Meditation on the 9th and 10th Commandments

The Ninth Commandment:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do not craftily seek to gain our neighbor’s inheritance or home, nor get it by a show of right, but help and serve him in keeping it.

The Tenth Commandment:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not tempt, force or coax away from our neighbor his wife or his workers, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

What is it above everything else that God wants from us?  He doesn’t need our things…they are His already.  If we outwardly keep all of the other commandments and show ourselves to be truly pious by what we say and do…all will fall short of the righteous requirements of God when it comes to the commandments against coveting.  Coveting is sinful desire that occurs in our hearts and our minds.  This commandment is not for the cheaters in the eyes of the world, rather it is for the most pious, who want to be praised and to be called honest and upright.

The difference between these two commandments may be subtle, yet they are given to protect very different things.  The ninth protects a neighbor’s inanimate (lifeless) possessions and the tenth protects animate (living) possessions.  Houses cannot be wooed away from their owner like a spouse or a servant can be, so it was important for God’s law to differentiate between the two.

All sin begins in the heart, and these commandments make that very clear.  The ninth commandment prohibits us from plotting to acquire with the intention of harming our neighbor.  It also teaches us to be content with what God has given us, and to be thankful for what I have by being generous with the things I have been given.  In the ninth commandment we should recognize that God has truly given everything that we need or that which is good for us.  Instead of finding ways to scheme against our neighbor we should find ways in helping our neighbor keep what is rightfully his.

In the tenth commandment God desires to protect especially those living gifts and assets which are beneficial and necessary for family life, providing services to others through laborers, and the benefits which one receives from raising livestock.  Our desire should be for our neighbor to keep those things that God has given him, we should encourage his wife and his workers to stay in their calling, instead of encouraging them to leave.  No amount of things will ever make us content until we understand that God has given us Himself.  He is our God and his will towards us is good and gracious at all times.  Only in Him will there be true contentment.

Our natural instinct is that no one wants to see someone else have as much as himself.  Each one acquires as much as he can.  Yet we pretend to be godly, know how to dress ourselves up most finely and conceal our base character.  There is no commandment that we are capable of keeping, least of all commandments that require perfection even in our thoughts.  It requires us to serve those who seem to us to have more than we do.  These commandments are especially directed against envy and miserable greed, but God wants to remove all causes and sources from which arises everything by which we harm our neighbor.

Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.  Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Meditation on the 8th Commandment

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we don not lie about, betray or slander our neighbor, but excuse him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

A story is told of a young man during the middle ages who went to a monk, saying, “I have sinned by telling slanderous statements about someone.  What should I do now?”  The monk replied, “Put a feather on every doorstep in town.”  The young man did as he was told.  Then he returned to the monk, wondering if there was anything else that he should do.  The monk said, “Now go back and pick up all the feathers.”  The young man replied, “That is impossible! By now the wind will have blown them all over the town.”  The monk replied, “So has your slanderous word become impossible to retrieve.”

Next to one’s own body, spouse, and temporal possessions, we still have another great treasure that God wishes to protect – honor and good reputation.  As Solomon says, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.”  We cannot do without a good reputation, for it is intolerable to live among people in open shame and contempt.  Once someone’s name has been tarnished, it becomes almost impossible to restore it.  If we learn something juicy about someone close to us, it becomes almost impossible to forget, yet we have no right to share it, unless called to do so in court.

To bear false witness is nothing other than the work of the tongue.  It doesn’t only mean that one should not share false things about one’s neighbor, but not even sharing true statements about one’s neighbor.  For if we are unwilling to go before a judge with the same information then why should we be willing to share these unkind statements with others.  Unless our speaking results in the building up of his reputation, one should keep his mouth shut.  Yet we cannot handle this.  We would rather make ourselves look better than suffer the praise and adoration of one’s neighbor.

There are times when the Christian is called upon to admonish his neighbor, yet we would rather keep silent.  Jesus says that if your brother sins go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.  If he repents, you have gained a brother.  Unfortunately, I fear that we are all too comfortable either keeping our mouth shut or too busy sharing the faults of our neighbor with those who have no reason to know.  Instead we should only act when we have the reformation and love of our neighbor in mind.  The same still rings true as we were told when we were kids, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

The law and its power have no means to rehabilitate.  It only condemns.  “Don’t lie.” it says, yet we lie anyway.  By the grace of God, there is forgiveness for liars like us.  Forgiveness does not come about by giving it our best shot, but only by the love that has been shown to us in Jesus Christ.  “Father forgive them” Jesus said, “for they know not what they do.”  Jesus yearns to give of Himself to you, so that you quit relying on your imperfect works and trust only in that which Jesus has already done.  Only then can you truly begin to love our neighbor without the fear of the law.

Almighty God, You have sent the Spirit of truth to us to guide us into all truth.  Rule in our hearts, we pray, by Your grace and power, that we may be truthful in our thoughts, words, and actions.  Keep us, merciful Lord, in Your fatherly care and protection, that no fear or sinful ambition may make us deceitful in our speech or behavior.  Cleans us, we ask, from everything false and wrong, and bring us into the freedom of Your Good News in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Meditation on the 7th Commandment

You shall not steal.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or goods, nor get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his goods and means of making a living.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “he doesn’t need that” or “he could do without that”?  Sometimes it’s hard not to think those thoughts when surrounded by people who have plenty.  It often turns into an argument with yourself about how you deserve those things much more than the other guy.  Besides, we know all of his faults and it’s just not fair.

I often have to remind myself that I’m not someone else.  I am who I am and there is nothing I can do to make me into someone else.  Each of our callings have their rewards, not all of which are monetary.  God demands that I work for my daily bread and beyond that it is up to Him to provide the increase.  If no man works, neither shall he eat.  Yet, everyone is guilty of stealing in thoughts, words, and actions.  Man has stolen from others by failing to provide for those in need, he has mismanaged time and left things undone that should be done, and he has stolen by treating his belongings as though they were solely for his own benefit.

The Psalmist wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness. The world and those who dwell therein.”  It’s humbling to note that everything which man claims as his own all belongs to God.  It is not our own things or time that are being misused, rather it is God’s things and God’s time that is being misused.  Everything we have is on lease from Him.  He still owns it.  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.  Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, do it all to the glory of God.

Unfortunately, our actions often only show how we would like to glorify ourselves.  Our actions place us in the role of the creator, not the created which we are.  We assume that we answer to no one but ourselves.  Ultimately, though, we all have to answer to God.  It is God who says, you shall not cheat your neighbor, your employee, or your employer.  It is God who says we should always have the best interest of everybody else’s belongings in mind…not the best interest of ourselves.  The psalmist says we are His people, it is He who made us and not we ourselves.

Has anyone always thought of his fellow’s property instead of himself?  Has anyone always used the goods entrusted to his care for the benefit of his neighbor?  No normal human ever has, nor can we.  We were steeped and covered in sin when we were born, and for each sin we are deserving of death.  A punishment which is far to painful for us to withstand.

Yet, we have a gracious Lord, who desired to love us, in spite of our sin.  He sent His Son to be perfect in our place, even going without in order to help others.  And not only did he do right on our behalf, but God inflicted upon Him the punishment which our sins deserve.  Jesus willingly paid a price greater than we can imagine so that God would not hold us accountable for our sins.  May the comfort of that gift encourage you to give to others as you have been generously given.

O Lord our God, You have commanded that we should receive Your may blessings with thankful and generous hearts.  Give us your grace, we pray, to use all of our talents and abilities for Your glory and for the good of others.  Help us to respect the gifts and possessions You have given to others, so that we might encourage all people to trust Your mercy and love in Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray.  Amen.

Meditation on the Sixth Commandment

You shall not commit adultery.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we lead a chaste and decent life in word and deed, and that husband and wife each love and honor the other.

Marriage is the most beautiful earthly estate that God has established on the earth.  Marriage should be highly treasured and given its proper place.  Just envision the bride on her wedding day, adorned with a glorious wedding garment.  The spotless garment is a perfect picture of what wedded life should be like.  The bride walks into the sanctuary to say her vows to her soon-to-be husband and all eyes are on her.  The beauty of marriage is typified in the garment which the bride is wearing.

Yet it doesn't take long before the wedding garment is soiled.  By the time the festivities are over the garment looks used and dirty.  It no longer holds that glorious radiance which was present just hours before.  Usually the dress is then cleaned and boxed up, it is put out of sight and out of mind.  The glory which the garment displayed is usually forgotten and the cares of life begin eating away at the beautiful estate of marriage, like a mouse eating away at the beautiful garment that was once part of the highlight of a wedding.

Married couples soon forget that glorious day.  They become wrapped up in the cares of life and at times show bitterness and anger towards each other.  Slowly but surely they lose that physical attraction that brought them together in the first place and they find themselves just biding their time together, trying to keep their families together and doing their part to make ends meet.  If their love towards each other is not kindled, it will eventually go out.

If our children are fortunate, their parents stay together until death parts them, but most of them see a much less appealing side of marriage.  Two individuals come together to unite as one flesh, yet they have done things their own ways for so long that they are unable to adapt.  Stress begins to mount and the glorious wedding dress doesn't look very glorious anymore.  Children perceive our thoughts through how we act in our marriages.  The young look to us for guidance, but when we have given them a poor example to live by we destroy the sanctity and beauty of marriage that God had established it to be.

Sure it may keep the marriage bed pure for our generation, but when our own marriages lack the splendor and appeal God gave them we show nothing but a poor example for the next generation to follow.  It’s no wonder people are so willing to try other things that have been condemned by God (co-habitation, homosexuality, or experiential love, etc.).  They see people failing every day in the marriage that God designed, so they think to themselves, why not try something else.

Yet, Christ’s marriage to His Church has never failed.  Jesus united himself to mankind by taking on human flesh and living a perfect life under the law.  He sanctified our bodies by pouring out blood from His side to wash all sin away.  Then He rose from the dead to prove to us that God had approved of His sacrifice.  This is the marriage we are to look to when our own marriage is troubled.  This is the marriage we are to look to when our sins are weighing us down.  And this is the marriage we are to aspire to imitate.  Only Jesus’ marriage to His Church succeeds against all odds.  Every time our wedding garment becomes soiled, we return to Him to be washed and cleansed.  We return to Him so that we are not looking at our own imperfect human examples but aspiring to His willingness to love us, even when we did not deserve it. 

God grant us a willing heart and mind to be chaste in all our thoughts, words, and actions, so that we treasure marriage as we ought.  Help husbands and wives to love and honor each other, as Christ has so loved us, and to set an inspiring example of marriage; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Meditation on the Fifth Commandment

You shall not kill.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do no bodily harm to our neighbor, but help and befriend him in every need.

God has given us the fifth commandment so that all human life would be protected, built up and supported by others.  In this commandment we learn how we are to live life among our neighbors and learn how we are to conduct ourselves toward fellow human beings.

In the meaning to the commandment Luther points out that to kill means to do bodily harm.  Any infliction of pain that we purposely commit against our neighbor is considered murder.  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15).  One cannot even claim that he is teaching his neighbor a lesson, because God has given the power to punish wrongdoers to the government.  It is not the prerogative of an individual to get back at his enemies.  Anger, reproof, and punishment are the prerogatives of God and His representatives, and they are to be exercised upon those who transgress.

All to often, the spirit of revenge clings to each one of us.  None of us willing suffers injury from another, which is why God would keep this commandment before us at all times.  Revenge is often easy to see in our children.  They fight back and retaliate when things do not go their way.  The longer we harbor hatred the harder it is to be rid of it.  Hatred clings to us.  But God reminds us that it should not be so.

This commandment also requires us to be proactive like a sports team on offense, so that we help those who are in need.  If we fail to do good to our neighbor when we have opportunity, or if we fail to prevent, protect, or save him from suffering bodily harm or injury.  “If you send the naked away without clothes, you have let him freeze to death.  If you see anyone suffer hunger and do not feed him, you have let him starve.”  Anytime we fail to befriend someone in need, we have contributed to his death whether we directly caused it or not.  God rightly calls all persons murderers who do not offer counsel and aid to those in need and in peril of body and life.

As we look into the mirror of the 5^th commandment, we lose heart because we have neglected those in need, harbored hatred against our enemies, and loved ourselves more than others.  For all of this we should be truly sorry and seek to amend our sinful ways, since the love of Christ compels us.

All of our sins have been punished in Christ.  He loved his enemies, even to the point of death.  We were his enemies and he willingly died for us.  “For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; the righteous for the unrighteous.” No sin has been left for us to suffer punishment on our own, even our weakness and inability to protect our neighbor’s lives as we ought.  Christ has paid for all of them and has held nothing against us. 

Father, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  When we pray the Lord’s prayer we ask God to be gracious unto us and for Him to cause us to be gracious unto others so that even though neither we nor they are worthy of forgiveness we forgive as we have already been forgiven.

May God grant us His grace to live according to His Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Meditation on the Fourth Commandment

Honor your father and mother, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise our parents or superiors, nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey, love and esteem them.

In the Large Catechism Luther observes that “The thoughts of this commandment are plain and simple words, and everyone thinks that he already knows them well.  So he passes over them lightly, fastens his attention on other things, and fails to perceive and believe how angry he makes God when he neglects this commandment, and how precious and acceptable a work he does when he observes it.” (LC 1:140)  [1]Luther points out that “honor” includes not only love but also respect, humility, and modesty that is directed at the estate or vocation of parenthood.  We are to obey our parents as we are to obey God because He has placed our parents over us.  God serves us through our parents and they are worthy of the same type of honor (except worship) which we are to show towards God in all our thoughts, words, and actions.  And even though parents fail at times, they are not to be deprived of their honor because of such failings.

What is meant by parents?  God uses the fourth commandment to establish rule and authority on the earth.  All earthly power stems from the estate of our parents.  It includes parents by blood, parents by adoption or guardianship, it includes parents of civil realm…city, state, and federal government, and it also includes our spiritual fathers who watch over our spiritual care and feed us with God’s Word.

What have we received from our parents?  Most significant of all is life.  We have been given food, shelter, and clothing, we have been and are being educated.  A God-fearing education is the responsibility of parents…not the Sunday School or public education.  As children we are to expect to be reared in a God-pleasing and God-praising manner.  An education that lacks a solid foundation upon God does more harm than good because it undermines who God is.  Children have a right to expect their parents to act as the arm of God by training them and disciplining them through His word.  It is God who has given children to us parents to care for and to bring up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.  That responsibility falls on our shoulders as parents.

As apt as we are to fail at following the fourth commandment it is the only commandment with promise clearly stated; “That it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.” (Eph 6:2-3)  It is through the arm of obedience to our parents, superiors, employers, civil authorities and our spiritual authorities that we are provided for.  God uses each one of these estates as a means through which he provides life and abundant blessing…instead of cursing.  If we would only listen and be persuaded that works of obedience are pleasing to God, we would be so overwhelmed with our blessings that we shall have all our heart’s desire.  But we cannot comply.  Everyone does what they please and the world is full of shame, misery, and murder.  We simply think we know better than our superiors and we set an example for our children not to obey.

Yet, that did not stop Christ from obeying all those in authority over him.  As a child he went with Mary and Joseph and was subject to them…and even then he was about His Father’s business.  All the way to the cross he was about His Father’s business…not for His own benefit or the benefit of His Father, but for our benefit He willingly obeyed even to the point of death.  Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that we would not have to suffer eternally for our inability to live up to the demands of the fourth commandment.  May we, through the love he poured out on us, strive to honor all those in authority over us. Amen.

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[1] Tappert, Theodore. The Book of Concord. Fortress Press, 1959.

How do we view the Ten Commandments

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

How do we understand God’s Law or his commandments? Over the past few months we have taken time to review the first three of the Ten Commandments which focus on our relationship with God. Before we move on to a review of the second table of the law that guides our relationships with our neighbors, we will look at God’s Commandments in general and what they mean for us.

In our minds the Ten Commandments sound like commands, “You shall...” or “You shall not…” but according to the rules of grammar they are not commands in the Hebrew or in English. In English if we were to give a proper command we would say “Have no other Gods” or “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” These, properly speaking, would be commands. While it is important to understand the Ten Commandments in light of what God directs us to do they are not specifically written as commands so much as they are just statements about how His people act. We could almost picture it as though God is defining who we are. My children have no other gods or My children don’t take the name of the Lord their God in vain.

This does not mean that we are to assume that we can fulfill them. Just because God describes His children in such ways, does not mean that we have the ability to carry out His description of us. We even end up making false gods when we think that we can live up to these requirements. Anyone who tries to take comfort in his supposed fulfillment of the Law is simply calling God a liar. God said, “there is no one who does good, no not one” (Ps 53:1).

So what then is the purpose of the commandments? They are to show us our sin, tell us how we are to be, and what we are to do and not to do. They must show us our sin first, before we know we need a Savior. Without the knowledge of the written Law, we simply do not perceive our need for a Savior. But through God’s revealed law…we must come to the conclusion that we cannot fulfill them and are therefore guilty before God.

When God gave the Ten Commandment to the Israelites, He prefaced it with this; “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” He prefaces His law to us in the same manner, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of your bondage of slavery to sin.” Because of Jesus’ perfect fulfillment of God’s law in our place, we have been freed from our servitude or slavery to the law. Because of Jesus’ holy death, we have been freed from the punishment which our sins deserve. Only because of Christ is there a new relationship with God’s commandments. It is not a relationship of fear but a joyful expression of being His people.

Only in Jesus can we have a proper understanding of God’s description of His children according to the Ten Commandments. In Christ, God sees us as though we have walked according to all His commandments, not because we tried really hard or put forth our best effort, but because Jesus did it for us and therefore God regards us as though we have actually kept them perfectly.

Dear heavenly Father, give us a proper respect and understanding for your law, helping us to acknowledge that only Jesus has fulfilled them and in that knowledge finding the strength to do Your will. Amen.