Applying the Tenth Commandment (Love in Theology Pt 2 Series, 6 of 6)

Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet.

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17)

What is the Tenth Commandment?

The tenth commandment is, “You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor's.”

In the tenth commandment, God reveals another way that you are to love others as you love yourself—by not coveting anything that is your neighbor's. The biblical words for coveting imply an improper desire for something or someone, or an insatiable attraction for something more.[1]

There's nothing wrong with having desires, even strong desires, for something or someone. The problem is when your desires become improper and inordinate—when your desire for something or someone goes beyond what God has revealed is best for you and loving toward others.[2] Coveting occurs when you allow the object of your desire to become so attractive to you that you begin desiring it more than you should.

For example, in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus instructs you not to look on someone with “lustful intent” (Matt. 5:27–28), he is not forbidding you to feel normal sexual attraction and desire for someone who is not your spouse. Instead, Jesus is forbidding you to have an improper and inordinate sexual attraction and desire for someone who is not your spouse. That would be coveting.

The tenth commandment is unlike the earlier commandments that each focus on a particular external behavior such as murder, adultery, theft, and the bearing of false witness. Instead, the tenth commandment, like the first commandment (“You shall have no other gods before me”), focuses on the desires of your heart that underlie why you break all the other commandments.[3]

Jesus taught that the inordinate desire for something or someone (coveting) is the root from which every sin springs (Mark 7:20–23). The internal covetous desires of your heart always precede and produce your external, sinful behaviors that break God's commands.[4]

Before someone commits murder, commits adultery, steals, or lies, they first have an inordinate desire for something or someone. For example, an inordinate desire for control and power can lead you to anger and murder, and an inordinate desire for sexual pleasure can lead you to adultery. An inordinate desire for possessions and wealth can lead you to steal, and an inordinate desire for approval and reputation can lead you to lie.

The first and tenth commandments are like bookends. You show your love for God and your trust in him above everyone and everything else (first commandment) by not inordinately loving or trusting in anyone or anything else above him (tenth commandment).[5] The way you have no other gods (idols) before him is by not having inordinate desires (coveting) for anyone or anything above him.

This is why Paul teaches that everyone “who is covetous is an idolator” (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). Coveting is idolatry because it turns the desires of your heart away from God and toward someone or something else as your ultimate source of satisfaction and joy.[6] Your desires are good, but because of sin you are always inclined to focus your desires on things other than God (idols) that cannot fully satisfy you.[7]

Heart idolatry is looking for your source of greatest happiness in something or someone other than God. It’s trying to make good people and things ultimate, when only God is ultimate. Good things that can become idols which we covet include our relationships, approval, success, comfort, control, pleasure, power, or possessions.

Coveting involves a deep-seated craving for something or someone that you believe you must have to be satisfied and fulfilled. Whatever it is, without it you believe that your life would be meaningless. The problem is that whatever you really desire the most in life, and whatever you truly live for, has tremendous power over you and can enslave you and destroy you.[8]

If someone blocks you from your idols, anger can consume you. If your idols are threatened, you can become paralyzed by fear. If you lose them, you can be driven into despair. This is because your idols give you your deepest significance and security, but they can never fill the void in your heart that God created to be filled only by him.

The core problem is not that you desire things. Desire is healthy. The problem is that you desire the wrong things or desire the right things in the wrong way. The reason God forbids you to covet anything that is your neighbor's is because he designed you to flourish in life by finding your ultimate contentment and joy in life in something far better—in him.[9]

Like all the commandments, the positive command implicit in this negative is that you are required to be content with everything he provides for you and be thankful for everything he provides for others.

What is forbidden by God in the Tenth Commandment?

In this commandment, God forbids you to have improper desires for anything that is your neighbor's. This commandment lists several examples: “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

This list of examples, drawn from the ancient Middle Eastern culture, represents a range of broader, universal categories such as property, relationships, possessions, and status. Male and female servants, oxen, and donkeys were critical for economic prosperity in ancient times. Today, this could apply to coveting someone's business and career, including their employees and business resources.

The addition of “or anything that is your neighbor’s” suggests a comprehensive prohibition against coveting anything else that you could be tempted to desire as your source of greatest happiness and fulfillment above God. This could include coveting someone's reputation, approval, and success, their authority, power, influence, and control, or their comforts and pleasures.

The core reason you covet is because God created you in his image to be a worshipper. God designed you to be always worshipping him as your ultimate source of joy and fulfillment in life. But when you allow the desires of your heart to be captured by other gods, they steal your heart's desires (your worship) away from God who alone can satisfy them.

So, you must be actively pulling your heart's desires off your idols through repentance, so that you can be placing your heart's desires back on God through faith. True repentance is not merely changing your external behaviors, but pulling your heart's desire, love, and trust away from your idols.

This is why you must learn to confess not only your external sins but also what the English Puritans called the “sin beneath the sin”—the internal, inordinate desires of your idolatrous, covetous heart that underlie all your external sins.

For example, you must not only confess your sin of anger but also the deeper sin that leads to your anger—your inordinate desire for control that was blocked. And you must not only confess the sin of adultery but also your underlying sin of longing for ultimate satisfaction in sexual pleasure.

Similarly, you must confess not only your sin of stealing but also the deeper sin of placing your trust in your wealth above God. You must confess not only the sin of lying but also the underlying sin of longing for the approval of man more than God that leads you to lie.

Once you have identified your heart idols, the “sin beneath your sin,” true repentance involves not only confessing them but also taking radical action against them, sapping the life-dominating power they have over you. In Romans 13:14, Paul writes, “Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”[10] You must do whatever it takes so that what is idolatrous to you will have its vivid appeal drained away.[11] 

What is required by God in the Tenth Commandment?

In the tenth commandment, God also requires you to be content with everything he provides for you and thankful for everything he provides for others. Put positively, this is a command for you to be content with everything God provides for you and others.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 80 says, “The tenth commandment requires full contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.”[12] This contentment is your ultimate safeguard against the many temptations to covet that can lead you to disobey God.

Paul teaches that the validity of your contentment can be tested in good circumstances and bad [by having “both plenty and want”], and it is a “secret” that can be learned. He writes, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil. 4:11–12).

In the next verse, Paul reveals that the only source of true contentment, the “secret,” is found in Jesus Christ. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). When Paul shares this with Timothy, he writes, “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Tim. 6:6–8).[13]

Paul reveals throughout the New Testament that the “secret” to finding contentment in your relationship with God is learning how to turn away from your sin in repentance and turn to Jesus Christ in faith. Paul presents repentance as “putting off” your old self and faith as “putting on” your new self (Romans 6; Colossians 3). In repentance, you pull your desires away from your idols that can never satisfy you, so that you can place your desires on to the resurrected, ascended Jesus Christ who alone can satisfy you.

Paul also reveals how his own repentance and faith in Christ transformed him when writing: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). The Greek word translated “boast” (καυχᾶσθαι kauchaomai) means to glory in, trust in, rejoice in, revel in, and obsess about something.

Through Paul's ongoing repentance from his idols and faith in Christ, he learned “the secret” of how to glory in, trust in, rejoice in, revel in, and obsess in Jesus Christ. In Paul’s obsession with the display of God’s radical love for him on the cross, he experienced the transforming power of the gospel to crucify the dominating power of his sinful nature and the idolatrous lure of the world on his desires.

The primary reason you are not experiencing more contentment and fulfillment in life is because you are coveting idols instead of God. You're allowing the desires of your heart to be captured by the idols of the world instead of by God's astonishing love for you displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ. 

Whatever your cravings, you keep believing the lie that you can never be truly satisfied without them. And they keep enslaving you and robbing you of the contentment and joy that God designed for you to find in him alone.

This enslaving power of sin will never dissipate until a greater desire of your heart replaces it. It is only when God's love for you in Jesus Christ becomes more attractive to you than all the pleasures of sin that your heart will be set free. Only then can you experience what's been called, “the expulsive power of a new affection,” setting you free from the enslaving power of an old affection.[14]

You must not allow the God-given desires of your heart to be satisfied with the fast foods of this world when God freely offers you the gourmet banquet of heaven in his Son, Jesus Christ. Only God can ultimately satisfy the deep desires and passions of your soul. Only he can fulfill all the promises your idols keep making you in vain. Eighteenth-century hymnwriter, William Cowper, describes this well:

The dearest idol I have known,

Whate’er that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only Thee.

And worship only Thee.

Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet.

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” (Exodus 20:17)

Catechism Questions

What is the Tenth Commandment?

The tenth commandment is, "You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors."

What is forbidden by God in the Tenth Commandment?

God forbids you to have improper desires for anything that he provides for others.

What is required by God in the Tenth Commandment?

God requires you to be content with everything he provides for you and thankful for everything he provides for others.

Footnotes:

[1] The Old Testament Hebrew word for covet (חָמַד chamad) implies an improper desire for something or someone. In the New Testament, there are two Greek words used for coveting that convey having an inordinate desire (ἐπιθυμέω epithumeō) and an insatiable attraction for something more (πλεονεξία pleonexia). The etymology of ἐπιθυμέω (epithumeō) is made up of two parts: 1) ἐπι (epi) meaning over, and 2) θυμέω (thumeo) meaning desire. The word does not refer to mere “desire,” but to an “over-desire” for something or someone. The other related Greek word for covet is πλεονεξία (pleonexia), sometimes also translated greed, which conveys the idea of having an insatiable desire for more. The etymology of πλεονεξία (pleonexia) is also made up of two parts: 1) πλεον (pleon) meaning more, and 2) εξία (exia) meaning have.

[2] The New Anglican Catechism 350 says, “Coveting is the disordered desire for what belongs to another or what I am unable to have by law, by gift, or by right” in To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, ed. by J.I. Packer and Joel Scandrett ,(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2020), 104.

[3] The tenth commandment is a good conclusion especially to commandments six through nine, but it should also be seen as encompassing all ten commandments. The tenth commandment has been called the most scrupulous of the commandments because it aims to prevent the evil acts addressed in all the previous commandments by first addressing your sinful desires before they motivate you to commit them.

[4] At its core, sin is more than disobeying God’s laws. It's a deep-seated, invisible, terminal disease. Paul describes the actions of our sinful hearts as the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19–21).

[5] The New Testament views covetousness as a great sin, on the same level as idolatry (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5). This is why coveting is named in the comprehensive list of heinous sins displaying humanity's depravity in Romans 1:29, and why Paul equates it with immorality and impurity in Ephesians 5:3. The Apostle John writes, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

[6] Paul refers to the tenth commandment as the one command that uniquely revealed to him the depth of his own sinfulness. “For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness” (Rom. 7:7–8).

[7] Sin changes more than your status with God. It also changes your heart, your human nature. Because of the fall of humanity in sin, all people are born not only under sin’s condemning penalty, but also under its domineering power and the control of Satan. Our pure hearts (before the Fall) became corrupt hearts with disordered loves, dead to God, enslaved to idols, producing ungodly lives in disobedience to God.

[8] Paul writes, “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money [not “money” but the “love of money”] is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:9–10).

[9] C. S. Lewis exposes the reality that your misplaced desires settle for something far less than God offers you in himself. “…like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Therefore, your core problem is not that you desire too much, but that you desire too little.

[10] Paul also writes, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

[11] You must not only refrain from coveting, but also resist your very first internal heart desires and inclinations that can lead you to coveting. The sin of coveting always begins with your normal desires for someone or something. But, as your normal desire for someone or something begins to grow in your heart, it can easily lead you to experiencing abnormal, inordinate desires (coveting)—that can then lead you to commit worse sins of anger, murder, adultery, stealing, lying, etc. James writes, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death” (James 1:14–15). 

[12] The Westminster Larger Catechism Question 147 says: “The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul toward our neighbor, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his.”

[13] This secret is also revealed in Hebrews 13:5: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'”

[14] “There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world, 1) either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, 2) by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. My purpose is to show, that from the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual—and that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.” Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” in The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, foreword by John Piper (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 1.

Introduction to the Ten Commandments, Part 1 (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 1 of 6)

The Christian life is marked by the biblical virtues of faith, hope, and love. Having seen how the essence of our faith is expressed in the Apostles’ Creed, the essence of our hope in the Lord's Prayer, we now look at how the essence of our love is found in the Ten Commandments.

The Apostle Paul teaches that love is greater than faith and hope. "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). Though superior, love is not separated from faith and hope. These godly virtues overlap. For example:

• Our faith, rooted in the truths of the Apostles’ Creed, leads us to hope and love.

• Our hope, stirred up by the Lord’s Prayer, leads us to faith and love.

• Our love, founded in the Ten Commandments, leads us to faith, and hope.

What does this godly virtue of love look like? The Bible tells us it looks like the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3–17).

1. You shall have no other gods before me. (3)

2. You shall not have false images of God in worship. (4–6)

3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. (7)

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (8–11)

5. Honor your father and mother. (12)

6. You shall not murder. (13)

7. You shall not commit adultery. (14)

8. You shall not steal. (15)

9. You shall not give false testimony. (16)

10. You shall not covet. (17)

When someone asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" he responded:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 22:37–39)

In his response, Jesus is not replacing the Ten Commandments but summarizing their essence as loving God with our whole being and loving others as ourselves.[1]

The first four commandments focus on our duty to love God with our whole being. [2]

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not have false images of God in worship.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

The next six commandments focus on our duty to love others with our whole being.[3]

5. Honor your father and mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not give false testimony.

10. You shall not covet.

The Westminster Larger Catechism contains a helpful summary of these two sections:

Q. 102. What is the sum of the four commandments which contain our duty to God?
A. The sum of the four commandments containing our duty to God, is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind.

Q. 122. What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A. The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have them do to us.

Though the commandments to love God and others are separated, they are also integrated in that your love for God is demonstrated by your love for others.

The way you fulfill the purpose for your life—to glorify God and enjoy him forever—is to love him with your whole being and love others as you do yourself in obedience to the Ten Commandments.

The Significance of the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments have a central place in the unfolding story of God's plan of salvation. They teach believers how to love God and others.

In the Old Testament, we learn that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone and placed in the ark of the covenant, the Lord’s dwelling place in the midst of the people (Ex. 31:18; Deut. 4:13, 5:22, 9:10, 10:5).[4]

In the New Testament we learn from the Apostle Paul that when we love, we fulfill the commandments, and when we obey the commands, we fulfill the law of love. When Paul gives us a summary of how we should love, he refers to the Ten Commandments (1 Tim. 1:8–10).

Over centuries, these commandments have not only shaped the lives of believers in churches, but also shaped and sustained the moral virtues that most societies have lived by through history.

The Nature of the Ten Commandments

While the Bible refers to the Ten Commandments as "law," it's wrong to see them like a list of dos and don'ts that restrict our personal freedom and rob us of joy. The Hebrew word for law, torah, in the Old Testament means the sort of instruction a loving Father gives his child. Torah is the "perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25, 2:12).

The purpose of the law is not to crush our self-expression, even though it may seem so.

A loving father's needed instructions are often disliked by children. But God's laws are designed to guide us toward paths that are best for us.

True freedom is not found in doing whatever we desire, but in being and doing what God designed us to be and to do. It's the freedom to be who God made us to be—people who flourish in life and find true happiness and joy by loving him and loving others in obedience to his commands.

The Ten Commandments are part of a broader covenant relationship between God and his people where obedience is not just a duty but a response to God's gracious love and mercy.  Before God gave any command to Israel for them to love him, God first reminded them of his love for them saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Ex. 20:2).

The Purpose of the Ten Commandments

There are three important ways that God uses his law to help us flourish in life.

God's Commandments Restrain Us

The first use of God’s law is to restrain us. This applies to both Christians and non-Christians. When God’s moral laws are upheld in society, such as laws not to murder, steal, and lie, it limits lawlessness, protects the righteous from the unjust, and keeps civil order (Deut. 13:6–11, 19:16–21). 

God's Commandments Convict Us

The second use of God’s law also applies to both non-Christians and Christians. The second use is to convict us of sin and lead us to Christ. The law is like a mirror that reflects God’s perfect righteousness and our sinfulness, which leads us to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

Though we don’t have the ability to fully obey even one of the Ten Commandments, God, in his mercy, has done that for us through his Son. Jesus perfectly obeyed all of God’s laws for us so that he could fully satisfy all of God’s just demands of us through his death on the cross in our place.

God provides for us in Jesus Christ what he requires of us in his law. The good news is that God the Father promises to accept and love all who are in Christ as he accepts and loves his one and only Son, and there is no greater love than the eternal love of God the Father for his Son.

So, if all the requirements of the law have been met for us by Jesus Christ, and God considers us to be his children "in Christ," meaning that God now sees us as if we've always obeyed all his commands, then why should we obey his commands? This leads us to a third use of God’s law. 

God's Commandments Guide Us

Paul knew that it would be easy for believers to misunderstand their relationship with God’s law after they came to saving faith, so he writes, "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31).

The Bible teaches that believers in Jesus Christ are now "free from the law" as a way of salvation (Rom. 6:14, 7:4–6; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:15–19, 3:25). We are no longer under the curse of the law because Jesus took that curse on himself for us.

However, we’re always under God’s loving authority. The difference now is that God’s law tells us what pleases and honors him as our heavenly Father. God’s law is now our family guide to help us flourish in both our relationship with God and in all our relationships in life. It's God's blueprint that shows us how we should live.

The Meanings of the Ten Commandments

Positive and Negative Meaning

Although most of the Ten Commandments are stated negatively, as "You shall nots," all the commandments have both a positive and negative meaning. They are meant to tell us not only what we are not to do, but also what we are to do. 

For example, God’s first command not to have any other gods before him means more than merely we should not worship idols, but that we should worship God only. Likewise, the negative command not to murder means we are also to stand for the sanctity of human life. And the negative command not to commit adultery conveys the positive command to uphold sexual purity, just as the negative command not to lie also means we are to stand for truth.

Similarly, when a command includes a promise for obedience, it should also be understood as including a consequence for disobedience. For example, the fifth commandment states: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you" (Ex. 20:12). The promise for obedience is the blessing of a long life given by God. The consequence for disobedience is the curse of a shorter life and lack of blessings given by God. 

Broad and Narrow Meaning

The Ten Commandments, while addressing external behaviors, are also addressing the internal desires and motives underneath the behaviors. For example, Jesus teaches that God’s sixth commandment not to murder includes the sin of anger that is at the root of murder: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment" (Matt. 5:21–22).

Likewise, Jesus teaches that the seventh commandment not to commit adultery includes the sin of lust (Matt. 5:27–28). God’s commandments to love our neighbors includes loving our enemies (Matt. 5:43–44).

The command to honor your parents also conveys God’s will for us to honor all whom he places in authority over us, even the ungodly (Romans 13). And the neighbor, whose house we should not covet, and to whom we should not lie, is not just the person living next door to us.

Ordered and Disordered Loves

The Ten Commandments are not just a set of isolated, individual moral laws. They are interwoven commands that reflect an ordered and integrated love for God (commandments 1–4) and others (commandments 5–10).

The first commandment ("You shall have no other gods before me") is the foundation for all the other commandments. We show our love, loyalty, and trust in God above everything else (first commandment) through our obedience to all the remaining commandments.

On the first commandment, Martin Luther remarks, "Where the heart is rightly set toward God and this commandment is observed, all the other commandments follow...everything is to flow from the First Commandment's power."[5]

Breaking the first commandment—by loving or trusting in someone or something above God—is the root of our disobedience to all of God's other commandments. This is idolatry. Breaking the first commandment is what leads us to breaking all the other commandments to love others.

God created us to have a deep love for him and trust in him above everyone and everything else. But because of sin, our hearts are corrupt and always trying to find ultimate happiness apart from God.

The reason we don’t experience the joy and peace God designs for us is because we place our greatest love on created things, including people, instead of on our Creator, and we wrongly expect created things to give us what only God can give us.

The order of the commandments—first love for God, then love for others—reflects the importance of having our primary love for God above everyone and everything else.

Only when our love for God and trust in God is first in our life, can we truly love others for their sake and for God's sake, not only for our own sake. All our other loves for people or things are properly ordered only when our greatest love is for God.

Review Questions:

• What is the Great Commandment?  How is it connected to the Ten Commandments?

• The nature of the Ten Commandments is not about restriction but freedom. How do we find true freedom in the Ten Commandments?

• What are three purposes of the Ten Commandments?

• Why is the first commandment the foundation for all the other commandments?

Footnotes:

[1] Jesus is explaining the Ten Commandments the same way Moses did to Israel: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 10:12–13, 11:13, 22, 30:20; Lev.19:18).

[2] The Bible teaches that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone (Ex. 31:8, 34:1; Deut. 4:13, 5:22). However, the Bible does not reveal which specific commandments were on the two tablets. See footnote 4.

[3] Following the example of Jesus, the Apostle Paul also presents the Ten Commandments as descriptions of love when he writes, "For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Rom. 13:9).

[4] The Bible does not reveal which specific commandments were on the two tablets. Views throughout history include: 1) an equal division of five commandments on each tablet, 2) all ten commandments on both tablets, and 3) the first four commandments (representing love for God) on the first tablet and the last six commandments on the second tablet (representing love for others). The first commandments (146 words) are three times longer than the second commandments (26 words), and the tablets may have had writing on both sides due to the scarcity of writing materials.

[5] Martin Luther, Part First. The Ten Commandments of The Large Catechism , translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dau in Triglot Concordia: The Symbolic Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921) uploaded in full at https://www.ccel.org/l/luther/large_cat/large_catechism.html (access date 02.17.24).

Introduction to the Ten Commandments, Part 2 (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 2 of 6)

The Ten Commandments and the Gospel

God has promised forgiveness to those who are believers in Jesus for all of their disobedience of any and all of his commandments. This forgiveness covers all of our disobedience past, present, and future. As Christians, we're totally accepted by God "in Christ," as if we have already perfectly kept all his commandments.

So why should we obey God’s commandments?

As God's children, a healthy respect for our loving Father's discipline can be a good motivation to obey God (Heb. 12:5–11). And the hope of being rewarded by our heavenly Father for our faithful obedience to his commands can also be a good motivation (Matt. 16:27; 2 Cor. 5:10).

But our primary motivation for obeying God should not be our fear of his discipline or our hope for his reward. Instead, our primary motivation for obeying God should be our love for him. And our love for God is stirred up in us by his promise to always love us in Christ, even when we disobey him, because he already punished Jesus in our place.

Christians Obey God's Commandments out of Gratitude to God

Obeying God's commandments is not a way to earn God's love. Instead, it's a demonstration of your love for God, who first loved you in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). John writes, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Paul writes, "For the love of Christ controls us...and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Cor. 5:14–15).

There is a great contrast between obeying God as a religious duty to earn his love and acceptance, and obeying God as an expression of our deep gratitude for his amazing love for us in Jesus Christ. John writes, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2–3).

Legalistic religion says, "I obey; therefore I’m loved and accepted." But the gospel says, "I’m loved and accepted; therefore I obey."

Christians Obey God's Commandments to Honor God and Flourish in Life

God commands us to love him and love others, as outlined in the Ten Commandments, so that we will flourish in life according to his perfect design. And God is most glorified in us when we flourish in life by keeping his commandments to love him and love others.

God's commands protect us from harmful dangers and provide what's truly best for us. They show us how to experience the fullness of life that Jesus promised when he said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

The Ten Commandments are like a car owner's manual, which includes instructions for how a car can best run according to its design. God's commandments are instructions and guidelines for how a human life can best flourish according to God's design.

The Psalmist writes, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes" (Ps. 19:7–11). "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Ps. 119:97).

The Psalmist describes what the life of a person will be like who meditates on and obeys God's law: "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers" (Ps. 1:3).

The way to experience true happiness is not to be free from all obligations to obey God's commandments so that we can do whatever we want. Sadly, often what we trust to bring us freedom is what leads us into bondage and misery. 

The Bible teaches that true freedom is not the freedom to do whatever you want, but it's having the power to do what you ought. True freedom is learning how to be empowered by God to live in line with God's good and perfect will revealed for your life in the Ten Commandments.

This is why the Apostle James calls God's law, "The law of liberty" (James 1:25).

Review Questions:

•  What is the difference in obeying the commandments out of obligation and obeying out of gratitude?

•  When is God most glorified in us? 

The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life

Having learned the Bible's answer to the question, "Why should we obey the Ten Commandments?" let's explore the Bible's answer to the question, "How should we obey the Ten Commandments?"

First, let's take a brief look at two common incorrect views.

Wrong Views of The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life

The first incorrect view is that Christians are no longer obligated to keep the Ten Commandments because Jesus Christ fulfilled them perfectly for us. This view teaches that Christians should follow a law of love and grace, the "law of Christ," where we are guided by God's Spirit, rather than the Old Testament laws in the Ten Commandments.

There are three types of laws in the Old Testament: ceremonial laws, civil laws, and moral laws. The ceremonial and civil laws were uniquely for the nation of Israel. But God's moral laws, found in the Ten Commandments, apply to everyone. When Jesus uses the word law he's referring to God's moral laws for all people. Jesus said,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  (Matt. 5:1–19)

A second incorrect view, sometimes called legalism or moralism, is that the Christian life is mostly about rigidly striving to keep all of God's commandments. This lifestyle has an inordinate focus on external behaviors and rule-keeping, rather than on internal heart-transformation.

This focus on external behaviors often leads to a performance-based faith that is joyless and burdensome. The constant awareness of failing to fully obey all of God's laws can lead to depression and despair.

In Galatians, Paul addresses a group of first-century legalists and moralists with strong words. He writes, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:3).

So, what is the biblical view of the Ten Commandments and the Christian life?

How can we become more like Jesus in our love for God and others by obeying the Ten Commandments?

Biblical View of The Ten Commandments and the Christian Life

The Ten Commandments do not have the power to transform us. Just as our obedience to God's law cannot forgive (justify) us, so our ongoing obedience to God's law as Christians cannot transform (sanctify) us.

Paul writes, "For God has done what the law...could not do. By sending his own Son" (Rom. 8:3). Only God can transform us through his Son and by his Spirit.

The Bible teaches that our salvation encompasses all three tenses:

• Past–We have been saved from sin’s penalty (Eph. 2:8)

• Present–We are being saved from sin’s power (Phil. 2:12) and

• Future–We will be saved from sin’s presence (Rom. 13:11)

God, who both created us and forgave us for disobeying his commandments, is now recreating and conforming (changing) us into the image of his Son, so that we will flourish in life by loving him and loving others in obedience to his commandments.

Paul tells us, "For those whom he [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29).

God's moral laws, revealed in the Ten Commandments, find their perfect human expression in Jesus Christ. Jesus alone has perfectly obeyed all of God's commands by loving God and others with all his thoughts, desires, and behaviors.

So, how do we strive to be conformed to the image of Jesus and obey God's commandments with all our thoughts, desires, and behaviors, without being crushed by our constant failures to perfectly obey God?

The answer is by learning how to obey God's laws in a way that deepens our loving relationship with him.

In his love, God not only commands us to obey his law perfectly, but he also commands us to repent and believe in him when we disobey his laws.

Paul writes, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him" (Col. 2:6). How did you receive Jesus and experience God's forgiveness? By repentance and faith.

How then do you now walk in him (live the Christian life) and experience God's transformation into the image of Christ as you strive to obey all his commandments? By repentance and faith.

Just as you repented and believed in Jesus to be forgiven for disobeying God's law, so now, as God's loved and forgiven child, it is through your ongoing repentance and faith in Jesus when you disobey God's law, that God promises to transform you into the image of his Son.

Coming to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith is meant by God to be more than a one-time event by which you are saved from sin’s penalty.

As a devoted follower of Jesus, your ongoing repentance and faith in him is also God's way of saving you from sin's domineering power in your life and changing you into the image of Jesus as you keep growing in your love for God and others.

The way to flourish in life by obeying the Ten Commandments is by learning how to allow your ongoing failures to obey God's commandments to keep leading you back to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

When this ongoing repentance and faith is happening in your heart and life, you will be continually drawn back to God through Jesus Christ by his Spirit, and there will be change. But the reverse is also true. When there is no real change taking place in your life, it is certain that ongoing repentance and faith in Jesus Christ is also not taking place.

True repentance and faith will not lead you to despair but to joy. The more you seek to obey God's commandments, the more you will see the depth of your sin. And the more you see the depth of your sin, the more God will reveal to you the depths of his astonishing love for you in Jesus Christ. 

When God calls you to keep obeying his commands by repenting and believing in Jesus, he is not calling you to beat up on yourself or merely to clean up your life. Instead, he is calling you to experience a real change of heart.

But how can our hearts really be changed?

According to the Bible our root problem is not an external, behavioral problem—it’s a heart problem. The reason our heart is not more transformed is because we allow it to be captured by something or someone that steals away our heart desire for God.

God created us to be worshippers, so we are always worshipping something, whether we realize it or not. The first and second commandments, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3) and "You shall not make for yourself an idol" (Ex. 20:4a), remind us of the very dangerous tendency we all have to worship idols.

An idol is something or someone, other than God, that we look to for our ultimate source of happiness and fulfillment in life.

We should be repenting not only of our sinful, external behaviors, but also be repenting of our sinful underlying "heart-idols" that are at the root of those behaviors. In repentance we pull our heart affections and trust away from our idols. And in faith, we place those same affections back on to God through Jesus Christ where they belong.

Only when Jesus Christ becomes more attractive to us than all the temporary, fleeting pleasures of sin will our heart be changed and set free. The enslaving power of sin will never be removed from our hearts until a greater affection for God replaces it.

Review Questions:

• How are both a relaxed view of God's law and a rigid rule-keeping view of God's law incorrect ways to obey the Ten Commandments?

• What is the role of "ongoing repentance" in our obedience to God's commands?

• What is the difference between "cleaning up your life" and having a transformed heart?

The Commandments to Love God and Your Neighbor

The Meaning of Loving God with Your Whole Heart

The Bible refers to the essence of your whole being as your heart. Your heart is the core of who you are as a human being. It's the center of your nature as a person. Your heart is the one principal source at the center of your being from which come all your thoughts, desires, and choices in life. Your heart must always be thinking, desiring, and choosing.

When Jesus teaches that you must love God with all your "heart," "soul," "mind," and "strength" (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27), he does not mean that you should see your being divided up into these four separate components. Instead, he means that you should love God with all that you are—with every dimension of your whole being.[1]

The Bible teaches that your heart reflects both the unity and diversity of your being as created in the image of the triune God. Everything you think, desire, and choose comes from your heart:

• You believe with the thoughts of your heart: "For with the heart one believes and is justified" (Rom. 10:10). "God's word pierces the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).

• You desire with the affections of your heart: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart" (Ps. 37:4).

• You choose with the volition (will) of your heart: "He [Daniel] resolved [lit., set his heart] that he would not defile himself" (Dan. 1:8).[2]

In the Bible, the heart refers primarily to the unity of your inner self. Your mind, desires, and will are three distinct functions of your heart (sometimes called capacities, faculties, or chambers) that are deeply related and integrated, constantly influencing each other.[3]

Therefore, to love God with your whole being (heart) means to love him with everything you: 1) believe with your mind, 2) desire with your affections, and 3) choose with your will. However, because of the fall of humanity into sin, we're all born physically alive but spiritually dead with corrupt hearts that believe lies, desire idols, and choose to sin.[4]

But the good news is that God promises all who believe in Jesus Christ the forgiveness of sins and the gift of his indwelling Holy Spirit through whom he graciously subdues your rebellious heart and gives you a "new heart" to replace your former "heart of stone" (Ezek. 36:26–27).

By his Holy Spirit, God is always renewing the hearts of all believers into the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29) so they will love him and others with their whole being in obedience to his will revealed in the Ten Commandments. This involves the ongoing renewal of your whole being: what you believe, what you desire, and what you choose in life.

Therefore, in each of the Ten Commandments, God requires you in unique ways to:

• Stop believing lies and start believing truth with the thoughts of your heart

• Stop desiring idols and start desiring God with the affections of your heart

• Stop choosing sin and start choosing righteousness with the will of your heart

Review Questions:

• In what ways does the concept of the heart as the center of our being inform our approach to loving God fully?

• How does the inherent sinfulness of the human heart affect our ability to obey the commandments? Give examples.

• What are practical examples of how a spiritually renewed heart influences our thoughts, desires, and choices?

The Meaning of Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself

Immediately after Jesus taught that "the great and first commandment" is to love God with your whole being (all your heart, soul, mind, and strength), he said, "And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39).[5]

Jesus taught that your "neighbor" is not limited to someone who belongs to your particular group or community, but may include anyone you encounter in life, even your enemy, and especially those in need (Matt. 5:43–44; Luke 10:30–37).

The command to love your neighbor "as yourself," is not a command to love yourself, but an assumption that self-love is a natural human condition, and your love for others should mirror this natural love you have for yourself.[6]

Jesus takes this opportunity to answer a question he was not asked to teach that the whole law of God includes both a wholehearted love for God and others. When Jesus says that this second commandment to love others "is like" the great and first commandment to love God, he means that it resembles it in importance.

The Ten Commandments reflect an ordered and integrated love for God (commandments 1–4) and others (commandments 5–10). The first four commandments that require us to love God with our whole being are the necessary foundation for the remaining six commandments that require us to love others as ourselves.

The order of the commandments—first love for God, then love for others—reflects the importance of having our primary love for God above everyone and everything else.

Only when our love for God and trust in God is first in our life, can we truly love others for their sake and for God's sake, not only for our own sake. All our other loves for people or things are properly ordered only when our greatest love is for God.

Review Questions:

• How does the broadened scope of "neighbor" in Jesus' teaching affect the way we interact with those in need, strangers, and enemies in daily life?

• How is the assumption that self-love is a natural condition challenged by people with low self-esteem who "hate themselves?"

• Why is our love for God considered foundational to our love for others? Give examples.

Footnotes:

[1] Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

[2] In the Bible, when God called people to choose him and not choose evil, this is often referred to as a decision to "set their heart" on him. King Rehoboam’s decision to reject God is described as, "he did not set his heart to seek the Lord" (2 Chron. 12:14). Daniel was later commended for his decision to humble himself before God and seek understanding with the words, "you set your heart to understand" (Dan. 10:12). John Owen describes the constant action of your heart’s will as always choosing to either resist or submit to your heart’s thoughts and desires: "The will chooses, refuses, or avoids." John Owen, Temptation and Sin, vol. 6, The Works of John Owen, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 170.

[3] Your mind cannot function apart from your desires and your will, and your desires cannot function apart from your mind and will. Similarly, your will cannot function apart from your mind and your desires. Your "heart" should not be seen as only your "affections/emotions" and separated from your "head" (intellectual beliefs) as is commonly taught. Your heart beliefs (mind) can only be right when your heart desires (affections) are rightly placed on God and your heart will (volition) is choosing to submit to God.

[4] Louis Berkhof writes, "Sin does not reside in any one faculty of the soul, but in the heart. And from this center its influence and operations spread to the intellect, the will, the affections, in short, to the entire man, including his body. " Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1984), 233.

[5] Jesus is quoting from Leviticus 19:18, "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

[6] Jesus also taught this in the Sermon on the Mount: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 7:12).

Applying the First Commandment (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 3 of 6)

The First Tablet of The Ten Commandments

The Lordship Catechism

What is the First Commandment?

The first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me."

What is forbidden by God in the First Commandment?

God forbids me to worship other gods, called idols.

What is required by God in the First Commandment?

God requires me to worship him alone as the only true God.

What is the Second Commandment?

The second commandment is, "You shall not make false images of God in worship."

What is forbidden by God in the Second Commandment?

God forbids me to have false images of him in worship.

What is required by God in the Second Commandment?

God requires me to worship him in spirit and truth.

What is the Third Commandment?

The third commandment is, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God."

What is forbidden by God in the Third Commandment?

God forbids me to dishonor his name.

What is required by God in the Third Commandment?

God requires me to honor his name in all that I do and say.

What is the Fourth Commandment?

The fourth commandment is, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."

What is forbidden by God in the Fourth Commandment?

God forbids me to work on the Sabbath day, except for works of mercy and necessity.

What is required by God in the Fourth Commandment?

God requires me to set apart one day in seven to rest from all my work and be refreshed by my worship of him.

First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.

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 slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:1–3).

What is the Command?

The first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me." You must worship God alone. Your relationship with God must be above all other relationships in your life.

The first commandment is not suggesting that there are "other gods." There are no other gods that exist. There is only one true God who has revealed himself in the Bible. No other gods exist, but because of sin, you often look to someone or something other than God ("other gods") for the happiness and fulfillment in life only God can give you.

God created you to be a worshipper. You're always worshipping something, whether you realize it or not. You're always looking to someone or something (either the one true God or other gods) as your ultimate source of joy and fulfillment in life.

Why does God command you to make him the only object of your worship above everyone and everything else?

Because he designed you to find true fulfillment first and foremost in your relationship with him. He loves you and knows that it's only when you have "no other gods before him" and worship him alone, that you can truly flourish in life.

What is Forbidden?

God forbids you to worship other gods, called idols. The modern idols worshipped today are rarely physical images from creation used in worship by the ancient world. An idol is someone or something other than God from which you get your sense of identity and worth. It's what gives you your deepest sense of security, significance, and meaning in life.

It's someone or something other than God that you believe in, trust in, rely on, hope in, love, fear, serve, and honor, etc. Good things like relationships, possessions, pleasure, approval, reputation, power, control, or money become idols if they are more important to you than God. An idol is something that if you can't have it, or you lose it, your life can feel like it doesn't have true meaning and purpose. 

What is Required?

God commands you to worship him alone as the only true God with your whole being. Your relationship with God must be above everything else in life. Therefore, you must believe in him, trust in him, rely on him, hope in him, love him, fear him, serve him, and honor him above everyone and everything else in the world.

In this commandment, God demands total loyalty and allegiance to your relationship with him. Jesus summarized this saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37).

God has the right to make such a demand on you, not only because he created you, but also because he gave himself entirely for you in Jesus Christ to redeem you. Before God gave the Ten Commandments, he reminded Israel "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Ex. 20:2).

This order of events—God's redemption followed by giving the commandments—reveals the good news that God does not command you to obey him so that he will love and redeem you, but because he has already loved and redeemed you.

The first commandment answers the question, "Who do you worship?" It addresses the object of your worship and commands you to worship only the right God—not other gods (idols). The first commandment reveals the principle of exclusivity that is necessary to flourish in life: that you must worship God above everything and everyone.

Catechism Questions

What is the First Commandment?

The first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me."

What is forbidden by God in the First Commandment?

God forbids me to worship other gods, called idols.

What is required by God in the First Commandment?

God requires me to worship him alone as the only true God.

Applying the Second Commandment (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 4 of 6)

Second Commandment: You shall not make false images of God in worship.

"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 or 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 the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Ex. 20:4–6)

What is the Command?

The second commandment is, "You shall not make false images of God in worship." You must worship the only true God as he reveals himself in the Bible, and not as a false image.

The first commandment has to do with the object of your worship. You must worship the right God. The second commandment has to do with how you worship. You must worship the right God the right way.

In the first commandment God forbids you to worship other gods and commands you to worship him alone. But in the second commandment God warns you about another type of idolatry that worships him as something less than he really is.

Visible images of God can cause you to have false mental images of God in worship. The reason God commands you not to have visible images of him is because all visible images drawn from creation are false images, because they cannot convey true mental images of the invisible, uncreated God.

What is Forbidden?

In this commandment, God commands you not to have false images of him in worship. The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 51 reads, "The second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word."

In Exodus 32 we learn that at the very time God was giving this commandment to Moses, the Israelites were making a golden calf. In verse 4, Aaron points to this statue and says, "This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt." Then in verse 5 we read that Aaron built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD (Yahweh)."

The sin of the Israelites was not the worship of another god but that, in their worship of the true God "who brought them up out of Egypt," they were using a visible image made from creation (a golden calf) to represent the invisible, uncreated God. Since God is invisible and beyond our ability to comprehend fully, no created image could ever fully represent him.

The primary problem being addressed in the second commandment is not creating physical idols with our hands. Instead, it's creating mental idols with our minds and hearts. It's imposing wrong images or conceptions of God on God. It's scaling God down and reducing him to the realm of his creation.

There are many descriptions of God found in the Bible, including descriptions of him as a rock, a light, a fire, an eagle, a father, a king, a judge, a warrior, a shepherd, and many others. It can be good for you to think about God in all these ways. But all these individual descriptions, even from the Bible, must be seen as very limited analogies drawn from creation that ultimately fall short because it's not possible to use any analogy drawn from God’s finite creation to fully reveal the infinite, uncreated God.

However, this doesn't mean it's impossible for you to understand what God is like. There are significant similarities between the Bible's descriptions of God, drawn from creation, and what God is really like. Although your knowledge of God is limited, it can be true and good knowledge. 

For example, it's good to see God like a loving father, but if you see him as only loving (not also just), that is a wrong image of God. It's good to see God like a just judge, but if you see him as only just (not also loving) that's also a wrong image of God. God is much greater than any one image or analogy can convey, so you must never allow your image of God to be limited by any earthly image. To do so would be to dishonor God.  

God ends the second commandment by revealing that he is not only a jealous God who demands your total loyalty, and a just God who rightly judges his enemies. But he is also a gracious God who shows his steadfast love to thousands.

What is Required?

In this commandment, God requires you to worship him in spirit and truth. This requires having a true mental image of him in your worship. It's not possible to have no mental image of God, or to have a perfect mental image of God. The issue is whether your mental images of God are true.

So, how should you form your true thoughts about God? The good news is that in the Bible God has revealed to us who he is and what he does, especially through his Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible reveals the one God as the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Father, Son, and Spirit. And the Bible uses powerful imagery as it reveals the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Spirit as Restorer of all things lost in the world because of sin. The Bible also reveals this triune Lord as holy, loving, just, powerful, sovereign, faithful, good, merciful, true, and much, much more.

Jesus teaches what is required of us in this commandment when he says, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). We worship the ultimately incomprehensible, invisible God in spirit and truth when we allow the truth of God's revelation of himself in the Bible, by his Spirit, to keep renewing our minds so that we worship and enjoy him more and more for who he really is.

Your image of the invisible God must be shaped by God's revelation of himself in the Bible. And this is not only through your personal Bible reading, study, and meditation, but also through being in a church where you are being discipled under Christ-centered preaching and teaching as a way of life.

The second commandment answers the question, "How do you worship?" It addresses the method of your worship and commands you to worship God truthfully—without false images. The second commandment reveals the role of your imagination that must worship the right God rightly—in spirit and truth.

Catechism Questions

What is the Second Commandment?

The second commandment is, "You shall not make false images of God in worship."

What is forbidden in the Second Commandment?

God forbids me to have false images of him in worship.

What is required by God in the Second Commandment?

God requires me to worship him in spirit and truth.

Applying the Third Commandment (Love in Theology Pt 1 Series, 5 of 6)

Third Commandment: You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." (Ex. 20:7)

What is the Command?

The third commandment is, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God." You must honor God’s name by glorifying him in everything you do and say.

God's name represents God—who he is and what he does in the world, especially his magnificent acts of creation, redemption, and restoration of all things lost in the world because of sin. Honoring God's name is a central theme in the Bible.

The Psalmist proclaims that one day all the nations of the earth will give God the worship he alone is due and glorify his name. "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name" (Ps. 86:8–9).

Through the prophet Isaiah, God declares the reason he continued to show love to Israel when they disobeyed him was so that his name would be glorified. "For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another" (Isa. 48:11).

The apostle John tells us that the reason our sins are forgiven by God is not ultimately for our sake, but for God’s name's sake. "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake" (1 John 2:12).

The apostle Paul writes that his mission to all the nations is "for the sake of his name among all the nations" (Rom. 1:5–6).[1] Paul also tells us that God's purpose to bring honor and glory to his name in all things is now our purpose in everything we do in life: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). The Shorter Catechism answer reflects this by telling us that our primary purpose is "to glorify God and enjoy him forever."

To glorify the name of the Lord is to lift him up and exalt him in everything we say and do, by always giving him the honor and respect that he alone is due.

What is Forbidden?

This commandment forbids you to dishonor God's name by anything you say or do. Since God's name in the Bible represents God, this commandment forbids you to dishonor God by anything you say or do.

The opposite of bringing honor and glory to God's name is to bring disgrace and dishonor to God's name by what you say and do. It's defiling God's sacred name and damaging God's reputation. God shows the seriousness of this offense when he says in this commandment, "for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

God does not forbid the use of his name, only it's misuse.[2] Disobeying this commandment includes cursing and swearing with God's name. It also includes using God’s name to promote falsehood, deceit, or wrong of any kind, especially in courts of justice or when special circumstances require an oath.

However, dishonoring God's name goes far beyond cursing and taking false oaths.

The greatest way to dishonor God's name is when we fail to trust and worship him alone. Paul writes, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.... They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:21–25).

These people defiled God's name, "did not honor God," (the third commandment) by worshiping and serving other gods (idols) (first commandment) that were "created things" (second commandment).

As a result, Paul says, "They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened...so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity" (Rom. 1:21–29).

What is Required?

This commandment requires you to honor God's name in all that you do and say. Jesus shows us the importance of this commandment when he teaches us how to pray. In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition echoes the third commandment. "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name'" (Matt. 6:9).  

Jesus obeyed the third commandment not only by praying for God's name to be glorified, but also by living his whole life on the earth for God's glory. At the end of his life, Jesus prayed to the Father, "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do" (John 17:4).

Therefore, in obedience to this commandment, we must learn how to join with the Psalmists, the Prophets, the Apostles, and Jesus, by aligning both our prayers and our lives with God's purpose of bringing honor and glory to his name in all we say and do.

So, how do we obey this commandment and honor God's name? The answer is found in the Children's Catechism:

Q. 1. Who made you?
A. God.

Q. 2. What else did God make?
A. God made all things.

Q. 3. Why did God make you and all things?
A. For his own glory.

Q. 4. How can you glorify God?
A. By loving him and doing what he commands.

The answer to the question, "How can you glorify God?" is the same as the answer to the question "How can you honor God's name?" (third commandment). The answer is "By loving him and doing what he commands."

Jesus says, "If you love me you will keep my commands" (John 14:15). Therefore, the way you honor God's name is by loving him (commandments 1–4) and loving others (commandments 5–10) in obedience to his commands.

You honor God's name (third commandment) first and foremost by having no other gods before him (first commandment) and by having no false images of him when you worship him (second commandment).  Then you live a life that brings honor to God's name by your obedience to all his other commandments. These are:

• Remembering the Sabbath (fourth commandment)

• Respecting Authority (fifth commandment)

• Cherishing Life (sixth commandment)

• Upholding Purity (seventh commandment)

• Respecting Possessions (eighth commandment)

• Promoting Truth (ninth commandment—including oaths using God's name)

• Cultivating Contentment (tenth commandment)

As you learn how to obey all of God's commandments, you're learning how to fulfill his primary purpose for your life—"to glorify God and enjoy him forever."[3]

The third commandment answers the question, "Why do you worship?" It addresses the purpose of your worship and commands you to honor God by not misusing his name. The third commandment reveals the purpose of your life: to bring honor to God's name in all that you do and say.

Catechism Questions

What is the Third Commandment?

The third commandment is, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God."

What is forbidden by God in the Third Commandment?

God forbids me to dishonor his name.

What is required by God in the Third Commandment?

God requires me to honor his name in all that I do and say.

Footnotes:

[1] When Paul visited Athens, "his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols" (Acts 17:16). Paul had a zeal for God's glory, a passion to see God honored for who he is and for all he's done in Jesus Christ. Paul was stirred with a holy jealousy for God's glory when he saw that Athens was full of false gods that were receiving honor and glory instead of the only true God.

[2] Throughout the Bible we learn that God approves of his people using his name to take solemn vows and oaths to promote truth, justice, and trustworthiness in a way that honors him and shows love for people (Num. 6:1–21; 1 Sam. 1:11; Acts 18:18).

[3] John Calvin summarizes the meaning of the third commandment: "The meaning is this: God is indeed to be feared and loved by us, that we should not for any reason misuse his most holy name. Rather, we should magnify him above all else for his holiness, give the glory to him in everything, whether favorable or adverse: we should wholeheartedly ask of him all things which come to us from his hand, and give him thanks." Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1536 edition, ed. and trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, 1986), 22.