Love your Neighbour as yourself
Introduction
What do you think about when you see the 10 commandments? You might be thinking along the lines of some of the following:
Aren’t they something that you learn in Sunday School? They’re just really a set of rules aren’t they? The Ten Commandments are just part of the Old Testament, and they were written like 3000 years ago! How could they possibly be relevant to me today?
I have to say that in spending the last couple of weeks contemplating the 10 commandments I have been so thankful to God for enhancing my understanding of his love for us, his will that we would flourish and ultimately that the 10 commandments were written for Israel and for us. That’s right for you and me. Now granted that our contexts are slightly different. We live this side of the cross. This side of Jesus dying for our sins and being raised for our justification. Yet the 10 commandments are still for our good. For they show us our sin. In fact, while we are not under the law, for Jesus fulfilled the law as we read in Matt 5:17. By trusting in Jesus the law is now written on our hearts. So we relate to the law differently than the Israel did.
The Law is good and Holy. Romans 7:12.
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
We are now freed from the demands of the law. Acts 13:38-39
38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
Therefore, it is not the law that saves, but Jesus. We need to know that. Then we also need to revisit Romans 7:12 again. And know that the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Before I dive into the Deuteronomy let me remind us all of 2 Timothy 3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All scripture was written for us who trust in Jesus. That’s what Paul is saying 2 Timothy. So, let’s see what
Moses says about the Ten words in Deuteronomy chapter 10. For we need to understand both what these words meant for Israel and what they mean for us today.
Deut 10:12-14
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
The 10 words were given to Israel by God directly. Deut 5:1-4
Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 3 It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. 4 The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.
The psalmist Joy in the Law, because it is the law of God, from God. Showing His character.
The book of psalms starts this way: Psalm 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
The law is based on who God is! Deut 5:6. Living in light of God’s rescue. As his people.
Five things about the 10 commandments.
- Given for Israel’s Good and four ours.
- The Ten Commandments don’t only show us what God wants from us they actually show us God’s Heart. As Kevin DeYoung states “They show us what God is like.”
- These words alone were given by God directly to Israel.
- They were written on the stone tablets by God – Twice. Deut 5:22 – These commands stand apart
22 These are the commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the cloud and the deep darkness; and he added nothing more. Then he wrote them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
- These words alone were put into the ark of the covenant! Hebrews 9:4 with manna and Aaron’s staff.
The order of the commandments
The order of the list of commandments is important. It is without doubt an order that starts with the most important God and flows down the line from there. Christopher Wright in his commentary on Deuteronomy says this:
“It would be going too far to assert a strict sequential order of values in the Ten Commandments, but the overall impression seems valid. God’s priorities for human moral attention are God, society, family, life, sex, property.” Christopher J H Wright
All of this brings us to our 6 verses, our 6 words for today. These 6 commandments set out the obligations of God’s people to society, to each other, to our neighbour. They are of course what Jesus would sum up as “loving your neighbour as yourself.” For society to function as God intended His people needed to love him and love each other. And by keeping these next six commandments, it is a loving response horizontally to how God has loved us vertically.
Commandment 5 – Honour your father and your mother, so that…
Now you may have heard this before. But the 5th commandment is the first commandment with a promise. That by following it, it will go well with those who keep this command. This is about family. The most important unit within society. While Pastor Philip covered the Sabbath commandment last week, the commands to keep the sabbath and to Honour your father and mother are definitely tied together. They are overarching commandments that when followed ensure that God’s people do well. It is very logical. for society to thrive. Yes the Sabbath was for God’s people to remember Him and to rest. In fact, the Sabbath was for all of society. Have a look back at verse 14 and you see that this day of rest was literally for everyone. Servants, foreigners residing in your towns. This was God’s good gift for everyone. Rest is important.
Anyway, back to the family code commandment. Honouring your father and mother doesn’t just mean that Children were to respect their mum and dad, which of course they were. No in Israel’s society 3000 years ago the family unit was the extended unit of family. This commandment is so important that keeping it leads to blessing. The family is the way God has set us up to live and indeed to thrive. From the very beginning in Genesis 1 & 2 we see that a family is how God has ordered His world. A man and a woman are to covenant themselves to one another and have children. The commandment to honour your father and mother is a creation command, it is also vital for being able to live in the promised land. For inheritance, every family had its parcel of land as gifted by God. Of course, this was by tribe, clan and then house. But each family had its land that was part of Israel. Therefore, the family was not just important, but crucial in society. As Wright says, “Whatever threatened the family ultimately threatened the wider basis of the whole covenant relationship.” Look at what happened to a rebellious son according to Deut 21:18-21
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
The family unit is no less important today. God has ordained that family is how we are to be. Jesus in Mark 7:9-13 reiterates that honouring one’s parents is important.
The home was a place not just of land, but of education, work and much more. Nancy Pearcey sums it up well in her book ‘Love thy body’.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the home performed a host of practical functions. It was the place where people educated children, cared for the sick and elderly, ran family industries, served customers and the community, and produced a surplus to help the poor. The home reached out to the wider society.
The household codes in Ephesians 5 & 6 continue to unpack this commandment, and show just how important the family structure is, and how important it is to live as family who trust in Jesus.
Peer reviewed studies overwhelmingly show that children raised in a family with a married mum and dad flourish more often than any other type of family situation. This is logical. Often both parents are working, there are better outcomes along the way. Yes, having both parent living with their kids doesn’t mean that there isn’t dysfunction. But overall, God’s way of family is still the best way for society.
Commandment 6 – You shall not murder
Four little words. We would probably today turn it into just two. Don’t murder!
Now first and foremost let’s understand here exactly what we are talking about. For as we know words are important. Let’s have a look at the Hebrew word for Murder as translated here. It is the word ratsakh (pronounced ratsack) that is used here and in Exodus. And murder is the right translation. This word is used for the commandment and also in the passages that talk about unintentional murder, for example, where it was an accident. Our court system here in Australia makes clear distinctions between intentional killing (murder) and unintentional or accidental killing (manslaughter). However, both murder and manslaughter are criminal acts. According to the judicial commission of NSW Manslaughter comprises all unlawful homicides other than murder.
Now the taking of a life is the most serious offence that there is in our law. And this is for good reason.
Firstly, we are God’s image bearers. Created by God.
Genesis 1:27
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Only God gives and takes life. Deut 32:39
39 “See now that I myself am he!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
Genesis 9:5
5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
Murder is the taking of someone’s life unjustly. We are created in God’s image. That means we are his image bearers. We are valuable. Life if valuable. God demands justice.
Just look at how the preciousness of life is captured by Kind David in Psalm 139.
Psalm 139:13-15
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
The seventh commandment – You shall not commit adultery
God’s only has one good plan for sexual relations, and that is set fourth at the very beginning of scripture. In Genesis 2 v 24 we read:
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
God ordained that one man, and one woman would marry and have children.
Marriage is a Covenant relationship that is not to be broken.
I like the way that Jay Sklar defines adultery. He says that adultery is a spouse having sexual relations with a non-spouse. For that is what Adultery is. It is having sexual relations with anyone else.
Adultery always harms. It harms our spouse, and it always harms our family.
Hebrews 13:4
4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.
Marriage is God’s good provision to the world. Any sex outside of marriage is adultery and it is sin, it is harmful to you and to the person you are engaging with. God forbids it.
The eighth commandment – You shall not steal
Stealing shows that you don’t trust God
Stealing harms the person that you steal from.
A recent spot on the today show reported that Woolworths loses 25 million dollars a week due to theft. Now you might say well woollies are a big company; they can afford it. But the truth is this theft will be paid for by everyone who shops there through higher grocery prices.
It is not just stealing goods that is on show here.
A common way of stealing is cheating on tax returns. Inflating expenses, or not counting all of your income so you pay less tax. This is stealing.
Stealing hurts our society. Stealing hurts the vulnerable. Friends, stealing includes anytime that you commit fraud, cheat someone out of something that is rightfully theirs. In fact, I would say that stealing is happening anytime you are deceitful in dealing with others.
Paul in Ephesians 4 gives the corrective on theft. As God’s children we are not to take that which isn’t our, but we are to be generous in giving to others. Have a look at verse 28.
Ephesians 4:28
28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
The ninth commandment – You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour
False testimony harms the other person.
False testimony is lying, is slandering, is telling untruths about someone.
False testimony is unjust. Our God is a God of justice.
Our God is the God of Truth. He is truth and his character is always truthful. There is no hint of deceit or turning with him. We are made in his image, so false testimony for God’s people is just not right.
False witness for an Israelite could mean immediate death. In Deuteronomy 17 Moses gives instructions about what is to happen to someone who has been worshipping other gods, or the sun, moon or stars, this person was to be stoned to death. But only on the presentation of 2 or more witnesses. Look at Deut 17:6
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
False witness could mean death.
Kevin DeYoung in his book on the 10 commandments makes a really helpful point. He says that
“What we see throughout the Ten Commandments is that each commandment is the worst example of sinning in some way.”
That is helpful isn’t it. For this is true. Murder, Adultery, Stealing, Giving false evidence. They are all terrible examples of breaking God’s law.
The Tenth Commandment – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
We come to the final commandment. And I think that this commandment is quite different to the others that we have looked at this morning. I think that this commandment is the reason that the other commandments that we have looked at this morning are mentioned. For where dishonouring family, committing murder, adultery, theft, false witness, are all actions. The final commandment gives the reason for these actions. For it is from our heart that our actions come to fruition. The words that are used here in the tenth commandment. Don’t covet, don’t desire. These are words that come from our heart. To covet means to yearn for, to crave, to set one’s heart on.
We wouldn’t dishonour our family, murder, commit adultery, steal or lie if we focus on loving God with all our heart and soul and mind. Yet Jesus made it clear that all of these things come from the heart. Matthew 7:20-23
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Friends in order not to covet we need to repent of our sinful and selfish desires. We need to not crave after what we don’t have. If you look at your neighbour’s house, car or wife and lust after any of these things. Repent and ask God to help you be thankful for what you have.
Conclusion
Have a look at what Jesus says
Jesus sums up the 10 commandments but doesn’t take away from them. In a sense he explains them more fully to us. We can see this especially in the sermon on the mount and specifically chapter 5 where he speaks about murder and adultery and that anger and lust are sins. Jesus then sums us the 10 commandments in 2.
Matt 22:34-40
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Romans 13:9
9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Mark 10:17
Jesus uses these commands as he sets out what it is to love thy neighbour.
Kevin DeYoung is helpful again with this. He reminds us that there are 613 Jewish laws in the Pentateuch, they all teach something about love for God and love for our neighbour. These 613 though can be summed up or distilled into the 10 commandments, and likewise the ten commandments can be distilled into the two great commandments.
The Ten Commandments show God’s character, love, and mercy. They also show us how we are to love God, and how we are to love each other. There is great benefit in knowing and reminding ourselves and each other of these precious words from God. When we are testing our pool to see if it is ok to swim in I have testing strips which tell me the chlorine level, the ph. balance as well as the alkalinity as well as the stabiliser. When I have tested the pool for these chemicals I know that it is safe to swim. Well, the 10 commandments help us to look at how we are living. God wants us to love him with all our heart and let nothing get in the way of this. That is what the first 4 commandments are about. Then he wants us to love our family and our neighbours
The Ten commandments show us our sin and lead us to the cross.
Let’s pray.
