I’ve really enjoyed preaching on the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. As we’ve seen over the past several weeks, this passage offers valuable insight for our journey with God. In many ways, Jesus reemphasized and reframed these ten timeless laws for his followers, and by extension, us today.

As I’ve blogged about for other sermon series, here is a grand recap of what we talked about for the past 10 weeks:

1. No other gods. Perhaps the most confusing of all commandments, this one warns against having other gods. We might think this doesn’t apply to us because we don’t apparently bow down to worship Baal or Molech–two common false gods in biblical times. But once we look closer, our lives are filled with false gods. Instead of worshipping God alone, we often treat ourselves as a god and pursue our interests above all else. Remember to keep God #1!
2. Don’t worship idols. We all have idols in our life. As we discussed during this week, idols are oftentimes neutral or even good things–another person, a material possession, or even an idea. But the problem comes when we begin to worship it. Whether it is a new car, house, flag, or the idea of security, God calls us to cast aside our idols and worship him alone.
3. Don’t take God’s name in vain. The obvious part of this commandment is to not use foul language. But a much more common thing we do to break the 3rd commandment is to use God’s name for our own ends. Saying things like “God wanted that tragedy to happen” are clear ways in which we dishonor the name of God. This commandment reminds us to always use our speech to bring about honor and glory to God, and blessing and grace upon other people as well. God gave us the gift of breath, so we ought to use that breath to bring about God’s blessing no matter the situation.
4. Honor the Sabbath. Being involved in church is an obvious example of how we can honor the sabbath. By being involved in Christian community, we take regular time to praise God, fellowship with one another, deepen our walk with Christ, and spread the gospel through outreach. Yet so many times we neglect one or many of these important parts of Christianity. Without a regular sabbath, we fail to see the importance of communion with God.
5. Honor your mother and father. We all come from different families. If we were raised by Christians, then we can honor our parents by continuing in their footsteps. If we had nonreligious, troubled, or even abusive parents, the best way we can honor them is by sharing the love of Christ with them in hopes that they would embrace God’s healing. We all need to remember, however, that God is our heavenly parent and must lead others in a way that follows his example.
6. Don’t kill. At face value, this commandment teaches us that violence will never cure our world. We can’t solve our problems by killing other people. The only way we can transform the world is by spreading the love of Christ. Jesus actually reframed this commandment to also include things like anger, too. When we are angry, we already break this commandment in our hearts. The point of the 6th commandment is to instead embrace God’s nonviolence love in all circumstances.
7. Don’t commit adultery. The covenant of marriage is a very special thing. Physical intimacy is also part of this covenant and should never be taken lightly. To honor the 7th commandment means we must always honor our spouse and remain faithful to him or her. Regardless of our marital status, however, we can all unite together and pray for couples in all stages of life to strengthen their relationship and keep God at the center of that covenant.
8. Don’t steal. We often think of stealing as just limited to robbing. But it all has to do with how we view God’s resources. We often try to hoard everything to ourselves, bending the truth and making excuses for taking something away from someone else. Whether it is a physical object or even an emotion like joy, God warns us against stealing.
9. Don’t lie. Dishonesty is very common in our world. Christ cautions us against this and implores us to always let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no.” On a deeper level, this commandment also shines a light on all those lies we often tell ourselves, such as “I’m not good enough” or “my past defines my future.” The truth of the matter is that we are united in God’s family and God looks upon us with delight. Don’t believe the lies about your identity–stick to God’s vision for you!
10. Don’t covet. The more stuff we have in the world, the less likely we are to share with one another. Coveting creates this vicious cycle of jealousy and a mindset of scarcity that there will never be enough. But we can combat covetousness by always remembering to share God’s blessings with others. God created us to share, and we must always be eager to serve and love one another.

Lying in our world often comes with compromising our morality. When you or I lie to another person, chances are we attempt to justify it in our mind. Telling a falsehood seems “right” to us in a twisted sort of way.

Of course, I think there are instances of people lying for the sake of pure dishonesty–think of someone who has abandoned all sense of conscience and just wants to stir up chaos. But a much more common way in which we break the 9th commandment is trying to wiggle our way out of telling the truth. We come up with excuses to lie. We trick ourselves mentally that being untruthful will be worth it in the end.

We think to ourselves a lot of things to justify dishonesty…

• “I don’t need to warn that customer about this issue. I really need this sale!”
• “I don’t need to tell my spouse about this… they’ll just be hurt by it.”
• “It doesn’t matter if my favorite politician bends the truth. The only thing that matters is if they get the job done for me.”
• “I ought to deny this wrongdoing. Besides, that person deserved it!”

Whether it is a lie of omission, shifting our words, or an outright lie, all of the above examples are common ways in which we try to lie as a way to justify some sort of end goal.

Perhaps you’ve heard of this phrase before: the ends justify the means. The cartoon Calvin and Hobbes often illustrates philosophical ideas like this one in simple, clear ways…

This philosophical idea was popularized a couple hundred years ago and has the technical name of utilitarianism or consequentialism. This ends-justify-the-means idea teaches that it doesn’t matter what we do as long as there is more personal benefit produced as an end result.

This might sound kind of abstract or complicated, but it really is simple. If we want some sort of goal, then it is OK to pursue whatever means necessary to attain that, even if it means possibly doing a morally wrong thing.

Thinking this way often causes us to believe some pretty wacky things. If the only thing that matters is utility and end-goal happiness, then we can justify all sorts of things, from the cartoon above with Hobbes the cat pushing Calvin into the mud, to any number of morally problematic actions.

Believing that the ends justify the means often leads us to lie in order to try to achieve something. If we believe we can do whatever we want, then lying is simply another tool to promote ourselves. In this twisted game of dishonesty, truth is not sacred if it means we can achieve some personal goal by abandoning it.

All this is preface to say that God teaches us that the truth really does matter. We shouldn’t bear false testimony as the 9th commandment teaches us, and we must always let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no” as Jesus noted in Matthew 5. We don’t need to embellish our words to exaggerate the truth. We don’t need to lie.

We simply need to be honest.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that lying is OK if it means you’ll be able to possibly enjoy some future benefit. Always stick to telling the truth. That’s the kind of ethics Jesus calls us to follow in the kingdom of God.

The seventh commandment is all about sacred relationships and honoring one’s spouse. We discussed yesterday how this applies to everyone. You don’t have to be married to know that we ought to keep our hearts pure at all times! Sins like lust can affect so many different people, and if we are being honest with ourselves, it is often a daily battle to maintain a pure heart. Lust in particular is such a widespread problem in our world today because of how common it is in daily life.

At the root of lust is a simple, yet dangerous and sinful belief. It is the assumption that we should treat other people as objects.

Ideally, we would all realize that everyone is loved by God and equal in this regard. Every one of us is broken and in need of God’s grace. All people have the freedom to chose Christ. But instead of seeing others as created in God’s image, the impurity of lust tempts us to view them as objects for our own use. Rather than viewing another person as a human being, when we treat them as an object, we come to believe they are less than human.

This objectification occurs anytime we forsake the covenant of marriage. Obviously this is the case for someone with a lot of power taking advantage of  someone else–perhaps a business executive or politician who believes that moral rules don’t apply and he or she bullies someone to keep quiet. Objectification is also at play when a spouse begins to look to another person for gratification–whether that be a physical or emotional affair–believing that the “cheated-on” spouse is simply an object with no use.

And tragically, perhaps the most obvious example of objectification today is how sex is depicted in media. We see this used on commercials to sell products. It is featured on television. Perhaps most damaging, however, is the commodification of sex on the internet. We discussed issues like pornography in our Social Issues bible study last September. I figured it would be worth restating some sobering statistics about lust as it relates to internet media:

• Over 30% of total internet content is pornographic.
• Children are often exposed to these kinds of sites as early as 10-12 years old.
• The majority of adult content features aggression, verbal abuse, or physical abuse. Women are usually the victims of violence and humiliation.
• Adult website usage is linked to anti-social behavior, loss of brain matter, and narcissistic tendencies.
• There is a strong link between child exploitation, human trafficking, and the adult entertainment industry.

For more information and research on this topic, check out Enough Is Enough, an online safety advocacy group.

If you or someone you know is struggling with internet lust in particular, here are a list of resources:

• Fight the New Drug– A new organization supported by even a few celebrities to raise awareness of pornography addiction.
• Covenant Eyes– An accountability program one can easily install to help monitor internet usage.
• X3 Church– An outreach organization to help people exit the adult entertainment industry.

Lust is a very difficult topic in our world today. It can be very tough to honor God’s plan for the intimate, holy covenant of marriage. But above all else, remember that absolutely everyone is created in God’s image. God wants you to have a pure heart and to avoid sins like lust and objectification.