God’s Top Ten

X - “Thou shalt not covet”

    Did you know that recent surveys have revealed that the financial troubles plaguing most families are not the result of low income? Rather, they are directly caused by overextending a normally adequate income for luxuries and personal indulgence, and by the American habit of installment buying! "Buy now and pay later," say the advertisements. But the question then becomes “do you really need to buy this item now? And are you sure you will be able to "pay later"?

    It is sad to say, but we live in a society based on Lust and Covetousness. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is a popular American slogan. The modern idea is to "get all you can while the getting is good." The incessant pressure to succeed—which usually means to acquire more money and material property—has spawned more and more idolatry. It is blinding the minds and hearts of millions to the life of God.

    Most people get so close to their own sin that they cannot see it. We live in a so-called "Christian" society that in actual fact is based on lust and greed for more and more material things! The frenzied effort to compete with others and get ahead is the source not only of most financial problems, but the real cause of much physical and mental illness, broken homes, and frustrated lives. Most important of all, this form of idolatry leaves one with almost no time, strength or desire ever to become acquainted with the true God—whose living laws and ways alone would bring real inner peace and joy.

    Most people fail to realize that the Ten Commandments are living, moving, active laws—like the law of gravity. They are automatic. When you break them, they break you! And that’s how it is with the final commandment of God's law. Even though it may be broken without the knowledge of any other human being, the penalty for its violation is absolutely certain! "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." (Exodus 20:17)

    The force of the commandment lies in these words: "your neighbor's… your neighbor's…your neighbor's." This is a sevenfold guarding of the interests of another. It is not wrong to lawfully desire a wife, a servant, or an ox or donkey. But where the object admired is legitimately out of reach and belongs to your neighbor, it combines lust (this would bring me pleasure) with competitiveness and leaves God out of the equation. Instead of being happy for our neighbor, we become jealous and envious, and that is sin. We may even wonder why God would bless some people and not us!

    There is kind of a rule I have found in God’s Word - Action follows thought. What you think, you are. If you secretly reject God's standard and His way, if in your heart you lust after something that you either cannot or will not come to lawfully possess with His blessing, then—sooner or later—this mental rebellion will prompt outward sin. The actions will then proceed to defy God—to break His law—because the thoughts have been doing this all along! What we think about most will eventually settle in the heart.

Luke 6:45 – “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Philippians 4:8 - “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me —put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

    This command pierces through all "surface Christianity" and shows whether a person has really surrendered his will to his Maker! It is a searching and fearful principle. Be honest, how do you feel when a friend or neighbor pulls up with a new car? Or buys a bunch of new clothes? Or has a house full of new furniture? Buys a new house? Etc.

    The normal mind of the human being is filled with selfishness, vanity, competition, greed, hate, lust. It is a mind cut off from the ways and thoughts of God - “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) That is why Jesus emphasized how important it is to get our minds changed, converted and cleaned up when He said: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).

    Remember that the mind and the heart always go together. They are traveling companions that will often take us where we don’t really want to go. Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

    Since World War II, life in our Western society has sped up. We are rushing to make more money. We are in a hurry to have a good time, to get everything we can out of life. On every side, we are taught to compete with our neighbors for social honors and material advancement. We have come to literally crave material luxuries that were in some cases completely unknown just two or three generations ago. We are urged to spend more than we make—to do more than we ought. "You owe it to yourself," the subtle advertisement reads, putting over the idea that we would be foolish not to buy a bigger car, eat at a more expensive restaurant or take longer and more costly trips. The emphasis is on getting and on self.

    On an international scale, the nations of the world fight and kill because of this same attitude of heart. "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask." (James 4:1–2)

    Our generation needs these words of the Son of God: "Take heed and beware of covetousness; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses" (Luke 12:15). Do you understand that? Your real success and happiness in life, Christ said, cannot truly be measured by how new or powerful a car you drive, the kind of home you live in, the clothes you wear, or even the food you eat. Happiness is a state of mind.

    Well, it is true that the Commandments join together - And so at this point the last commandment joins hands with the first. For whatever you seek contrary to God's will, you covet. When you begin to covet material things, you "serve" them. You spend your time, your energy, your money for these things. Want proof - 90% of people receiving a tax refund will immediately start thinking about how to
spend it!

    When we think about the fact that the first four Commandments deal with our relationship with God, and the rest deal with our relationships with one another, It’s no wonder Jesus just combined them into “Love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.” Yes, It’s just that simple.

God's Top Ten

IX - “Thou shall not bear false witness.”

    “Thou shalt not bear false witness”…but, it is also simply “Thou shalt not lie.” Why did God say, Thou shalt not lie? Because you know when you lie, you cannot lie to yourself. We lie to others…We lie about others…We lie about ourselves, but we can’t lie to ourselves… Because we know the truth!

    I want to begin by stating four famous quotes. I am sure that you have heard before, and I want you to think about what they all have in common:

"Read My Lips, No New Taxes.” – George H Bush

“I did not inhale.” - Bill Clinton.

"The American people have a right to know that their president is not a crook. And I am not a crook." - Richard Nixon

"I will be devoting the rest of my life to finding the real killer of my wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman." - O. J. Simpson

All four of them are some of the more famous violations of the ninth commandment.

   The Bible tells us, "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers." (Proverbs 6:16 –19)

    It is interesting that when we read this, (a top seven list of the things God hates) that five of the things on that list have to do with lying.

    And our never changing God carried that thought over into the New Testament when He led Paul to write in Ephesians 4:20–25 the implications of living as children of light. Listen to how much of this passage is devoted to truth and to avoiding deceit:

    "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body."

    God hates a false witness because He hates injustice. The wording of this commandment focuses particularly on a court of Law, but it isn’t restricted to the courts. The Bigger issue in this commandment is truthfulness.

    Dr. Scott Peck became well-known for his book, The Road Less Traveled. His second book was called, “People of the Lie,” and it detailed how, at the very core of evil, there is always lying. People lie to others in order to accomplish their plans. People lie to themselves in order to rationalize their behavior. It is no coincidence that Jesus calls Satan, “a liar and the father of all lies.” Yet, by contrast, Jesus said, “I AM THE TRUTH.”.. and the Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Truth.”

    Do you remember the old Lay’s Potato Chip commercial: “You can’t eat just one?” Lies are like that. Once you’ve told that first lie, it’s really hard to tell just that one. Because once you start lying, you pretty much have to keep it up by telling other lies.
    I read a story this week about a woman who introduced her 35-yr-old daughter as being only 24. The girl asked why she’d done it and the mother said, “Well, I realized that I’ve been lying about my age for so long, it suddenly dawned on me that I’d have to lie about your age, too!”  Sir Walter Scott got it right when he said, “O what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

    James Emery White, in a book called “You Can Experience an Authentic Life” cites these statistics: 91% of all Americans confessed that they regularly lied. People no longer seem to care about lying. We accept it. It doesn’t bother us. We don’t seem to get upset anymore when someone exaggerates, falsifies, fabricates, or mis-represents the truth. We live in a day when we’ve been bombarded with erased tapes, tampered evidence, illicit cover-ups, padded resumes, and exaggerated ads, to the point that we’ve pretty much given up on truth. The study found that in the past, people thought lying was wrong. Now, almost half of all Americans say it isn’t.

    Superman claimed that he did his Superhero-thing for the sake of “Truth, Justice and the American Way.” The question is, are truth and justice still a part of the American Way?  And more to the point, are truth and justice hallmarks of how we as Christians interact with others?

    As Christians, we are to be truth-seekers and truth-speakers. When we falsely accuse someone of something, we have taken from them something that cannot be returned. Ask anyone who has ever been accused of dishonest business practices if they’ve ever lived down the false charge? Not to mention the false accusations of child abuse routinely leveled at parents in the midst of heated custody hearings.

    And it’s not just false testimony about someone’s character that robs them of their reputation. Anytime we gossip about someone, even if it what we say is true, we are violating at the very least the spirit of the 9th commandment, if not the letter. Gossip is simply the vice of confessing someone else’s sins. James 4:11 says, "Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges it." One of the biggest problems we have is that we are usually quick to tell what we have heard, even if we don’t know the facts!

    Let’s all remember this, if they will talk to you about someone else, you just bet that they are talking to someone else about you! Remember, one of the things God hates is someone who stirs up dissension among brothers and sisters.

    Perjury and gossip are covered by the 9th commandment and so is good old fashioned lying. There are many different ways to tell a lie. Next week I will post the seventeen kinds of lies…

God's Top Ten

VIII - "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15).

Why do people steal? 

    According to God's Word and His law, there are only two right ways by which you can come into possession of anything. The first is by a free gift—or an inher-itance—from another person, or from God Himself. The second is by honest labor, which earns something as a legitimate return. The wrong way is theft—the taking from another that which belongs to him.

What do people steal?

    Things; Money; Time; Even false advertising is stealing. -  The consumer is led to expect that a certain "pill," for instance, will cause him to lose weight, gain weight, increase energy, restore his thinning hair, or whatever the case may be. And, in most cases, this statement is a direct, willful lie without any doubt. Such a practice is, in effect, stealing from the people who pay money to achieve the promised result. In many cases, the victims of these gigantic frauds are not only robbed of money, they are robbed of health, happiness and peace of mind.

What about cheating? What does cheating steal?  

How about tarnished wealth? - wealth that is tarnished by an unnecessarily high death rate in some plants or factories is ill-gotten gain. Or, how about insider trading, or money laundering?

    The principle behind the eighth commandment is broken again and again in the relations of capital and labor. James was inspired to warn the dishonest employer: "Indeed the wages of the laborers… which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries… have reached the ears of the Lord…" (James 5:4) It is also equally true that many an employee robs his employer! He does this by taking his wage and yet withholding his full share of honest labor. And that is stealing! Or just plain laziness.

    American laborers, spend an undue proportion of their working time on "tea breaks," "coffee breaks" or "cigarette breaks" and are causing many of our industries to be badly beaten in the worldwide trade war now going on. This lack of productivity is affecting the destiny of the American people! The eighth commandment of Almighty God has a message for both capital and labor. To capital: "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work." To labor: "A fair day's work for a fair day's wage." But just stealing from a fellow human being is not the only principle involved in the eighth commandment. God owns far more property than any man. “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:8).

What about stealing from God?

    In Malachi 3, speaking to modern-day Jacob or Israel, God declares: "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings" (v. 8). "You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, and see if
I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it" (vv. 9–10).

    Here is a bold challenge from Almighty God! God says He will bless you if you begin tithing—as He commands—through faith in Him and in His Word. It has been said by many people “I can’t afford to tithe.” And, it has also been said that “You can’t afford not to tithe.”   If you won’t or don’t tithe with what you have now, you won’t tithe with more either!

    Andy Stanley has said that there is only one financial formula that works for everyone… “Give; Save; and Live.”  That is: Give 10% … Save 10%... and Live on the rest. (If any one of the three is missing, your finances are out of whack!)  Most people, he says, are “consumers”…they consume all that they have!  Their only financial plan is the “Live” part!  They assume that all they get is theirs to consume! To begin with, and this may be a goal for you, start with 2% or 5%...but start now! 

    Matthew 6:24 says – “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Take note of the words “serve” – “hate and love” - “devoted and despise”…What is Jesus talking about? “God and Money!”

    Let’s think about these words, comparing God and money: Think about it this way; I can “serve, love, and devote” myself – my time – my thoughts – to money and all that I can get and do with it; Or, I can “serve, love, devote” myself – my time – my thoughts to God, who provides all that I get and what I can do with it, but I can’t do both!

    In Verses 25-32 – Jesus talks about “worry” and the things we worry about; Then in verse 32 He says “your heavenly Father KNOWS that you need these things.” The problem is that we act as if God has no idea what we need. In fact, when we consume all that we have seeking after all these things, we are denying God even exists! We are denying God the opportunity to do anything in our lives.

    His Word tells us what we must do, and how we must live - “But, seek Ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.” We must learn to trust God and take Him at His Word!

    The definite positive application of the eighth commandment is stated in the New Testament letter to the Ephesians. "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need" (Ephesians 4:28). One of the most positive blessings we can receive is the ability to help others and bless others with that which God has blessed us. We can only do that if we control our finances and not let our finances control us and have the proper attitude toward God and Money.