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The Circularity and Wholeness of the Ten Commandments and, Hence, God’s Law

God is one, so His Word is one and His Law is one.  It can explain James 2:10:

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

James says offend one point in the law, offend the whole law.  It’s like being controlled by the Holy Spirit. You are or you’re not.  It’s not like 57% control is control.  100% control is control.  Let me explain, using the ten commandments.

The first command is this (Exodus 20:3):

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

The tenth command is this (Exodus 20:17):

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

Paul writes that covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5).  Is.  Breaking the tenth commandment is breaking the first commandment.

The desire for anything but God’s pleasure is covetousness.  It’s also having other gods before God.  The first commandment and the tenth commandment are the start and the finish, but they are also the same thing, as if it’s all the same thing.  This is why all the commandments can be one commandment, love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart.  If you do that, you keep all the commandments.

If you are not coveting, God is before all other gods.  If God is not before other gods, you are coveting.  The key is the first commandment.  Have God before other gods.  Then you will not be coveting.  How will you know that you have other gods before God?  You will be coveting.  It’s the means for knowing.

If you start your way through the other commandments, they are interchangeable in the same way.  The second command is a physical thing, an image, which is being coveted.  It’s an idol, so it also breaks the first commandment and the tenth commandment.  Covetousness is idolatry.  And idol is before God.

Someone takes God’s name in vain because God is too low in a person’s estimation, so something is ahead of God, so again he is coveting.  That which is higher in estimation, even in attitude, is being coveted.  Vain taking of God’s name isn’t high treatment of God because something else is ahead of Him, so it is being coveted.

The Sabbath might seem like a difficult one, but it is like the others.  God could require every day of the week to be set aside, but He requires one.  If someone won’t do that, something else is ahead of God and someone has a vain relationship with God.  You can’t say, God is high, but I can’t give Him just one day that He requires.

What about the second table of the law?  The nature of God as love is God putting others ahead of Himself.  This is why it isn’t murder to kill someone out of the protection of another person.  In the case of the Sabbath, someone hasn’t violated the Sabbath when he saves someone’s life and protects someone’s property.  If God does that, then you are not putting Him first when you don’t do what He does.

All authority is of God with a special emphasis on father and mother.  It is hierarchical, so as long as it puts God first, then all of God’s authority will be kept.  You can’t say that you’ve put God first, when you don’t honor those whom He puts in charge.  You want your own way so much that you are willing to dishonor your parents, that is covetousness.

God attaches a long life with honoring parents, which is getting something that you can’t get through covetousness, even if you really want it.  It’s not how life works.  God is the author of all life.  On average dishonor of parents, and God, who sustains life, doesn’t allow the same length of life to enjoy what’s more important than His authority.  You can say God is before all things when you dishonor His authority, father and mother, but you in fact do not.  One can say that anyone who does not honor father and mother does not honor God, even if he claims to honor God.

In Genesis 9, we know that murder strikes at the image of God in man.  That’s before the law was written.  God created men in His image.  Murdering a man is to put another god before God.  God’s prohibition against adultery we know was because God is holy and as a part of worship of Him, His people needed to be different than those in the land of Canaan, distinct and according to His design.  It’s obvious stealing proceeds from covetousness rather than trusting God.  You’ve stolen a material thing, elevating a thing ahead of God, a kind of idolatry.

God reveals Himself through the truth.  Bearing false witness is against God’s identity as the Truth.  The revelation of God is dependent on truthfulness.  No one can know God and, therefore, worship Him without the truth about Him.

All of the ten commandments relate with one another to the extent that they are one.  If you offend one, you’ve offended them all.

AUTHORS OF THE BLOG

  • Kent Brandenburg
  • Thomas Ross

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