The Ten Commandments By: Council Member Ron Hodge

Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV

1. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me."

2. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.”

3. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”

4. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

5. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you."

6. “You shall not murder."

7. “You shall not commit adultery."

8. “You shall not steal."

9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

10. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

As I read these, I wonder what is so offensive about them to our world. Why can’t they be displayed in the public arena….at schools, in front of the court houses, in front of the post offices, in city parks, in front of city office buildings etc.? Come to think about it, we don’t even display them in our churches. I think we all need to be reminded daily what the 10 Commandments say.

As I look over these Commandments, the one I see abused daily is number 3 - “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." Many times a day I hear people say the words, “oh my god” or “oh my gosh” or “gosh look at the freeway traffic”, without even thinking about it. To me, this is taking the name of God in vain; it is offensive to Him and it minimizes the reverence for Him. I personally think that “oh my goodness” sounds much better; maybe we could just say “wow” or “oh my” and leave it at that. I think it is a habit that is very easy to slip into because we hear the world saying it all the time. Remember, we are in the world but not of the world. Christians must be different. One other Commandment we must be careful about is number 1: "You shall have no other gods before Me". Don’t you wish that people would look at their Bibles as much as they look at their i-Phones? What about our cars, our jobs, our homes, our hobbies? Often times we get obsessed with them and lose track of what’s really important in life…pleasing God and getting to know His word and His Son Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

We must also take a look at number 6 - “You shall not murder". Without counting all the crime killings each day we have to look at the 57 million babies murdered since 1973 – because of the Roe vs Wade decision. This is just in the US and it is only the reported abortions; reporting requirements vary from state to state and many are just voluntary. We all know that the trial was a mockery and the young women testifying in the trial now say that they were coerced. There should be something that we Christians could do to reverse this decision. If we all let our voices be heard maybe that could happen. Unlike pro-choice, which only offers one choice, pro-life offers many choices other than abortion.
Let’s keep praying; we can’t do it without Jesus.

God bless each one of you,
Ron Hodge

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