Ten Commandments Series
First in a series -- An Introduction to the Commandments -- January 9, 2000
"Centuries Come and Go -- God’s Law Remains"
By the Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
Exod 20:1-17
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
(NIV)
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I hope everyone had a great New Year’s celebration. What a great night it was to
see that all of the fears of Y2K were not realized, and that there were no major terrorist activities. Hour after hour it seemed that the world was celebrating this new century with peace and harmony and everything was moving so orderly.
I find it strange to be living in the 21st century, in the year 2000. But here we are.
As we move into this new age of humanity, what will be our value system? What
will guide our living? What will shape our ethics?
That is an important question, because we live in an age that seems to be starving for values.
People steal from one another, cheat the IRS, and embezzle at work, and never think twice about it.
Kids take guns to school and kill teachers and students.
Sexuality no longer brings husband and wife together, but split families because of
reckless affairs.
Do we, as a culture, believe that the Ten Commandments are still relevant?
Do they still apply to us?
Cable TV giant Ted Turner would say no. He declared several years ago that the Ten Commandments were obsolete. Turner, creator of Cable News Network, told members of the National Newspaper Association in Atlanta that the biblical Ten Commandments do not relate to current global problems, such as overpopulation and the arms race.
"We’re living with outmoded rules," Turner said. "The rules we’re living under in the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody here even pays much attention to ’em, because they are too old.
"When Moses went up on the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons, there was no poverty. Today, the commandments wouldn’t go over. Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out."
How many of us here feel the same way?
I would ask for a show of hands, but to tell you the truth, I’m afraid to. I think I would find it too depressing. I have this strange feeling too many of you would raise your hands.
Do you believe the Ten Commandments are relevant to you in your life?
I want to share some important points about the Ten Commandments this morning and the first point that I want to make is that the Ten Commandments are relevant.
Ted Turner would say that the Ten Commandments are NOT relevant.
A lot of people would agree. Listen to television, talk show hosts, radio discussions, log into a computer chat line, or just listen to the conversation in the grocery store. Most people seem to think that the Ten Commandments are no longer relevant.
But I submit to you that they are relevant and that most of us instinctively know that they are still relevant. God himself said of the human race when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, (Gen 3:22) "man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil." Use that knowledge of good and evil and take a look at the news earlier this week.
A man kills a coworker out of anger, because he owed him $20. How many of you believe that was right?
A woman is caught shop lifting jewelry from a store. Is that right for her to do that?
A person is caught committing perjury, giving false testimony in a court of law in order to save his own skin. Is that right?
Deep down inside, we know that the words of the Ten Commandments are still valid today. We know it is wrong to commit murder, to steal, or to bear false witness.
We know that the Ten Commandments are still relevant because we know it by instinct.
But we also know it is true because it is the nature of Scripture to always be relevant.
In Isaiah 40:8, we read, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
In Psalms 119:89 "Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens."
Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:18: "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
And later, again in Matthew, chapter 24:35: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
Ted Turner was wrong when he said that the Ten Commandments were not relevant. They are eternally relevent.
The Ten Commandments remain our best guide to ethical living.
In countless ways, virtually every day ever person is faced with the simple ethical question, WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Although this question is very simple, the answer is rarely as simple as we would like for it to be.
A student on the edge of a passing grade sits in class, quietly trying to answer questions on a test. Three feet to the right, another student, a brighter student, also works on this test.
With very little effort, the struggling student could lean just a little to the side and catch a handful of precious answers -- and in that knowledge, the question is faced.
What should I do?
A middle aged man, bored with his job, his wife, his family and everything else in life innocently starts a conversation with an attractive young lady. Suddenly he realizes that the conversation has taken an unexpected turn and he has the opportunity to have an extramarital affair -- something he has never done or even sought. But now he faces the opportunity, and with it, he faces the question, What should I do?
A chance to take something that doesn’t belong to you. An opportunity to get ahead by telling a lie. Extra money that can be gained by cheating. The satisfaction of hurting someone who has hurt you. In one way or another, the question is asked everyday, What should I do?
What is the right thing to do?
Is it so wrong to do this or that?
How do you answer the question of "What should I do?" In the face of ethical issues, right or wrong, how do you know what to do?
Take a look around and you will find all sorts of ethical guidelines and standards.
One is the voice of society -- what does your culture say? What do your peers say is right or wrong.
One way to decide what is morally right is to take a vote and see what the majority of people say, but that can’t be the best guideline for ethics.
Samuel Butler once observed that "morality is the custom of ones peers." But also went on to observe that even cannibalism is morally and ethically proper in a tribe of cannibals.
Using this standard, then it is alright for that student we mentioned to cheat on a test, as long as all the other students in the school do it.
Adultery is fine, in a society that condones it.
How many of us as children or teenagers faced the wrath of our parents with the flimsy excuse, "but everyone is doing it." Those parents who are here this morning could possibly say a thing or two about how unexceptable such an excuse is.
Those parents who are hear this morning could possibly say a thing or two about how unexceptable such an excuse is.
We have to seriously question whether or not our peers or our society have the right to dictate what is morally or ethically correct.
Society in Nazi Europe determined that it was alright to hate blacks and Jews and to exterminate them from the face of the earth. And yet we as Christians know that this is not acceptable, that it is not morally right to hate a man because he is black, or Jewish, or
because he or she belongs to a certain national heritage.
Society in Early America said that slavery was acceptable, but we know that this is irrational.
Social acceptance, or peer pressure is not the best source of our ethical standards. They cannot tell us the answer to the daily ethical question, of WHAT SHOULD I DO?
On the other hand, others have determined that the way to answer the ethical question is not by looking around at society, but by looking within at yourself. The ancient philosopher Epicurus spoke of pleasure as the standard of right and wrong.
Contemporary novelist Ernest Hemmingway said that if you feel good after doing something, what ever you did was the right thing to do. Or to put it in the terms of the voice of my own generation a few years ago, "If it feels good, do it."
But this is such a self centered approach, and it takes no account of what one’s pleasures do to or for others.
The business executive may take pleasure in some small scale industrial espionage, the next door neighbor may task pleasure in gossiping about our latest mistake or problem, one of our co-workers may take pleasure in putting us and others down all of the time -- and if pleasure is the standard of right and wrong, then there is nothing wrong with what these people do. Taken to an extreme, to the very extrme, then it is fine for a burglar to steal, for a rapist to attack, or for a murderer to kill---as long as there is pleasure.
Obviously, this is not the way to determine right and wrong.
So, how does one answer that daily question of ethics, What should I do?
William Barclay, a New Testament scholar, has said that one decides what is right and wrong by looking at God. Ethics, he tells us, is nothing more than trying to pattern one’s life and behavior after the character of God.
That is an excellent quotation, and has a great deal of truth to it.
Ethics is nothing more than trying to pattern one’s life and behavior after the
character of God.
In the New Testament book of Ephesians (5:1-2), we read, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Being imitators of God, being Christlike in our conduct is the central theme of the Ten Commandments.
In the weeks ahead, we will look at each one of these Ten Commandments, and and we will find that central to each of them is the call to pattern our conduct after God.
There is something in our nature that resists that. We want to pattern our conduct after our selfish desires, our lust, or whatever is most popular in our culture for the passing moment.
Sadly, Ted Turner is right. When he said, "Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out."
Ted Turner is right -- at least from the eyes of the majority of society.
The Ten Commandments are no longer relevant.
People have rejected them.
Where they were once posted in class rooms, they have been removed.
Where they were once inscribed in stone in courtrooms, they have been removed.
Where they were once memorized by children, they have been removed.
Why were they removed? Because somewhere along the way, we decided that the Ten Commandments were no longer relevant.
But they are relevant.
In the century that has just closed, kids would go into a school with guns and kill teachers and students.
In the century that has just closed, marriages suffered and would fall apart right and left.
In the century that has just closed, theft was so common place that it was not the thieves that suffered. It was the innocent homeowner who had to live life behind barred windows and guarded gates.
What will this new century be like?
More than ever, the words of the Ten Commandments are releavant.
The words of Psalm 119:160 says, "All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal."
More than ever, the righteous laws of God are eternal, and as valid in the 21st century as they ever were in anytime of the past.
Copyright 2000 by the Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
For comments or questions, email our Senior Pastor, the Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh at Pittendreigh@aol.com
