The Ten Commandments

What are the principles in the Bible which are not reflections of their historical settings?  This is still an open question and may never be answered satisfactorily, but the Ten Commandments are a good start.  In Presbyterian Churches the two tablets of the Ten Commandments are often divided into:  1-4 which deal with our relationship with God and 5-10 which deal with our relationship with others.
(Different traditions divide the commandments in different ways.  For a discussion of those differences look here.)

The First Table of the Law

The commandments of the first table of the law are:

• You shall have no other gods before God (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7).
• You shall not make an idol (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8).
• You shall not make wrongful use of God's name (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11).
• You shall remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy (Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12).

These commandments have principles embedded in them which can be summarized as:

• Primacy: God's claims come before any other claims on our lives, our time, or our property
• Identity: We should never limit God to one image, idea, or definition; God exists beyond all of our limitations
• Authority: We should not use God's authority to justify that which is not of God
• Reflection: This commandment, and the story that underlies it, makes it unique.  In the account of the creation of the universe, God chooses to rest on one day in seven.  If God is all powerful, this cannot be because of weariness.  It is instead a period of reflection.  Jesus says that humans are not created for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for humans (Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, and Luke 6:1-5).  We should keep the Sabbath separate from other days as a time for worship and reflection.

What do these four commands teach us about honoring God?  The teachings about honoring God I find in these commandments are

• Put God first.  The question is not how we refer to God or our posture when we pray.  We honor God when we recognize that God has the first claim on us.
• Don't limit God.  God's power, goodness, and love are always greater than our imagination.  We honor God when we do not impose our class or culture's biases on God.
• Don't try to use God.  When people use God's name to advance their own aims whether by using God's name in a curse or using God's name to advance a sectarian political view, they dishonor God's name.  We honor God by praying for God's will to be done not by using God's name to bully people into doing our will.
• Sit quietly with God.  We honor God when we stop our normal routine and take the time to remember who we are and whose we are.  This is a logical time for praise and fellowship.

The Second Table of the Law

The commandments of the second table of the law are: (Exodus 20:12-17; Deuteronomy 5:16-21)

• Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
• You shall not murder.
• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• You shall not desire, crave or covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

One useful way to begin to understand the second table of the law is to look at the last commandment first.  Improper desire is the root of many of the offenses that we associate with these commandments.  People lie, steal, violate commitments of faithfulness in intimacy and eventually even kill others all because they want things that aren't properly theirs. 

The Golden Rule

A useful summation of the second table of the law is the principle of using our own desires to understand how to treat others.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught,

"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets."  (Matthew 7:1)

This passage, also called the Golden Rule, does not teach us specific laws or what we should do in specific instances.  It gives us an important tool to test whether something is fair and right.  It allows us to look at our human relationships and see if they are consistent.  Are we treating others in ways that are ultimately for our own selfish ends or are we treating them in ways that respect their differences as we would like our differences respected.

For Further Study

  Catholic Encyclopedia Article
  Religious Tolerance dot org
  Presbyterian 101 Articles on Social Issues