THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - part 1

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17)

With your permission, these are the Ten Commandments paraphrased.

  1. I am the Lord, your God. Don’t worship anything else, don’t bow down to any man-made image, and don’t put anything before me.
  2. Don’t take the name of the Lord in vain, or else you will be punished.
  3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.
  4. Honour your father and your mother.
  5. Don’t kill.
  6. Don’t commit adultery.
  7. Don’t steal.
  8. Don’t tell lies against someone else.
  9. Don’t covet another man’s wife.
  10. Don’t covet another man’s possessions.

I recall attending a meeting many years ago where the speaker said: "Too many people think of the Decalogue as a list of do's and don'ts, but it is so much more. At the same time, it is a pretty good guide to how we should live our lives. If we focused on living the way God wants us to, we wouldn’t have time to do any of the don’ts”.

If we take a quick look at the Ten Commandments, we see that the first few deal with our relationship with God, while most of the rest form a list of "don't do this, don't do that".

And then there is my favourite commandment:

“Honour thy father and thy mother”.

I think I am drawn to this one in particular because it is the easiest to understand, and it relates to people of all ages. What does “honour” mean? There are several definitions, including:

a) To hold in respect; esteem.
b) To show respect for.

It seems to me that if I were to live my life so that everything I say and do results in my mother and father being honoured, the other nine commandments would naturally fall into place. Honouring my parents would tend to lead me in the direction that God demands in the first few commandments, and my heart would be such that I would naturally tend to avoid disobeying the latter ones.

Sometimes, I find that decisions and choices are (or should be) quite simple. For example, I might ask myself if what I'm about to say or do is going to hurt someone. If it is, do I really need to say or do it? Will my action bring glory to my folks, or would they more likely be ashamed of me for doing it? When people hear me speak and when they see my actions, do they think highly of my parents? This makes it easier for me to decide the best course of action.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul calls on parents and children alike to treat each other with proper respect.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1-4).

I like the way verse 6:2 points out this one fact, that the 4th commandment is the first one with promise. I also like verse 6:4 because it reminds parents (me, for example) to be patient, to nurture our little ones, and to keep them mindful of our Lord.

And best of all, one is never too old to honour one’s parents.

Published: December 18th, 2005

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