10 Commandments

[enemy anemone]

I was reading at another forum about whether we regard the 10 Commandments as less applicable to us today or not. I had been thinking about this off and on after the thing with the 10 Commandments judge in the news a while back.

I remember when I first learned the 10 Commandments in school/church, the teacher had to explain/clarify certain ones, like "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy", saying that for the Jews, the Sabbath was Saturday but for us Christians, the Sabbath is Sunday. where in the New Testament does it redefine the Sabbath day for Christians? and then I've found that some Christians redefine the week to mean that Monday is the first day and Sunday is the seventh. maybe the days of the week are arbitrary and man-made, but...the redefinition seems odd.

also in school/church, we were taught not to bow to idols but we were never taught that it isn't okay to even make statues or depictions of anything "in heaven...in the earth...or in the water" even if we don't bow down to them. but apparently that's what the verse says. some groups like the Old Order Amish interpret the verse to mean the prohibition of personal photographs. they go so far as to make dolls without faces for their children. but if I read the verse at face value, it also means no attempts to draw angels or devils or even birds, worms, and fish. and if I do make a likeness of these things, my great-great grandchildren will be as cursed as I am for this sin.

we were taught not to say things like "oh my God", and some people go further and teach against using substitute words for God and Jesus, like gosh and geez. although we were taught that sin is sin and some are not worse/better than others,  taking the name of God "in vain" just doesn't seem anywhere near "as serious" as bowing to idols or lying or stealing. I don't think the Israelites would have had that view, though.

how do we say that the 10 Commandments apply just as much to us today as they did then, but then redefine them in ways that are not specified in the New Testament? or perhaps the 10 Commandments really are not as applicable today as they were back then and we should not emphasize them so much? what are your thoughts?

I'm not taking issue with the commandments against murder, adultery, stealing, and false witness, and I'm not saying that if the seventh-day Sabbath commandment isn't applicable, then the no-murder commandment isn't applicable. I'm just not sure how we can logically argue for the whole when we explain parts of it away. so what do we think of the 10 Commandments? are they more what you would call "guidelines" than actual rules?

And God spoke all these words, saying:  
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of
bondage.  
You shall have no other gods before Me.  
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;  
you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,  
but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.  
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.  
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.  
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.  
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.  
You shall not murder.  
You shall not commit adultery.  
You shall not steal.  
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.  
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.  

[GusX:]

This is Matthew Henry's take on Exodus 20 ...  While it doesn't "make a case" it might help some people in their formulation of an answer..

Chapter 20
The preface to the ten commandments. (1,2) The commandments of the first table. (3-11) Of the second table. (12-17) The fear of the people. (18-21) Idolatry again forbidden. (22-26)

Verses 1-2 God speaks many ways to the children of men; by conscience, by providences, by his voice, to all which we ought carefully to attend; but he never spake at any time so as he spake the TEN COMMANDMENTS. This law God had given to man before; it was written in his heart; but sin so defaced it, that it was necessary to revive the knowledge of it. The law is spiritual, and takes knowledge of the secret thoughts, desires, and dispositions of the heart. Its grand demand is love, without which outward obedience is mere hypocrisy. It requires perfect, unfailing, constant obedience; no law in the world admits disobedience to itself. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all, james 2:10 . Whether in the heart or the conduct, in thought, word, or deed, to omit or to vary any thing, is sin, and the wages of sin is death.

Verses 3-11 The first four of the ten commandments, commonly called the FIRST table, tell our duty to God. It was fit that those should be put first, because man had a Maker to love, before he had a neighbour to love. It cannot be expected that he should be true to his brother, who is false to his God. The first commandment concerns the object of worship, JEHOVAH, and him only. The worship of creatures is here forbidden. Whatever comes short of perfect love, gratitude, reverence, or worship, breaks this commandment. Whatsoever ye do, do all the glory of God. The second commandment refers to the worship we are to render to the Lord our God. It is forbidden to make any image or picture of the Deity, in any form, or for any purpose; or to worship any creature, image, or picture. But the spiritual import of this command extends much further. All kinds of superstition are here forbidden, and the using of mere human inventions in the worship of God. The third commandment concerns the manner of worship, that it be with all possible reverence and seriousness. All false oaths are forbidden. All light appealing to God, all profane cursing, is a horrid breach of this command. It matters not whether the word of God, or sacred things, all such-like things break this commandment, and there is no profit, honour, or pleasure in them. The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. The form of the fourth commandment, "Remember," shows that it was not now first given, but was known by the people before. One day in seven is to be kept holy. Six days are allotted to worldly business, but not so as to neglect the service of God, and the care of our souls. On those days we must do all our work, and leave none to be done on the sabbath day. Christ allowed works of necessity, charity, and piety; for the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, Mr 2:27; but all works of luxury, vanity, or self-indulgence in any form, are forbidden. Trading, paying wages, settling accounts, writing letters of business, worldly studies, trifling visits, journeys, or light conversation, are not keeping this day holy to the Lord. Sloth and indolence may be a carnal, but not a holy rest. The sabbath of the Lord should be a day of rest from worldly labour, and a rest in the service of God. The advantages from the due keeping of this holy day, were it only to the health and happiness of mankind, with the time it affords for taking care of the soul, show the excellency of this commandment. The day is blessed; men are blessed by it, and in it. The blessing and direction to keep holy are not limited to the seventh day, but are spoken of the sabbath day.

Verses 12-17 The laws of the SECOND table, that is, the last six of the ten commandments, state our duty to ourselves and to one another, and explain the great commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, luke 10:27 . Godliness and honesty must go together. The fifth commandment concerns the duties we owe to our relations. Honour thy father and thy mother, includes esteem of them, shown in our conduct; obedience to their lawful commands; come when they call you, go where they send you, do what they bid you, refrain from what they forbid you; and this, as children, cheerfully, and from a principle of love. Also submission to their counsels and corrections. Endeavouring, in every thing, to comfort parents, and to make their old age easy; maintaining them if they need support, which our Saviour makes to be particularly intended in this commandment, matthew 15:4-6 . Careful observers have noted a peculiar blessing in temporal things on obedient, and the reverse on disobedient children. The sixth commandment requires that we regard the life and the safety of others as we do our own. Magistrates and their officers, and witnesses testifying the truth, do not break this command. Self-defence is lawful; but much which is not deemed murder by the laws of man, is such before God. Furious passions, stirred up by anger or by drunkenness, are no excuse: more guilty is murder in duels, which is a horrible effect of a haughty, revengeful spirit. All fighting, whether for wages, for renown, or out of anger and malice, breaks this command, and the bloodshed therein is murder. To tempt men to vice and crimes which shorten life, may be included. Misconduct, such as may break the heart, or shorten the lives of parents, wives, or other relatives, is a breach of this command. This command forbids all envy, malice, hatred, or anger, all provoking or insulting language. The destruction of our own lives is here forbidden. This commandment requires a spirit of kindness, longsuffering, and forgiveness. The seventh commandment concerns chastity. We should be as much afraid of that which defiles the body, as of that which destroys it. Whatever tends to pollute the imagination, or to raise the passions, falls under this law, as impure pictures, books, conversation, or any other like matters. The eighth commandment is the law of love as it respects the property of others. The portion of worldly things allotted us, as far as it is obtained in an honest way, is the bread which God hath given us; for that we ought to be thankful, to be contented with it, and, in the use of lawful means, to trust Providence for the future. Imposing upon the ignorance, easiness, or necessity of others, and many other things, break God's law, though scarcely blamed in society. Plunderers of kingdoms though above human justice, will be included in this sentence. Defrauding the public, contracting debts without prospect of paying them, or evading payment of just debts, extravagance, all living upon charity when not needful, all squeezing the poor in their wages; these, and such things, break this command; which requires industry, frugality, and content, and to do to others, about worldly property, as we would they should do to us. The ninth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour's good name. This forbids speaking falsely on any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising or designing to deceive our neighbour. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to hurt his reputation. Bearing false witness against him, or in common conversation slandering, backbiting, and tale-bearing; making what is done amiss, worse than it is, and in any way endeavouring to raise our reputation upon the ruin of our neighbour's. How much this command is every day broken among persons of all ranks! The tenth commandment strikes at the root; Thou shalt not covet. The others forbid all desire of doing what will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids all wrong desire of having what will gratify ourselves.

Verses 18-21 This law, which is so extensive that we cannot measure it, so spiritual that we cannot evade it, and so reasonable that we cannot find fault with it, will be the rule of the future judgment of God, as it is for the present conduct of man. If tried by this rule, we shall find our lives have been passed in transgressions. And with this holy law and an awful judgment before us, who can despise the gospel of Christ? And the knowledge of the law shows our need of repentance. In every believer's heart sin is dethroned and crucified, the law of God is written, and the image of God renewed. The Holy Spirit enables him to hate sin and flee from it, to love and keep this law in sincerity and truth; nor will he cease to repent.

Verses 22-26 Moses having entered into the thick darkness, God there spake in his hearing all that follows from hence to the end of chap. 23, which is mostly an exposition of the ten commandments. The laws in these verses relate to God's worship. The Israelites are assured of God's gracious acceptance of their devotions. Under the gospel, men are encouraged to pray every where, and wherever God's people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them; there he will come unto them, and will bless them.
 

[Vlad!]

A worthwhile question. And thanks, GusX:, for the enlightening commentary from Mr. Henry.

Regarding the second commandment (or so, more in a moment) and idolatry, I think it's different for us today. In ancient times, it was extremely common to see household fetishes, or idols of pagan gods, all over the place. Check Genesis, where Rachel swiped one of her father's household gods. So I think images of things were a) used as items of religious import and b) used to impart form to an innately formless God. Hence the prohibition. Some religious groups actually lump the traditional 'first' and 'second' commandments together, and split the 'tenth' commandment into separate prohibitions against coveting the inanimate posessions and the animate household members of one's neighbor (I believe this is how it works anyway; I haven't actually regularly attended a church which believes this).

Re: the Sabbath thing. First, about why it's on Sunday, straight from straightdope.com:

One of the great things about founding a new religion, bro, is you get to do things any way you want. The Sabbath, which marks the last day of Genesis, on which God rested, is mainly a Jewish tradition. The Lord's Day, on the other hand, is strictly a Christian one.

Christians often call the Lord's Day the Sabbath, but don't get the wrong idea. Though Christians obviously borrowed a great deal from Judaism, they felt no obligation to worship on the same schedule that the Jews did. Admittedly at times it was expedient to do so. In the early days, when Christianity was considered a kind of postgraduate Judaism and most converts were Jews, it was customary to observe the Sabbath and the Lord's Day (Sunday) back to back. Not only was this convenient, it had a certain metaphorical significance: the Sabbath commemmorated the seventh day, the completion of material creation, while the Lord's Day, sometimes called "the eighth day," signified the start of the creation of God's kingdom on earth, the Church.

Dual Sat-Sun worship was uncommon outside Palestine and most Christians celebrated Sunday alone, Sunday having been the day of the Resurrection.

While Christ reinforced the other commandments, showing how they weren't just outward signs of obedience but inward acts as well, He never really says "oh, and you guys really need to haul your butts out of bed earlier and get down to the temple on Saturday (or Sunday, for that matter)." In fact, he seems to be quite iconoclastic about it, doing "work" (what was and wasn't work was, and is, pretty strictly defined) on the Sabbath day. Christ always worked within the culture he was in, so it really wouldn't have been useful to say "yeah, forget that whole Sabbath thing." We have a discussion on this topic buried elsewhere on this very board, so I won't go on a rage about it, but there you go.

So they're not the "Ten Suggestions," but on the other hand the spirit of the law is much more important than the letter of the law.