Exodus 20:12-26

SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW

FIFTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:12 )

To “honor” means to regard with respect and loving fear. What reasons there are for it on the part of children toward their parents, who are under God the author of their existence, and their teachers, benefactors and rulers!

What promise is attached to this commandment? For a comment see Deuteronomy 5:16 . Although this promise applies primarily to Israel in Canaan, as we see from Ezekiel 22:7-15 , yet its principle is true in God’s moral government everywhere.

The child who honors its parents of course wise and true parents are assumed gains the experience of the latter which makes for a good, and with necessary exceptions, a long life.

SIXTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:13 )

The reference here is to the unlawful taking of life by suicide or homicide, but not to capital punishment for capital crimes (see Genesis 9:6 ), nor

the taking of life in self-defense or lawful war. It forbids all violence, passion, lust, intemperance in eating or drinking, and any other habit which tends to shorten life. So far as the more spiritual import is concerned it interdicts envy, revenge, hatred, malice, or sinful anger, all that provokes to wrath or murder. See Matthew 5:21-26 ; Matthew 5:38-48 and 1 John 3:15-17 .

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:14 )

The Hebrew word for “adultery” refers to the unlawful act taking place between man and woman where either or both are married, thus differing from another word commonly translated fornication and where the same act is referred to between unmarried persons.

Because the sanctity of the marriage relation is the object aimed at it prohibits everything contrary to the spirit of that in thought, word or deed. (See Matthew 5:27-32 .) We may therefore include not only lustful looks, motions and verbal insinuations, but modes of dress, pictures, books, theatrical displays, etc., which provoke the passions and incite to the unlawful act.

Sins of this character are more frequently forbidden in Scripture and more fearfully threatened than any other, and they are the cause of more shame, crime, misery and death. Moreover, they have one striking characteristic, viz: that you cannot think or talk about them without being more or less excited and led into temptation. How continually need we be praying the prayer of Psalms 19:12 .

EIGHTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:15 )

As the sixth commandment secures the right of our neighbor’s life, and the seventh the right of his family, so this secures the right of his property. The essence of dishonesty is the possessing ourselves of that which rightfully belongs to another, for which there is a variety of ways besides putting our hands into his money-drawer fraudulent bargain, contraction of debts which we know we shall be unable to pay, cornering the market, graft, usury, evading taxes, false weights and measures, etc.

And as in the previous cases, so here also, the command reaches beyond outward acts to the spirit of them, and includes inordinate love for the world and the things that are in the world, living beyond our means, idleness, and everything that leads up to theft. This commandment may be regarded as the most comprehensive of all.

NINTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:16 )

This refers primarily to testimony in courts of law (Deuteronomy 19:16-19 ), and differs from the three preceding in that it deals with words rather than deeds.

But, as in those cases, it has a larger import and prohibits everything in our dealings with one another not according to truth. Compare to Leviticus 19:16 ; Proverbs 19:9 ; Psalms 15:2 ; Colossians 3:9 .

Among some of these things might be named exaggeration in speech, polite equivocations, flattering compliments, and of course all classes of slander, backbiting, and imputations of evil where no evil is.

It is usually felt, however, that there is a distinction between telling a lie and concealing the truth or a part of the truth from those who have no right to demand it. The one is always wrong, the other sometimes may be right.

TENTH COMMANDMENT (Exodus 20:17 )

“Covet” means to earnestly desire or long after, a feeling not sinful in itself, but which becomes so under particular circumstances. Its sinfulness appears in longing for anything unlawful, or longing for that which is lawful to an inordinate degree. A passing wish to have anything our neighbor possesses may be innocent, but to long for it excessively is prohibited.

The reason for the prohibition is that such longing begets a grudging, discontented and envious spirit, which leads often to injustice and violence.

The case of David who coveted Uriah’s wife and finally caused him to be slain is in point.

From deeds and words the decalogue has thus come to deal with the thoughts and intents of the heart, the fountainhead of sin; and that it reaches deep into the interior of human life, read Paul’s words in Romans 7:7-14 .

These words deserve careful consideration. He once said that “touching the righteousness which is in the law” he was blameless (Philippians 3:6 ) a wonderful thing for a man of his honesty and introspection to say! How then may we explain him saying near the end of his life that he is the “chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15 )? The explanation is found in Romans 7:0 . Meditating upon the tenth commandment he observed that it had to do not with the body but the mind. From this he argued that the other commandments reigned in the same mental area. Taught by the Spirit, he perceived that far from being blameless, he had daily transgressed the principles of the decalogue even though he had never broken them outwardly. The law did for him what God intends it to do for all of us. It killed him, slaying his self-righteousness and taking the life out of his self- confidence. As he thus lay hopeless in the dust of his earthliness it led him to the Savior of the lost (Galatians 3:24 ).

QUESTIONS

1. What does “honor” mean in the fifth commandment?

2. What sins are most frequently forbidden and threatened in Scripture?

3. How may “covet” be qualified?

4. Which commandment has most to do with the mind?

5. Can you quote Galatians 3:24 ?