How often have I heard my husband ask this question? Maybe 10,000 plus times! This blog is his study, developed in a small town in Nebraska the months before leaving for Panama and over the years it has become mine. Please join me for a walk down a memory lane that is forever current! You won’t be sorry…
Clearly our lives are fraught with choices. Life happens and the consequences of our daily decisions become the testimony of a life well spent or the one that was wasted! The Ten Commandments were given to show us our spiritual condition and our great need for God in those decisions. They were never given as a guideline for us to live by because there is no way we could ever measure up! They do, however, clearly and consistently illustrate that the choices we make between obeying or violating them determines the end result! (Exodus 20: 3-17)
Why did God give us the Ten Commandments?
Are they a mirror into our souls to reveal who we really are?
Does everyone have these moral laws written on their hearts? Romans 2:15
1. The first commandment is to have no other gods before Him. Selfishness and pride have become gods in our culture! How much time do you spend on the Internet, social media, etc. Do Hollywood personalities interest you more than time with God?
2. Do not tell lies. Who do you know who does not tell lies? Easy to answer a cell call or text while driving. Slowing down when police are spotted. Making promises that are too often not kept.
3. Do not steal. We rob joy from others. We steal emotionally through anger, selfishness and pride. Is immorality in mind or body a theft?
4. Love God above all things. Is He not below most of our pursuits? Our “rights”, what we put before our eyes, sex, drugs, sports, alcohol and much more, are often first.
5. Do not commit adultery in mind or body is the command. Where are the innocent of this? How do you respond when lust and adultery are accepted in music, social media, etc. Do you turn it off? Today morals are mocked!
6. Do not murder. Jesus said hatred in our hearts is murder! Do you have bitterness in your heart?
7. Do not use the Lord’s name in vain. “Oh my God, it’s going to rain.” “Oh my God” is spoken without thought and listened to in most communication and on every media. It’s commonplace in our culture! We can’t turn it off!
8. Do not desire your neighbor or their things? Surely, we see coveting, envy and jealousy as a prevalent problem! What car does your neighbor drive? Just asking…
9. Keep the Sabbath day holy. Sunday is our resurrection day. How is it used? After church, most of the day is reserved for me, myself and I!
10. Do not bear false witness (gossip). Who do you know who is not a gossip?
11. Obey your mother and father. Who does that? Some do better than others, but we are all rebellious at heart. What do you do when authority is challenged, rejected, belittled or neglected in the media or personally? Do you accept it and say or do nothing?
How is it possible to break all the commandments and love God?
I’m a mom and I know nobody but a perfect God has kept all of these! The pathway to God is to first examine our hearts in the reflection of these commands. They reveal the spiritual cancer in our souls, that sinful nature which draws us to the dark side of life. An honest evaluation will strip us of self-confidence and turn our hearts to the only one who can rescue our souls.
God said that every inclination and thought of the heart is only evil continually. Gen 6:5 There is none good, no not one. Romans 3:10-12
What is the purpose of the 10 Commandments?
Its purpose has never changed. It reveals our true self and our desperate need for Him. His life in us requires our death to self. “If anyone wants to come to me, He must first deny himself, pick up the cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23
Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them.
And that is how we know He lives in us.” I John 4:24
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
