TEN (5): Unto Others
“I’m not trying to make you good. That has never been My goal. In fact, you are so hopelessly not good that I sent My Son to die for all your sins. Put your trust there. I want to tell you how to live, not for My sake, but for your sake.”
“I want to be the middle. I want you do everything in your life around me.”
He says not to have any other gods before Him.
Don’t try to make anything to represent Him because we will shrink Him down and try to manage Him.
He doesn’t want us to associate His name with anything His name is not associated with—don’t exploit or misuse His name.
He tells us to take time off so we could remember every week how dependent we are on Him.
After He talks about Himself, God does a big turn and spends the rest of the commandments telling us how to treat others.
The Ten Commandments elevate everybody’s status in that community.
TRUTH
"Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12 NIV).
“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:15 NIV). Honour other people’s bodies.
“You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14 NIV). Honour marriage.
"You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15 NIV). Honour people’s possessions.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16 NIV). Honour others' reputations.
“You shall not covet your neighbour's house” (Exodus 20:17 NIV).
He wants us to honour Him and honor people. And when we cut the problem off at the root, we live free of the enslavement our sin gets us in.
When we read God’s Law, my hope is that we will understand that this incredible book, the book of the Law and the New Testament, was given to us because God loves us so much that He just wants to keep us free.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’” (Matthew 22:54-40 NIV).
Bottom Line: God places value on each person, and desires for everyone to be free.
So Moses went down to the people (Exodus 19:25 NIV).
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance. “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exodus 20:18-19 NIV).
“Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” (Exodus 20:20 NIV).
Just trust God.
You don’t have to learn the hard way.
God is not trying to make you good; He’s just trying to keep you free.