The peh Factor
“Seeking balance in a polarized world”
My blogs at the end of last year focused on the 10 Commandments as found at the beginning of Exodus 20. I suggested that the premise of the commandments was found in the opening verses of the chapter that state:
Then God spoke all these words: 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
As Dr. Vernard Eller said in his introduction to The Mad Morality, or the Ten Commandments Revisited, God is the God of freedom. The commandments were given to ensure that freedom. To break the commandments would lead a person, a family, a community, a nation back into some form of bondage.
Of the two sections of these commandments, the Theological Commands and the Sociological Commands, it is the theological commands that have led to the most conflicts. As many people have pointed out over the centuries, many of our wars are between conflicting religions, now days Islam versus Christianity, or the perpetrators use of religion as a motivator for people to fight some form of evil.
On the other hand, it is my observation that the second half of the commandments, the Sociological Commands could create some degree of peace and social stability among homogenous as well as diverse cultures. C.S. Lewis highlighted this in the appendix of his book, The Abolition of Man. By simply quoting from the religious writings of The Ancient Egyptians, Judaism, Hinduism, Babylon, Buddhism, Roman philosophers, Old Norse philosophy, Christian teaching, leading philosophers, etc., he showed that great thinkers and many cultures have a shared agreement on the final six commands.
If we would but live these commands, I believe we would experience freedom and peace in our personal and corporate relationships. As a result, I am going to tackle all 6 of these commands in this blog. It will be a bit longer but will keep us focused on this specific thought.
#5 Honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you (20:12)
In many ways, this is a tough one. Why? Because we are constantly made aware of where parents have failed. (A prime example of this is the current review of the 1990’s Menendez murder trial.) It is an adolescent behavior to show disrespect for parents. It is part of the journey from being a dependent child to becoming an independent adult. However, the vast majority of parents do the best they can with the emotional, spiritual, financial and interpersonal resources they have.
Terri and I spent some time yesterday watching the early steps of the 39th president, Jimmy Carter’s return to Washington, DC, to be laid in state. During the seemingly ceaseless commentary they recounted the many things he had accomplished during his presidency and the years following. People from all walks of life and diverse positions on the political spectrum all spoke ‘honoring’ the man. It may have been the newly elected Donald Trump who said, “I may not agree with some of his decisions, but he was a great man.”
Honoring is not agreeing with someone 100% of the time. It is a mature way of maintaining personal autonomy (how different from the admonition in Ephesians 6:1 where the Apostle Paul says, “children OBEY your parents in the Lord for this is right”) while respecting the individual for who they are and what they have accomplished. The promise that concludes this command is that ‘it will be well with those who do so.’ We need to restore a sense of honoring within our culture or we will enter some form of bondage.
#6 Thou shall not murder (20:13)
Last week in the city of New Orleans an angry man murdered innocent people. He had been raised as a Christian. I assume he knew the commandments. He became radicalized to Islamic fundamentalism in part because his life had fallen apart. ‘Isis’ tapped into his internal anger and built it into a rage that was unleased on innocent people. He broke the command. Freedom, his and a whole host of others, was lost. If he had survived (as has the murderer of the Health Care Executive in New York City) he would have spent the rest of his natural life in bondage. Tragic all the way around.
#7 Thou shall not commit adultery (20:14)
In our culture, adultery is sold as an act of freedom. I can have any type of consensual sexual encounter that makes me feel good. Even if the encounter is emotional and not physical it is OK. So, what is adultery? It seems that the People of Israel already knew what it was since the commandment does not attempt to define it (Although if you read Leviticus 20:10-21 it goes into great length). One of my favorite websites, www.GotQuestions.com, gives this definition:
The word adultery is etymologically related to the word adulterate, which means “to render something poorer in quality by adding another substance.” Adultery is the adulteration of marriage by the addition of a third person. Adultery is voluntary sexual activity between a married person and someone other than his or her spouse.
Adultery disrupts desired peace and can lead back into bondage.
#8 Thou shall not steal (20:15)
From professional athletes having their homes broken into, to flash mobs robbing stores, to children stealing a pack of gum off the checkout stand counter, to Vladimir Putin stealing land from Ukraine, the command is very simple, DON’T. By doing so you create some form of bondage and robbing people of their peace. Robbing is an invasion of a person’s personal life by taking something of their substance.
#9 Thou shall not bear false witness (20:16)
There is a new show called Mattlock. Kathy Bates takes her name from the old Andy Griffith show of the same name. She is a 75-year-old lawyer who has infiltrated a law firm that she believes covered up facts in a lawsuit of the pharmaceutical industry, an unregulated industry that she feels caused the death of her only child. In one of the opening episodes, in an explosive exchange with her on screen husband, she declares how hard it is to live a lie. She is always having to tell lies to her co-workers to cover up her real motive for being there. She lives in a bondage that can only be justified by what she believes is a noble cause. She is bearing false witness.
Of course, our entire legal system is based on this command. It used to be that a person would be sworn into the witness stand by placing their hand on the Bible and affirming an answer to the question, “Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?” I am told that the witness’ hand was placed on Deuteronomy 30:19 which says:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live…
As Christians there is a balancing statement to this one written in the “Thou Shalt Not” negative. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians,
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head (of the body), into Christ…
And lastly,
#10 Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, servant, ox, donkey or anything else. (20:17)
Of all the social commands, this one is the most difficult. Why? All the other commands can be measured in some way or another. Our courts exist to enforce these commands. Our social order is structured to punish those who break them. There are external behaviors that must be addressed.
Coveting is an internal attitude that I have toward another. This command is the one that broke the Apostle Paul. Remember his self-description of his moral behavior? In Philippians 3:4ff he says,
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
So, what caused this man who said he was without fault, “blameless” according to the law also say of himself,
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. ? 1 Timothy 1:15
It was this command, “Thou shall not covet…” In Romans 7:7-8,
7 What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
Something happened internally, in his soul, something that no one else could see, that turned this “blameless” man into “the foremost sinner.” He was in bondage. He was not free.
Concluding Thoughts
The 10 Commandments were given to help God’s people be free. God wants his children to be free from all types of bondage. This is what the heart of a loving parent.
However, God's intention was not accomplished. We still are not free. Those who believe they are keeping every commandment are often the most pride-filled and arrogant people I have met. For those ‘self-blameless’ people it often becomes what Proverbs 16:18 tells us,
Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
There are others who either consciously or unconsciously tell themselves they can never be blameless and so they succumb to living in some form of bondage. As I have looked at life…as I have lived life, this (arrogant pride or abandonment of God’s way) is the result of The Law.
So, what are we to do? Two things.
First, change our attitude from a check list of “Thou Shalt Nots” to an inner drive of living love. This is what Jesus emphasized when he gave the two Great Commandments in Matthew 22:34-40, i.e., Love God and Love Neighbor, “on these two things depend all The Law and the prophets.”
Second, the goal of the commands was to make God’s people holy because God is holy. Instead, the commands showed how far short we all fall (Romans 3:23). What Jesus brought us is the Grace of God. As the Apostle Paul discovered and shared with us is the now life-transforming truth as stated in Ephesians 2:8 and 9,
For by grace your are saved (made right once again with God) 8 through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
May the law lead us to and may we become grace-filled and grace-led Children of God. Amen.
Have a wonderful New Year.
Paul
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