Responsibilities of a Christian
Ten Commandments
Brianna L. Bowman
Have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments? Well, if you have, are you going to Hell? Are you not a Christian anymore? Miraculously God always forgives. Why does God forgive people who continue to sin over and over again? The most amazing thing happened; God’s only son came to earth and died for all of our sins. The Ten Commandments came from God to Moses and you can read about them in Exodus 20:1-17. The 1st commandment is: You shall have no other gods before me. The second is: you shall have no graven images. The 4th commandment tells us to remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy Followed by the 5th commandment Honor your father and Mother, Do not lie or covet make up the ninth and tenth commandments. These are six wonderful teachings of the Ten Commandments that I am addressing here.
Amazingly Mans primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. One of the chief ways to do this is by obeying the Ten Commandments. Three of the Ten Commandments that instruct us on how to glorify God are: Having no other gods before the Lord Almighty, Having no idols and remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy.
The 1st commandment says “You shall have NO other gods before me.” The word Worship in English comes from the word “worth.” Consequently when we worship something we declare it has great worth. If God is really important to us our life will reallystate it! For this reason we will seek him in prayer as well as reading the Bible. God commands us to have no other gods before him, so we must worship him alone.
The 2nd commandment says “You must not bow down to any graven images.” We must not make Money, TV, a fancy new Corvette, or an extraordinary Mansion go before God. Many People think that these things and many others will make them happy, but they are wrong. They need God first and foremost. God will fulfill them more than any earthly thing. Many people make up there own ideas of what they think God should be. However God says you should never trust your own opinion about who God is or even the opinions of others. You must make sure that what you believe about God is from the Bible only.Constantly God has revealed himself to us through the Bible.
The 4th commandment says “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” God whocreated the Sabbath day for Sunday; we must rest and make that day out for just worshiping our Lord and Savior, additionally the Sabbath is rest that believers have in Jesus. When we know our Lord he gives us a rest from the burdens of our sins. Faith in the gospel is how we come to enjoy the rest given to us by God and displayed in the Sabbath. MeaningfullyHebrews acknowledges in chapter 4:9-10, “There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters Gods rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.” We must learn to worship him because we want to, not because someone makes us go to church. Psalms 103 17-18 “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lords love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children’s children, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
As you can see from the three Commandments illustrated above honoring God is something every person is created to do. When we go to church on Sunday we are worshiping God in a wonderful place filled with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is just one way of honoring God. He loves to see us all together in one place worshiping his name! He hates when we put other things before him, and have other gods that go before him. So we must not make any idols that we think are more wonderful than God, and we must not have any other gods except him. Let us boast in Christ alone!!
Surprisingly the bible tells us to be imitators of Christ. How can this be accomplished? Serving others is a wonderful way of loving our neighbors and following the teachings of Christ. The Ten Commandments address these deeds with the fifth commandment: Honor your father and mother. Do not lie and do not covet are discussed in the 9th and 10th commandments.
The 5th commandment says “Honor your father and mother.” The first authority we have is our parents. Considerably we are to have God be our authority first, then our parents. But by obeying our parents we are obeying the Lord. Our parent’s authority is God, and ours is to honor our parents as a way of obeying God. Our parents are here to protect us and love us. God has also provided authority in other areas other than the home. Like the Government, our President is one of our highest authorities. Police Men have authority over us as well. When we have a problem with our authority we become angry with them and in a sense angry with God.
The 9th commandment says “You shall not lie!” When we tell other people what we think God should be like we are not only lying but we are blaspheming God. God only speaks the truth; he created us to be righteous and holy. He also created us to love the truth as He does. The ninth commandment FORBIDS anything that would hurt or injure anyone. Naturally when we say mean or unkind things about other people we are breaking the 9th commandment! Consequently we need to watch what we say, we need to let our words be glorifying to Him.
The 10th commandment says “You shall not covet!” It is very natural for us when we see something that we want but don’t have, to start coveting it. Not surprisingly this is a very natural human response, but it is still sin. We can’t fathom why God should call things we do “sin” if we can’t help doing it. Obliviously God is holy and can not tolerate any sin! This sounds harsh but God is merciful. By revealing our sin it demonstrates how much we need a savior.
In these last three commandments we are talking about serving others. Christ put our parents in charge of us, so when we obey them we are obeying God. Also, when we lie, we are disobeying God and his rule. When we covet we are also sinning. Stubbornly we desire what God does not want us to have.
It is clear that God is our heavenly father; most fathers love their children and want what’s best for them. God provided rules for us to live by. These rules are called the moral laws that tell us how to behave towards God and man. Romans 3:20b illustrates our need for God’s law “Through the law we become conscious of sin.” The moral law came to Moses from God in the form of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 in the Old Testament. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever and the Ten Commandments reveal to us how to accomplish this. You shall have no other gods before me, you shall have no idols and you shall remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Clearlythese three commandments demonstrate how to best glorify God. The Lord is clear on how we should treat others, Jesus himself stated: You shall love your neighbor as your self. To clarify here are three ways to love your neighbor: Honor your father and mother, do not covet and do not lie. Honoring your father and mother and abstaining from lying shows respect for others. Coveting creates jealousy and damages relationships with others and God. God has given us everything we need, tragically we don’t always trust in His perfect plan for our lives. Unquestionably God commandments are always perfect!
Bibliography:
Bible
The Way of the Master for Kids; Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort
Training Hearts Teaching Minds; Starr Meade
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