Basic moral behavior
May 4, 2009 (Monday)
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) stated briefly: 1. Don’t have any other gods. 2. Don’t make images for worship. 3. Reverence God’s name. 4. Keep the Sabbath Day holy. 5. Honor your parents. 6. Don’t murder anyone. 7. Don’t commit adultery. 8. Don’t steal. 9. Don’t lie. 10. Don’t covet.
These commandments answer three questions:
1. What kind of God do we serve? These commandments represent the very nature of God, whom we worship. He is our moral God, our holy God, and our God of justice and mercy.
2. What kind of people should we be? We should be a moral people. The Ten Commandments have not been repealed. The civil law changed, the ceremonial law was nailed to the Cross, but the moral law is still the same. God wants us to be a moral and ethical people. Jesus said all these commandments are summed up with “Love God and love other people.” He said He did not come to destroy the moral law but to fill it with meaning.
3. What kind of world should we have? He wants a world of people who do the right things for the right reasons, who treat each other justly and kindly, and who respect life itself. There is a sense of morality of some kind in the heart of every person, but as a part of God’s New Covenant in Christ, His moral covenant is definitely written in the hearts of believers.
Some have tried to keep the law as a means of salvation. We cannot succeed at that, because we are sinners by nature. God in His infinite wisdom and mercy has provided the way of Salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the moral law, as embodied in the Ten Commandments, reflects God’s own nature and is God’s standard of basic moral behavior for all people.