Before I even start with the commandments, we need to examine the whole premise of right and wrong. I've talked about this before but it's sometimes difficult to articulate what makes something “wrong.” Oh sure, many critics are quick to label something as wrong but if you ask an atheist why a certain thing is objectively wrong (besides his opinion), he usually responds with a lot of bluff and bluster.
At its root, something is “wrong” if it's not the way it ought to be. There has to be an objective standard of what is “right” and anything that does not conform to that standard is “wrong.” For example, to say it's wrong to murder someone implies that people ought not murder. Now, that sounds obvious but it's not necessarily so easy. During WWII, Hitler and the Nazis didn't think it was wrong to murder 6 million Jews. We might disagree but what makes our opinion “right” and Hitler's “wrong”? There has to be a transcendent standard, one that is greater than the shifting opinions of men, in order for right and wrong to truly exist.
Genesis 1:31 says, And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. You see, when God created the world, He made things “the way they ought to be” and, by doing so, He defined exactly what is “good.” Therefore, He is the One who judges if something is not the way it ought to be. His commandments aren't simply 10 suggestions on how to avoid difficulties; they tell us what is right and wrong. God alone is the final arbiter of morality. It's God's world so it's God's rules!
As we go through the commandments, see how often they are a direct reflection of His will at the creation.
I. I am the LORD thy God.... Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:1-3)
Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God alone is the Creator. There are no other gods. It's fitting that, in the first commandment, God establishes that He is the only one with the authority to command us. There should be no one else to whom we turn to ask what is right and what is wrong. There is no one else who can tell us how we ought to be or what we ought to do.
II. 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. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. (Exodus 20:4-5)
In Jeremiah 2, God rebukes Israel for their worship of Baalim. In v. 27-28, He ridicules the worship of idols. Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.
God reminds His people that these graven idols were made by men and even though the idols may have hands and feet, they still can do nothing. Yet the people pray to them, saying to the wood, “You are my father,” and to the stone, “You have made me.” Romans 1:25 talks about idolatrous people, Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
III. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
In Genesis 2:19-20, we read, [W]hatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.
Perhaps Adam naming the animals is like letting a child name the family pet. God gave Adam dominion over all the earth. To demonstrate to Adam that he had authority over the animals, God allowed Adam to name the animals in the Garden. The right to name something is a definitive test that you have authority over that thing.
Of course, we don't have authority over God. We can’t call God anything we want. We must address Him in the way He deserves to be addressed – with respect, with humility, and with reverence.
IV. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.... 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. (Exodus 20:8-11)
I find it interesting that God actually referenced the creation account in this commandment. The six days of creation having been accomplished, God ends His creation with a Sabbath. Of course, God wasn't “tired” and in need of rest. Instead, He “rested” in the sense that He ceased His labor. We might compare it to a “rest” in a piece of music where the music pauses deliberately and not because the performer is tired. It was an intentional act and He did it seemingly to be an example for us. Now, He commands us to do as He did.
Christians often do not give the Sabbath its due reverence. When God made the universe, He also created the Sabbath. It was deliberate. It was intended. It was an act distinct from all the creative acts of the first six days. Do you think, then, that God takes the Sabbath seriously?
V. Honour thy father and thy mother (Exodus 20:12)
Genesis 1:28 says, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
When God created the angels, He apparently made a host of them. Jesus made it clear that angels do not marry (Matthew 22:30) which suggests they do not reproduce. God could have created humans in the same way. Instead, He created only two people and commanded them to reproduce together and fill the earth. The parent/child relationship was part of His divine plan. God created the family.
VI. Thou shalt not kill.
It would be ridiculously obvious to say that God is the Author of life. But we seldom stop to consider how overtly this is attested in the Bible. In Genesis 1:20-24, we read the following: “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.... Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”
When God made man, Genesis 2:7 also described him as living: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
God not only created the living animals, He created essentially what it means to be alive. As the Creator of life, it is God's exclusive right to say when and how it is acceptable to take a life. Eating animals is allowed. Executing criminals is allowed. Murder is never allowed.
VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
When God made man, we read that His plan was that man should not be alone. Genesis 2:18-24 reads, “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
When Jesus was asked about marriage in Matthew 19:4-5, He referred them back to the creation account in Genesis. Marriage is not a social contract invented by men. It was the divine will of the Father from the very beginning of history. Marriage is unequivocally one man uniting with one woman for life.
VIII. Thou shalt not steal (Exodus 20:15)
In Acts 5:4, when Ananias had held back a portion of the proceeds he'd made from selling some property, Peter asked him, rhetorically, “Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power?” Peter seems to affirm that the property Ananias sold was his own and he had the right to do anything he wanted with the money. There are several places in the Bible that affirm what we might call capitalism but I can't think of any passage that overtly says, “you have a right to own things.” It's more like it's simply understood to be true.
This implicit understanding goes all the way back to the Garden. Genesis 2:15-17, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
God seems to set a boundary with Adam where He says, “This is mine and everything else is yours.”
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (Exodus 20:16)
In John 8:44, Jesus calls the Pharisees, sons of the devil. He said, “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.”
Satan is indeed the father of lies. In his encounter with Eve, the serpent spoke the first lies recorded in the Bible. Genesis 3:1-5, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
X. Thou shalt not covet (Exodus 20:17)
The lies of Satan beguiled Eve and she began to covet. Genesis 3:6 says, “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Coveting is easily the most violated commandment. In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus explained that adultery included not only the physical act, but even the desire to do the act. The Bible says that what a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). I didn't become a liar, for example, when I told my first lie. I became a liar when I conceived in my mind that I would tell a lie. When I finally spoke the lie, I was just doing what liars do. Those who lust are adulterers, those who hate are murderers, and those who envy are thieves.
Eve didn't disobey God when she ate the fruit; she disobeyed God when she desired to eat the fruit. The same is true for Adam.
In conclusion, we can see the commandments are not simply a list of arbitrary rules. By understanding the creation account, we understand how things ought to be. Therefore, we can know why these things are wrong.
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