Chapter 14 - The Ten Commandments Number 10 – 2008 7 28

Down to the last Commandment, the Tenth. This one states, "You shall not covet your neighbour's house, you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's."

Covet means to be jealous of, to want something that you don't have. We have already talked in the last 'chapter' about what neighbour means – really everyone else but you.

We know that coveting your neighbour's wife could yield to disaster if you followed the thought into action. It could end up with marriage breakup. That has serious harmful effects on both families. Most of us don't have servants but we have many tools and appliances that do the work of servants for us. Do we see things our neighbour has that we don't and wish we did? We don't use oxen or asses (donkeys) much in our society. Instead, we use cars and trucks. Have you been jealous of your neighbour's car?

Desire, wanting things, and the trouble that gets us into, was one of the main things that got the founder of Buddhism into thinking there was more to life than material things and working to earn them. Christianity teaches likewise, the same. Jesus, the Christ, said, as recorded in Luke 12: 15, "Be careful, beware of covetousness, for a person's life does not consist of the abundance of things which he possess." How true this is. The more we have, the more worried we get about its security. We are pre-occupied; our minds get too full, with thoughts of losing it or its being stolen. We put up big walls around our homes. We put up big gates. Everything gets locked up. We get it all insured. We purchase and install alarm systems. In the end, by so doing, we fall prey to the trap of materialism.

What a lot of work, just to guard things that we all have to leave behind when we die anyway! What is most important is getting things in order in this earthly life so we can continue this life as it was meant to be before sin entered the world, where it should be, with our God, but now only to be fully ours after we pass from this earth.

Chapter 13 - The Ten Commandments Number 9 – 2008 7 27

The Ninth command is another fairly straightforward one: "You shall not tell lies against your neighbour," Exodus 20:16.

We all know what telling a lie is. It is being untruthful, maybe even simply dishonest. Can we sometimes say something of which the words are true but the meaning will be different?

We generally teach Christians should not gamble. Suppose you see me come out of the casino and tell someone else who knows me, "I saw Lorne come out of the casino".  That person may say to the next one, "Apparently Lorne goes to the casino." The third one may say, "What's Lorne doing, going to the casino," which could already sound like it's something I am doing more than once. You see how a fact can be distorted, twisted, made to sound different. The truth might be I was at the restaurant upstairs, not even in the gambling area (Actually, I have never been at that restaurant either, although I have gone to concerts in the facility).

I think this is often what happens in gossip. We may be telling something true but the way we say it gives it a different meaning that is harmful to our neighbour. Maybe we do this by saying something with emphasis suggesting our neighbour does something all the time, something wrong. Maybe the truth is they may have just done it once, and repented about it already. Or maybe it wasn't even wrong?

And who is our neighbour? Actually, according to the New Testament, it is anyone around us. Especially someone in need (See the famous story in Luke 10:25-37). We all need each other to safeguard our reputation as ambassadors, representatives, of Christ and members of the same Body of Christ. We should not be harming one another and therefore Christ's Body with untruthfulness. Let us always ask God to keep our lips pure.

Chapter 12 - The Ten Commandments Number 8 – 2008 7 25

Two years ago, when I first began this blog, I posted a number of segments of a series of lessons that my wife and I had taught an adult class in our church some 3 years earlier. A certain amount of effort went into preparing those writings and other lessons that were taught to this class. In the interests of promoting discussion of the Christian faith and perhaps providing further education with respect to it, I want to continue posting some of those writings. I would remind you too that these students were ESL (English as a Second Language), or as it is now beginning to me more acceptable to say, EAL (English As an Additional Language which takes away the Anglo-Centric view that English is the first language) students, so the level of discourse may be somewhat simple for some of your readers.

The area that I had first begun to post was on the so-called 10 Commandments allegedly given to the prophet Moses and the Children of Israel by God after their apparently miraculous escape from Egypt, and in preparation for a new phase of the life of this people in the land of their forefathers to which they were being led back to.

The Eighth Commandment is Exodus 20:15, "You shall not steal."

Most societies frown on stealing. There are specific omissions though. Our First Nations sometimes apparently considered it an honourable act of bravery if you could break into an enemy encampment and steal a horse, or horses, without getting caught, of course. However, one could argue that, if such as thing is considered acceptable on both sides, it may be more like a game or a skill contest than a crime.

Most would agree that taking from your family member, your relative, your friend, or your neighbour without permission, without asking them, is stealing, is theft, robbery. However, some people seem to think it's alright if they take from someone they don't know, or someone who is a lot richer than they are, or from their employer, especially if it is a big impersonal business. They say, "They won't miss it." Others think it is alright to steal from the government. They might argue that we all pay our taxes so we are entitled, the government owes it to us, it's ours. However, there are also many who are really stealing from the government by not paying dues and taxes that it is legal to pay. They may not declare their income on a tax form or write down what they have purchased when they cross the border. This is all wrong. We all expect the government to do things for us, like provide health care, pensions, good streets and roads and utility services. Without this money, they cannot do as much as they would like for us. Somebody will suffer. Someday it could be us.

Stealing is taking what does not belong to us, according to our customs or our laws. One day the Jewish leaders asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor Caesar. They may have been thinking that this is a foreign power who does not respect us and our God, who persecutes us and oppresses us, so why should we pay taxes. It just lets him keep on doing these bad things to us. Jesus reply was simple, "Pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's". 

When Jesus talks of what belongs to God, he was likely thinking of our offerings, our tithes to God. Are we then stealing from God by not giving Him what is His?

Of course, we must always remember that one can steal not only money and things. One can steal time and other intangible or immaterial things as well. Let us, as Believers, not take what is not ours, nor keep what is not ours.