The Ten Commandments

By: Laura Taff

Have you followed the ten commandments? The question may seem odd. Who thinks about the ten commandments anymore, right? Aren’t we free from being under that law? Doesn’t being a Christian mean you go to church and then God forgives you for all your sins and then you go to heaven when you die? Well, no it really doesn’t mean that.
Being a Christian means you have repented of your sin and you follow Christ. So how do we know if we’ve sinned in the first place? Oh, yeah, back to that law. So let’s look a little closer at the ten commandments and see which ones we have kept.


Number ten is "Do Not Covet". Have you ever wanted something someone else had? Have you been jealous that they had something you couldn’t have?


Number nine is "Do Not Lie". Have you ever lied? Even a "white" one?


Number eight is "Do Not Steal". Have you ever stolen anything regardless of the value?


Number seven is "You Shall not commit adultery". Have you cheated on your spouse physically or emotionally? How about looking with lust? The Bible says he who looks upon a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (And women, it counts for us too!) So have you looked with lust?


Number six is "Do Not Murder". Have you ever murdered anyone? Well, how about hated anyone? Have you ever said "I hate you" to anyone or hated someone who hurt you? If so, you’ve broken this commandment. Huh? You see, God judges our thoughts and emotions as well as our deeds. 1 John 3:15 says "He who hates his brother is a murderer".


Number five is "Honor Your Father and Mother". Have you always kept this in the way that is pleasing to God? Even as a teenager?


Number four is "Honor The Sabbath and Keep It Holy". Have you always set aside one day out of seven?


Number three is "You Shall Not Take The Name of God in Vain." Do you make a habit of saying, "Oh my ____!"? Have you used God’s name in combination with a four letter curse word? This is blasphemy. By doing this we are taking the name of the Holy God who gave us life and using it to express disgust.


Number two Is "You Shall Not Make For Yourself Any Idol. Most of us think of the carved wooden gods that people in olden days worshiped in place of God. But we don’t realize that we sometimes do it when we make God who we want him to be. On an episode of a popular television show, when a young woman’s parents found out that she and her boyfriend were sleeping together before marriage, the young woman explained that she had decided that it wasn’t a sin. Guess what? She broke the second commandment. She made God be what she wanted him to be by making sex before marriage okay. That wasn’t the one true God, that was a god she made up.


And the number one commandment is " You Shall Have No Other God’s Before Me". Have you always put God first in your life? You should know that Romans 3:11 tells us that there is no one that understands, and no one who seeks after God. That tells us we’ve all broken this one at least once if not continually because we don’t always put Him first. Your school work, business deals, car, money, kids, etc. can all be "gods" to you that you put before God.


So how did you do? I didn’t do so well. I broke them all. Now what?


Well, you have to ask yourself, as I have, if you died tonight for any reason, and you found yourself standing before God waiting to be assessed on your life, what would happen? Would you be innocent or guilty? If you even broke one you’d be guilty, as I am.
Would you go to heaven or hell? Well, if you’re guilty, you can’t go to heaven. Does this concern you? Friend, I’ve got some good news for you. God did something for you and me so that we do not have to serve our sentence in hell. Someone already did that for us. Do you know who that was? It was Jesus. When he died on the cross he saved us from our sins (all those commandments up there that we broke) because he went to hell in our place. Yes! Jesus went to hell the three days he was dead. But then he rose again and now has conquered death and hell forever! Don’t let this precious gift be wasted. Repent of your sin, turn to Jesus, and follow him. Say your own heart-felt prayer to God now and start living a life with Christ. You’ll still fall into breaking those commandments. But you’ll fall, not dive in to them. And you’ll ask forgiveness and be truly repentant. Just remember that God does not pardon us because we are sorry, He pardons us because someone else paid our fine. God bless you.

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