The Tenth Commandment: Don’t Covet

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. (Exodus 20:17)

To covet, in this sense, is to want something you can’t have. It can also be to want something simply because someone else has it and you don’t.

In a way, this is the beginning of the violation of all the other commandments. We start by coveting our neighbors property, and we end up stealing. We covet someone else’s (perhaps future) wife, and we end up committing adultery. We covet their life, and we end up killing them. We covet our parents, and we don’t honor them. We covet God, and we end up not worshiping Him.

We should never say in our heart that we want to be better than them for the sake of being better, nor that we want what they have simply because they have it.

I don’t think that greed is the same as coveting, although they are similar. Greed wants ever more, while covetousness simply wants what they have. Both are bad, although we are warned against coveting, not greed, in this commandment.

If we see our neighbor’s success, we should be happy that they are happy. If we want what they have, we figure out how to get it for ourselves. We are, after all, all creations of God, all equal partakers of the divine gift of life. We are also unique, special, different, each given their own talents and advantages, and each given their special challenges.

The point of life is not to look around and compare ourselves with each other. It is simply to find happiness. Happiness isn’t found in having more than your neighbor, it is found in satisfying the cravings of your own soul, the desire for peace, the desire for joy, the desire for good people who love you and whom you love, and the desire for simply spending your days on this earth in way that is pleasing to God and His divine principles and attributes.

Such a life cannot be had if you allow yourself to covet.

The Ninth Commandment: Don’t Lie

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (Exodus 20:16)

This is simply translated as “Don’t Lie”, although it really means, “Don’t say someone did something they didn’t do, or vice versa.”

There are several ways in which we may lie:

1. By deliberately misrepresenting what we know to be true so that people understand something other than the truth.
2. By unintentionally misrepresenting what we know to be true with the same result.
3. By speaking out of ignorance, or pretending to know something we don’t actually know.
4. By promising to do something we don’t do, or promising not to do something we do do.

The first is the worst kind of lie. It’s the kind of lie that means we simply can’t trust anything you say anymore.

The second is just as bad of a lie although the motivation was different. It’s important that we learn to speak in a way that people understand. I feel terrible when I learn that people have misunderstood what I have said, and I go to great lengths to ensure that it is corrected.

The third is also bad, almost equivalent to the first. If we don’t know, we have to say, “I don’t know.” If we are guessing, we have to say, “I am guessing.”

The fourth is a different kind of lie, but still a lie. When we promise to do something, and don’t do it, or vice-versa, we make ourselves a liar. This is no less true if we promise that someone else will do or not do something, and they violate that promise.

The word “trust” is important. If our language doesn’t match reality, then people cannot trust what we have to say. It this is a general problem in society, then the natural default will be to not trust anyone until we have reason to trust them. Sadly, this is the state of affairs in our society because lying has become so rampant.

There is a real cost to distrust. Imagine two partners who absolutely trust each other. How much overhead is spent verifying each other’s claims? Very little, if any. Because this overhead is gone, they are tremendously productive.

Compare this with two business partners who cannot trust each other at all. Their entire time is consumed by verifying each other’s claims. In the end, why bother speaking to each other at all? Eventually, the partnership will be dissolved, and whatever productivity there could have been is lost.

If we are to build a society where trust can flourish, we need to be trustworthy ourselves. Not just some of the time, all of the time. And not just with important things, but little things as well.

When my wife says, “Do I look fat?” I tell her the truth. Of course, my job is easier than other husbands, since my wife is not fat. But as long as I am honest with her, she will trust what I have to say. I would hate for my words of encouragement to be met with distrust because I have been insincere in the past.

At my job, the importance of data and hard facts is a constant theme. We don’t tell each other things we don’t know. We don’t make decisions based on guesses when data is available. And we certainly ensure that we meet the promises we’ve made. This has led to a certain level of trust within the company. If a team promises something, I know they are being sincere and will likely deliver on that promise by the promised date. I can’t imagine working in a company where everyone wasn’t as honest as they should be with each other.

The Eighth Commandment: Don’t Steal

Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Obviously, it’s wrong to take property from another. This kind of behavior is the kind of thing that destroys economic wealth. I certainly can’t imagine doing business or even having a job when anyone can take anything and claim it as theirs.

I do believe that there are too many in our society who believe that it is OK to take what they need whenever they need it. We have a lot more thefts in our country than need be because we don’t vigorously teach people how to get what they want and need without stealing. After all, there is more than enough in this world, and if the would-be thief would rather spend his time, thoughts, and energy figuring out ways to contribute to society beneficially, they would end up with more material wealth than any thievery could get them.

What’s worse is institutionalized theft. This is when the government takes what is not theirs and does so illegally. We have massive social programs that are simply unconstitutional. I can’t seem to lay my finger on the provision in the Constitution of the United States that allows federal tax collectors to collect Social Security and Medicare taxes and spend them on those programs. I can’t seem to identify where the Founding Fathers authorized the food stamp program, the welfare program, or the housing and education programs.

But even if theft is legal, it is still wrong. A government should never collect taxes for the purposes of giving it to someone else. A government is charged with protecting the general interests of everyone, not paying off the poor with mandatory taxes.

Taking what is not yours is wrong, no matter what the purpose is.

Our material possessions represent our life energy, as Weissbach says. We worked to get what we have, and so whatever time we spent obtaining it is time that we will never get back. We only have so much time in our life, and so it represents a part of our life. When you take that property, it is like you are taking away part of that person’s life.

Imagine living in a society where property rights were universally respected. What is yours is yours, and mine is mine. Individuals in this society would see only one way of getting what they wanted: commerce. They would need to buy, sell, and trade what they had for what someone else had. Every interaction would be a net benefit to both parties. People wouldn’t live in fear and go to extraordinary lengths to protect their property from theft and taxes. Instead, all of their energies would be spent on making things other people wanted, and providing the goods and services people want.

The Seventh Commandment: Don’t Commit Adultery

Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)

Of all the Ten Commandments, this is the most controversial in our society. It’s no mistake that it is.

What is adultery? It is to have sexual relations outside of marriage. This includes people who are married and people who are not married. This includes homosexual and heterosexual acts.

Why is this so serious? Because life is sacred. We don’t arbitrarily kill people, and we don’t arbitrarily create people, unless we have a family that they can belong to.

Families are ordained of God. We saw that in the Fifth Commandment, “Honor thy Father and Mother”. The father and mother of a child owe, at least, a stable family to that child. A stable family can only be found within the bonds of marriage.

Sexual relationships bring people closer together as well. If we choose to only have sexual relationships between husbands and wives, they will be drawn closer together and their marriage will be much less likely to dissolve into divorce. This is simple math. Adultery hurts, no matter how much people say it doesn’t. If they don’t care who their spouse is sleeping with, then they don’t care about their spouse.

We would do well to avoid breaking this commandment. Indeed, we should follow Jesus’ commandment to not even look on a woman to lust after her. That means, it all starts with where our thoughts are. Just like we shouldn’t get angry with someone, for fear of murdering them, we shouldn’t lust after someone, for fear of committing adultery.

There are a lot of things we can be doing better as a society.

First, we need to elevate marriage as the highest ideal institution in our land. No man or woman should feel like their time is better spent as anything but a husband or wife in marriage, and a mother or father of their children. There is no higher office, no higher honor, and no higher aspiration.

Second, we need to do what we can to ensure that every child belongs to a loving family with a father and mother. Rather than abortion, we should practice adoption. Our laws should ensure that every child is provided with a father an mother, first, last and always.

Third, we need to stop preaching that sexual relations are harmless. Of all the things we have learned that actually harm our body but we thought were good, such as tobacco, I believe we are beginning to learn, scientifically, that what we do with our sexual organs is incredibly important, and it will either make or break our lives.

Finally, we need to teach our children not to flaunt their sexuality. Britney Spears is not a role model for our children. Dress modestly, act appropriately, and date for marriage. Don’t sell your bodies for your relationships, and don’t allow people to manipulate you to get what they want out of you.

Imagine living in a society where we all feel a tremendous duty to the upcoming generation. Imagine a society where people self-organize into individual, loving families, and each child is born into relationships where spouses love each other and are faithful to each other, and where there is nothing in the world more important to them than each other and their children. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that society, and enjoy the inevitable peace and happiness, calm and comfort of knowing that no matter who you are, you have a loving father and mother?

Yes, we can never legislate righteousness. We can never, ever control what two consenting adults do out of sight and out of mind of everyone else. It is always going to be an intimately personal decision who you will sleep with. But we can build a society where infidelity is strongly discouraged, and those who do violate that trust are not seen and not heard of.

The Sixth Commandment: Don’t Kill

Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13)

We can discuss here what it means to “kill” and whether abortion, capital punishment, war, and so on, are violations of this commandment. Regardless of the outcome of this discussion, the end result will be the same:

Life is sacred. We do not have the right to take it away arbitrarily.

This commandment is summarized nicely in the Declaration of Independence by saying that all men have a right to life. Because God said, “Don’t kill”, that means, everyone gets to live their lives.

I want to extend this commandment along the lines that Jesus did. He said, not only don’t kill, but don’t even get angry with each other! I believe this is very wise counsel. If we can tame our passions to the point where we wish no harm on any others, then we are doing quite well indeed.

I would encourage everyone, everywhere, to take the subject of ending life very seriously. Until you can see why it is OK to kill on the battlefield, don’t kill on the battlefield. Until you can see why it is OK to kill a murderer, don’t kill a murderer. Until you can see why it is OK to kill in self-defense, don’t kill in self-defense. And until you can see why it is OK to kill an unborn infant, don’t kill an unborn infant.

There are valid explanations and logical reasons why killing in some of the above cases is totally justified. Indeed, we see in the Bible that the same God that commands “Don’t Kill”, commands “Kill.” The explanations are clear, of course, and they are easily found. And the logical conundrum of killing to keep the commandment “Don’t Kill” are easily solved.

However, until you see the solution, don’t kill. That’s a very good default to start with.

And that’s why we do not take killing lightly in our country. Nor should we ever take it lightly! What more important decision can any one person or any society make than whether we should kill an individual or not?

My personal understanding of this law leads me to the following conclusions. You’ll have to navigate your own course and its end on your own.

1. Killing in war is justified. A soldier who kills as part of a war is not a murderer, provided he is following his orders and the rules of engagement to the best of his ability.
2. Killing a murderer is justified. Killing certain other kinds of criminals may be justified depending on the crime. (Rape is one of those crimes.) Of course, we can’t determine guilt on our own, and neither can we execute the criminal. These are state functions.
3. Killing in self-defense, or in defense on another’s life, is justified.
4. Killing an unborn infant is not justified, except when the life of the mother is in danger, and only if the mother wishes it. Preserving the life of an unwanted child from rape or incest is questionable, at best. If the mother wishes it, abortion is probably acceptable in those cases.

Why this should be a commandment is perfectly clear. God gave us life, and preserves us. If we love God, then we won’t work against Him by taking away those lives that he gave. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we wouldn’t kill anyone any more than we would commit suicide.

The Fifth Commandment: Honor thy Father and Mother

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12)

What does it mean to “honor”? It means to show respect and due reverence. This commandment dictates that we should honor our fathers and mothers.

What would this mean? Ask anyone from East Asia and they can give you a long list of things you can do to honor your parents. Although I believe in some things they take it too far, in general, they have the right mindset.

Your parents gave you life. They sacrificed a part of their life—a very large part—so that you can live and have the things you have. Even if your parents are not worthy of honor, the only thing we can do is honor them regardless.

If we honor our parents, we need to honor their parents. Thus, we should show respect for and carefully pay attention to what our ancestors have said just like we should do with our own parents.

If we honor our parents, we love the things they love. The thing they love is their children, our brothers and sisters. So we should love our own family, even our extended family.

I suggest several things we can do to honor our parents.

First, we can get to know who they truly are. Find out about their history. Find out about their hopes and dreams, or what they used to be. We can learn a lot about life just by studying our parents.

This of course, involves spending time with our parents. Let us keep the holidays as a time to get together with our parents and families. After we’ve grown up and left home, there is nothing they want more than to hear back about us, our successes and failures. Life is so empty when your children leave home.

We can, of course, obey them. This can be taken to extremes, of course. I wouldn’t obey my parents and commit a crime, for instance. But for the most part, when parents ask us to do something, it’s hardly ever because of their vanity or because they want to hurt us. Rather, it’s the opposite.

We can speak reverently about our parents. Yes, everyone has faults and failures. We don’t like our dirty laundry being spread for all to see, so let’s keep the failures and mistakes of our parents where we’d like our dirty laundry kept. No matter how many faults a person has, there is doubtless something good and redeeming we can share with others.

The promise about our days being long in the land is understood well by my Korean in-laws. See, when my brothers in law show reverence for their dad, who has passed away, and his ancestors, they are modeling the behavior of their children. That way, when they grow old and weak, their children will do the same for them. If you want to live a long life, teach your children to honor their parents by example. When you get near the end of your life, your life will be extended by their charity.

But there is also a plea for turning back the clock on moral issues here. If the family is strong, then the morality of that family will not waver. You will find families who seem to be stuck in the 18th Century when it comes to their attitudes on marriage and religion. This is because their ancestors from the 18th Century honored their parents, and they honor theirs. It creates an unbroken chain of righteousness.

The Fourth Commandment: Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

We used to have blue laws in our country. These forbid work on Sunday. We no longer have them, except perhaps in a few communities.

Keeping the Sabbath holy is more than not working on that day. Indeed, it is simply setting aside a day for your heart and body and mind to turn towards the worship of God.

Atheists and humanists would do well to take a day each week to ponder on the truth and logic and reasoning of their philosophy. Put aside your daily cares, let things lay until the next day, and take some time to “tune” your mind to those thing which are truly important.

Whether you believe in the six-day creation as a myth or a parable or as literal fact, there is a powerful lesson to be learned. I don’t believe that God felt tired after 6 days of creation. I do believe, however, that the universe was tired from all the massive changes that had occurred. This day of rest wasn’t to allow God time to recuperate, but for the universe to reorient itself and take a moment to understand what exactly just happened, and even to breath in the beauty and perfection of it all.

There is a moral here, a moral that has born out in research. People need time to rest, to relax, to reorient and recuperate. Your productivity and the productivity of the company goes up if you take a day off in seven.

As a nation, if we were to plan for and set aside a day each week for rest, I believe we wouldn’t be as burnt out and tired as we are. If we let each other be on this day, and give ourselves time, I am sure we will find more energy and a better spiritual connection with each other.

The Third Commandment: Do Not Take the Lord’s Name in Vain

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

There are two ways in which we can take the Lord’s name in vain.

One is through the common foul language of blasphemy. This is calling or using God’s names in vulgar ways.

The other is through speaking as if we were charged by God when we were not.

Both have terrible, natural consequences.

Imagine a scientist who proclaims, “Science shows that the polar ice caps are melting!” We don’t have to imagine a scientist who says these things, of course. But suppose that the scientist is misrepresenting the science, which shows that the polar ice caps are not melting, but expanding. What happens to that man, and what happens to society as a whole because of this violation of the Third Commandment? I don’t think it’s hard to explain.

(Since God is a God of Truth, and since Science is the pursuit of Truth, then God is the God of Science as well. Misrepresenting science is misrepresenting God, the same as misrepresenting Truth, Justice, Mercy, or any other divine attribute.)

But the common use of God’s names in foul language is also a crime. By reducing serious things to the unserious, it harms everyone involves. How high a regard is God and His divinity to those who shout God’s name when their fingers get jammed?

As a society, we should be careful to keep the serious serious, the sacred sacred, and things we should reverence reverent. If we truly love these things, these things which are defined and embodied by God, then we will love that God by carefully using His name and carefully representing his divine attributes.

The Second Commandment: No Idols

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)

The Second Commandment has two parts. The first talks about making idols, and the second about worshiping them. Then there is the opposite blessing/cursing associated with keeping commandments in general.

I don’t believe that it is a violation of the Second Commandment to make sculptures that replicates what we see in nature. I believe some very beautiful artwork has been made and should be made to decorate and beautify our world. However, doing so to make objects of worship—that is wrong.

Then there’s the act of actually worshiping or serving these dumb sculptures. What does it take to first believe that such an object actually possesses power to do anything for you? And then what does it take to actually mold your life around those invented fantasies?

Compare, for instance, the fact that the living God is a God of knowledge. Worship of Him requires the learning of truth and the understanding of logic and reason. There is power behind worshiping God in this way. As we amass knowledge and truth, and as our powers of logic and reason increase, we increase in health, wealth, and happiness.

Today, there’s not nearly as many people busy making idols because there’s not nearly as many people who worship them. However, I believe the type of idolatry we suffer from today is no different than the type the ancients suffered from.

Do we worship people on this earth who are powerless to help us? If you see a politician, a businessman, a sports star, or a television, movie or music star as anything more than what they really are (which is a fallible, mortal human), then you are worshiping them as an idol.

Do we worship our possessions or our positions in life, our jobs or anything else we can find on this planet? If so, we are worshiping something that is powerless to save us. Our 401ks have no more power to save us from ourselves than psychology or the Theory of Evolution. Our cars, homes, and boats can’t produce the necessary happiness and satisfaction in our lives.

If we put these things, or any thing, ahead of the worship of the only true God, then we are committing idolatry.

I dare say that even those who worship a false god will find themselves in peril of idolatry. The true and living God is a God of Truth, Justice, Mercy, and infinite Wisdom. If we imagine a god who does not possess and indeed define these very qualities, then we are worshiping a false god and committing the sin of idolatry.

The final part of the Second Commandment includes an admonition against those that refuse to obey the commandments and a blessing on those who do.

First, I would like to explain my view on these sorts of things. You might imagine that God somehow pronounces these edicts out of the blue and somehow they take effect. You might imagine a God who is paying close attention to who loves Him and who hates Him and hurls lightning bolts down from heaven to punish those who hate Him.

I don’t see it that way. See, when God pronounces these things, it’s almost as if He is describing the way things are. If you obey the commandments and show your love to God, then you will get the promised blessings, and your children will be that much more likely to obey as well. But if you don’t, then your bad example will translate to bad behavior on the part of your great grandchildren.

Our actions affect a lot more than just us. It affects those who see our actions and live the consequences of them. We need to keep this in mind as we choose to obey or spurn the commandments of God.

The First Commandment: Only One God

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

God starts by first announcing who He is and what He did. This is the God that brought Israel out of Egypt. This is the God that freed the people from their slavemasters.

The God that we should worship is this kind of a God—a God that frees us from whatever bondage we may find ourselves in. Our God is a God of Freedom.

Our God is also a God of Mercy. What did the people of Israel do to deserve divine intervention, other than being the children of some really great people? Nothing. Our God also looks down from heaven, sees us in our pitiful state, and intervenes for our benefit.

This is the kind of God we need to put first in our lives.

What other kinds of gods may we be tempted to put first?

Obviously, there are other religions out there, and there are many gods. This is the obvious answer that all will quickly latch on to. It shows that there is competition for worship, and the God of Israel is asserting He is the only one worth worshiping. Can any religion really be different?

Yes. In fact, throughout history, most religions are very adaptive to the religious beliefs of the people. For instance, the Roman gods were really their own gods plus a pantheon of gods from other religions. In a way, the Roman religion was constantly being revised and updated to meet the latest fads and norms of society. Their gods were no gods at all, but merely a reflection of the times and seasons and passions of the people.

A true God isn’t subject to the whims or passions or times and seasons of the people. The kind of God we should worship shouldn’t be the kind of god that is popular or fun or faddish.

If you are an Atheist or humanist, you might well consider all of this rubbish. But look at it in a different perspective. The kinds of things you hold important, things like Truth, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence, and Wisdom, are not things that can be defined or modified by the passions of the people. This is the kind of God we need to worship, not the kind of god that is defined by the people.

But what other message might there be here? The other message is that we shouldn’t allow anything to stand between us and our true God. Put that God first in our lives, and base everything around that. If your God is Truth, then make Truth the center of your life. If your God is Knowledge, then center your life on that. Rather, let all the noble attributes be the center of your life.

What would our society look like if Truth, Wisdom, Love, Virtue, and so on were all the centers of our individual lives? I imagine it would be very, very different than what it is today.

The following commandments are really explanations of what it means to worship the only true God. Once you are agreed that there is only one thing worthy of your worship, then you need to know how best to worship such a being.