holy ire that mounts up to propel us to have a word with gentlemen like that.

If a Christian, could care less how people use the name Jesus, of what reverence, is that name to, himself?
Mans enemy hates the name of Jesus, for he is forever convicted by that name.

Acts 4:12
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name (No, man or woman, Saint, no Apostle, no prophet, priest or king, only the name of Jesus Christ) under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

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NUMBER FOUR

Exodus 20:8-11 KJV
8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Sabbath keeping, involves setting apart the first day of the week, which should be started by worship to the Lord, no work, a time of rest.
Man the worker, from Adam's days in the garden, has been called to work. And its so easy to always be doing "Our-Thing."
But God wishes for man to rest on the seventh day, because on the seventh day He rested.

Genesis 2:2,3 KJV
2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

The Lord's Day, causes us to stop and think about the Great God, who gives us the power to get wealth.
He is greater than all!

In America, we use to have the “Blue Laws,”when stores would close out of respect for the sabbath, but much has changed over the years!

As Christian people, no matter where we might live, let's get back to reverencing our living God!

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NUMBER FIVE

Exodus 20:12 KJV
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

A person who has no respect for his parents, will certainly have no respect for anyone else.
No respect for his teachers
No respect for his classmates
No respect for the law
No respect for the government
No respect for God

The Apostle Paul thought this important enough to repeat it.

Ephesians 6:1-3 KJV
[1] Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
[2] Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
[3] That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Proverbs 23:22 KJV
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

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NUMBER 6

Exodus 20:13 KJV
Thou shalt not kill.

All “Life” is a “Gift,” of God!
Abortion, suicide, and, murder, is against God's commandment, for it is the taking of life.

Abortion:

Jeremiah 1:5 KJV
“Before I formed thee (God speaking to Jeremiah) in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Isaiah 49:1 KJV
Listen to me, all you in distant lands! Pay attention, you who are far away! The LORD called me (Isaiah) before my birth; from within the womb He called me by name.

Psalm 139:13-16 NLT
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Suicide (self murder), murder:

Matthew 19:18 KJV
"...Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder,..."

I John 3:15 KJV
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

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Number 7

Exodus 20:14 KJV
Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Adultery: Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and a woman not his wife, or between a married woman and a man not her husband.

Fornification: Voluntary sexual intercourse engaged in by a man, an unmarried man, with an unmarried woman.
Voluntary sexual intercourse engaged by an unmarried person.

* BV - Bacterial Vaginosis
* Chlamydia and LGV
* Gonorrhea
* Herpes, Genital
* PID - Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
* Syphilis
* Trichomoniasis
* HIV / AIDS & STDs
* Infertility & STDs

To name just a few.

Proverbs 6:23-33 KJV
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
24 To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
25 Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
26 For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
30 Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;
31 But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.
32 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
33 A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

Matthew 5:27,28 KJV
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

I Corinthians 6:9,10,18 NLT
9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,
10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.
18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

Romans 1:24-32 NLT
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.
29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.
31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Ephesians 5:3-5 NLT
3 Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.
4 Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God.
5 You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God...

Hebrews 13:4 KJV
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whore mongers and adulterers God will judge.

Jude 7 NLT
And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.

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Number 8

Exodus 20:15
Thou shalt not steal

Leviticus 19:11 NLT
Do not steal. Do not deceive or cheat one another.

Matthew 19:18 KJV
"...Jesus said,...Thou shalt not steal..."

Ephesians 4:28 KJV
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

In 2008, 22 retail companies reported the following thefts.

2008
Apprehensions 904,226
Recoveries $182,904,246

And we wonder why the cost of things in our local stores seems always to be increasing!

Dishonest employees
Shoplifting
Robbery
Identity Theft
Car theft
Credit Card Theft
Information or Data Theft
Etc. etc.etc. etc.

To name just a few statistics: (2005-U.S.A.)

Robbery: 417,122
Robbery Rate: 140.7

Burglary: 2,154,126
Burglary Rate: 726.7

Larceny-Theft: 6,776,807
Larceny-Theft Rate: 2,286.3

Motor Vehicle Theft: 1,235, 226
Motor Vehicle Theft Rate: 416.7

Thieves, will have no part in the kingdom of God.

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Number 9

Exodus 20:16 KJV
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Exodus 20:16 NLT
You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.

Exodus 23:1 NLT
You must not pass along false rumors. You must not cooperate with evil people by lying on the witness stand.

Proverbs 19:9 NLT
A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed.

Matthew 19:18 KJV
"...Jesus said,...Thou shalt not bear false witness,"

John 8:44 KJV
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Revelation 21:8 KJV
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

There is no such thing as a white, grey or any other color of lie, a lie is a lie, and all liars shall perish.

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Number 10

Exodus 20:17 KJV
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.:

Exodus 20:17 NLT
You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.

Luke 12:15 KJV
And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Colossians 3:5 KJV
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence (desires), and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Thousands of years of pillage, robbery, and thefts of all kind, because of one coveting anothers wealth, goods, or land.
The Apostle Paul's Greek word, Mortify, denotes (Nekroo): to subdue, be dead, mortify.

Phlippians 4:11 KJV
"...I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Hebrews 13:5 KJV
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.