The Ten Commandments are a blueprint of the WAY to live one’s life. They are things one must do or not do.
God is Love. God is Good. I, and all other people, are made in God’s image and therefore should act, or have the potential to act, in a good way and with love.
In order to live a life of good and of love follow these Ten Commandments:
- I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall have no other God than me.
- Thou shall not construct graven images and thou shall not worship them.
- Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vein.
- Thou shall keep the Sabbath holy and thou shall observe the Sabbath.
- Thou shall honour thy Mother and thy Father.
- Thou shall not kill.
- Thou shall not commit adultery.
- Thou shall not steal.
- Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
- Thou shall not covert thy neighbours: wife, servant, ox, ass, or anything else belonging to thy neighbour.
These commandments are couched in biblical terms but what do they mean to modern man?
I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall have no other God than me.
As stated above, God is Love, God is Good, we are made in God’s image and we are all children of God. This commandments tells us that there is no better way of living our lives than to emulate God by trying to follow these commandments to the best of our abilities i.e. one must try to personify love and goodness and recognise that all people are of equal importance and that nothing else counts.
Thou shall not construct graven images and thou shall not worship them.
This commandment exhorts us not to worship physical possessions i.e. things. The desire to own things and placing greater value on things than on people, love and goodness is wrong. Possessions are not to be worshipped, love and goodness is (see commandment #1).
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vein.
Like the bit of the modern marriage ceremony that says “Marriage is not to be undertaken lightly or unadvisedly” so it is with emulating God. You must be sincere in your path of love and goodness as a conscious expression of your own free will. This could be read as - say what you mean and mean what you say - and let them both be love and goodness. Simply saying the right thing at the right time without really meaning it or just following a script that you have learned and repeat blindly will not do.
Thou shall keep the Sabbath holy and thou shall observe the Sabbath.
God had a period of reflection, of introspection, if you like, to ensure that what he had created was indeed good and that he was on the right path to realising his intentions. If God should do this then it is even more important for us to do this too. To try to personify love and goodness is the way, but we must periodically stop and reflect on how we are doing. If we do not stop and notice that we are falling short, or heading in the wrong direction we ,will not reach our goal. Taking the time for honest appraisal is essential.
Thou shall honour thy Mother and thy Father.
One must love all persons, even ones enemies, but your family hold a special place in the human race. You choose your relationship with all other people but your relationship with your family is set in stone by your genes and you cannot escape it. Therefore, one must make special efforts to maintain good relationships with one's family.
Thou shall not kill.
There is no-one in the world whom I permit to kill me. If the only person in the world that is allowed to kill is me, then I must have a special place in the world, but all people are equal so there is no-one above me and no-one below me so how can this be? This rule is therefore universal and no-one must kill another person, they do not have the right.
Thou shall not commit adultery.
Marriage is a contract between two people and adultery is a breaking of that contract. This commandment tells us not to break contracts, of any sort, weather written or verbal. Another way to express breaking a contract is cheating, and we certainly think of adultery as cheating, therefore this commandment says - don’t cheat.
Thou shall not steal.
There is no-one in the world whom I permit to steal from me. If the only person in the world that is allowed to steal is me, then I must have a special place in the world, but all people are equal so there is no-one above me and no-one below me so how can this be? This rule is therefore universal and no-one must steal from another person, they do not have the right.
Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
False witness is lying. This commandment simply says - don’t lie.
Thou shall not covert thy neighbours: wife, servant, ox, ass, or anything else belonging to thy neighbour.
If another person has aspects of their lives that you have designs on, whether it be people or possessions, then this is wrong. There are two important points arising from this: (a) if you want something, get one of your own, don’t try to gain someone else's and (b) don’t try to ‘bring them down to your level’ so that neither of you have it.
A handy mnemonic, or aide memoir, to remember the Ten Commandments is: Our God Now Shows His Kids About Sin With Commandments
Our - Thou shall have no OTHER God than me.
God - Thou shall not worship GRAVEN images.
Now - Thou shall not take the NAME of the Lord thy God in vein.
Shows - Thou shall keep the SABBATH holy.
His - Thou shall HONOUR thy mother and thy father.
Kids - Thou shall not KILL.
About - Thou shall not commit ADULTERY.
Sin - Thou shall not STEAL.
With - Thou shall not bear false WITNESS.
Commandments - Thou shall not COVERT.
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