Ten Commandments Archives - From a Rocky Hillside

September 6, 2026September 6, 2026

The Tenth Commandment: No Coveting

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
September 6, 2026
The Tenth Commandment

The sermon was recorded at Mayberry Presbyterian Church on Thursday, September 3, 2026

At the beginning of worship:

How many of you have seen the movie, “The God’s Must Be Crazy?” Released in 1980, I think consider it one of the funniest films of all times. When the movie opens, you think you’re watching a documentary produced by the National Geographic Society. A serious narrator introduces a primitive tribe in Africa. Everyone lives in perfect harmony as they share everything. These folks have not had contact with the outside world. They’ve not been corrupted; they’re happy and content. But all that changes.

One day a bush pilot flies over their meager village and after chugging down a bottle of Coke, he drops the empty bottle out of the window. Those on the ground think the empty soda bottle is a gift from the gods. And their lives improve for they find many uses for the bottle. It serves as a hammer. The sun reflects through the glass allowing them to build fires. You get the idea; the bottle quickly becomes a handy tool. Soon, since there’s only one bottle, the tribes harmony breaks apart. They fight over who has the right to use the bottle.

Finally, the elders gather and decide the gods must be crazy to have sent such a dangerous gift. They choose one man to take the bottle back to the gods—in other words back to civilization. The movie continues with his journey and you’ll have to watch it to find out what happens. But to tie this into our theme for today, covetousness leads to disharmony.

Before reading the scripture:

We’ve come to the end. Or at least the last of my sermons on the Ten Commandments. It’s been a long summer and I’m sure you’re ready for something else.

Today, we’re looking at the 10th Commandment, the sin of coveting. This may even be the first sin we commit. It’s a sin which could go by many names such as jealously, envy, lust, or “keeping up with the Jones.” Today, I’ll read through the commandments. Remember, they’re all important.

Read Exodus 20:1-17

Coveting, that desire to have what doesn’t belong to us, has always been a problem. It’s the foundation of the original sin. In the garden, Adam and Eve enjoyed everything they needed to have a happy life. Only one thing in the garden remained off-limits, the tree of knowledge. We often interpret this to be an apple tree, although the story doesn’t identify a specie. However, think of it this way. If the tree was an apple, they could have eaten their fill of oranges, pears, apricots, and peaches. Just one tree that they had to avoid, but they couldn’t do it.

Like a magnet, they’re draw straight for the forbidden tree. It became too tempting. Listening to a serpent, Eve takes a bite and offers it to Adam and they enjoy the fruit. Maybe it was a juicy apple so when they took a bite, the juices dripped from the corners of their mouths. They disobeyed God because they wanted what did not belong to them.

We learn to covet at an early age, or maybe it is instilled into us, either way, it’s wrong. We see covetousness manifesting itself in children, which is why I think it might be one of the first sins we commit. A child, when very young, learns the word “mine.” If he or she doesn’t want to let another child play with a toy, the toddler will clutch the toy in his or her arms. If another child has a toy they want, they’ll grab it and shout, “mine.” And as a child matures and learns to follow directions, they’ll get to the age when they are always testing the limits. At this stage in their development, the easiest way to get a child do something is to declare it off-limits. Tell a kid it’s off-limits and like Adam and Eve in the Garden, they’ll be doing it in a heart-beat.

Coveting starts early; we want what does not belong to us and it seems we’re easily seduced by the forbidden. When I was right out of seminary and serving a church in Ellicottville, New York, I remember an overpass on the road heading toward Buffalo. Someone wrote on the concrete, in graffiti, “I don’t want it all; I just want your half.” There’s a lot of truth to that statement. It’s coveting at its best.

The problem of coveting has always been with us. As I’ve shown, it was there in the Garden of Eden, but I wonder if it didn’t become worse in the 20th Century with catalogs like Sears and Roebuck, J. C. Penny, and Montgomery Wards. It’s strange to think of those catalogues being a thing of the past, but now we have Amazon. We can shop and drool over the keyboard. Now, acquisition in and of itself isn’t bad. But the motives which drive us to want what others have can be a problem. For we find ourselves focusing, as Christ warns, not on treasures in heaven, but on storing up that which rots and rust, that which thieves can steal.

As a kid, the only good thing about going back to school was the arrival of the Sears Christmas Catalog, or The Wishbook as it was known. The catalog should have been called the coveter’s handbook. It arrived in the mail early in September, right after school resumed. I still remember the excitement felt the day we came home on the bus and discovered catalog sitting on the kitchen table. Its arrival created a war between my brother and sister and I. We’d all argue about who got to look at it first, and over the next several days, we’d spend hours looking at all the neat toys and making our lists for Christmas. “I want, I want” it’s an early phrase we learn as a child. Looking at the pictures of the kids on the pages of the catalog, playing in a toy utopia, caused our mouths to water. And by having a brother and sister meant that I got to break this commandment in two ways. Not only did I covet the toys in the catalog, I coveted the catalog itself, when in the hands of my brother or sister. The catalog encouraged a double violation of this sin.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the tenth commandment probably starting right after the Hebrew people broke camp and moved away from the mountain. It is often pointed out that the commandment doesn’t fit with the other commandments on the second table of the law which deal with our relationship with one another. After all, murder, adultery, theft and false witness are all sins that involve an action. But covetousness, desiring something that belongs to someone else—be it their wife (or their husband if you’re a woman), their servants, their possessions, their land—isn’t a sin that can be seen. It resides in our heart. No actions required.

We can hide our desires and go around life with a poker face and fool people. We can be praise for our good deeds when, in reality, such deeds may have been done for less than honest reasons. The desire to have something which belongs to someone else, is the root sin which may only becomes visible when one of the other commandments are broken. Think about it, psychopaths aside, people don’t go around murdering because they enjoy it. Murder generally occurs because one protects, or thinks he or she protects, one’s self interest. The same is true with adultery, stealing and bearing false witness, sins which are committed because we put our own interest above that of the community. All of this is a result of coveting. Our wants and desires lead us down a dangerous path of thinking we’re more valuable than others.

John Calvin, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, suggests that instead of focusing on our desires, we do the opposite: that we focus on our neighbor’s good. Such a technique will help us control our urges to want what we do not have and, as the commandments are so designed, will result in a healthier community. These laws help strengthen our relationship with God and with one another.

I want to suggest a danger of misinterpreting and wrongly applying the tenth commandment. If we’re not careful, we can use the command to condemn others who desire to improve their lives. Perhaps the best example of this would be to criticize of a group of oppressed people who desire freedom to live a life of dignity and provide for their families. To use this commandment as a way to condemn, we cover our butts, not wanting them to have what we have. Such response breaks the intention or the spirit of the commandment. God gave us these rules for the betterment of all people, and to use it as a means of oppression dishonors God. After all, Israel was an oppressed people in Egypt. Perhaps in such a case, instead of criticizing, we should heed the Jesus’ words, “Judge not.”

The sin of coveting is something only we can identify within ourselves. Jesus desires our hearts be pure and when we spend all our time focusing on our neighbor’s possessions, we lose the ability to be grateful and generous. We then tend to focus on our own desires and slowly turn away from our Savior and our neighbor.

The tenth commandment makes a great ending to the laws given to Moses. He start out with the warning not have any other gods. God is all-sufficient. We end the commandments with a prohibition against dwelling on what we don’t have. When it comes to stuff, we can never have enough to satisfy our desires. This is why coveting can be so dangerous, for our desires will keep us from being grateful to God for what we have. Our desires will eventually set us at odds with our neighbors. It’s a hard command to keep for temptation abounds, for we’re always being reminded by advertising of what we need (even if we never knew we needed it. We’re also reminded of what everyone else has (even if they don’t have it). Therefore, we feel we’re left out. Such messages, when we believe them, are deadly lies which undermine our dependence upon God.

Do we worship the God who can satisfy our longings, or worship stuff that leaves us hungry for more? The choice is ours. Amen.

Sources:
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Ford Lewis Battles,
translator (1559)
______. Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley,
translator (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980),
Childs, Brevard S. The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological
Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974), 419-421.
Christensen, Duane L, Deuteronomy 1-11: (Word Biblical Commentary
Waco: Word, 1991).
Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain (1955, London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1963).
Garrison, Jeff. “Sermon on the 10th Commandment at First Presbyterian
Church of Hastings, Michigan. “(September 2, 2007).
Hauerwas, Stanley and William Willimon, The Truth About God: The Ten
Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999).
Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretations, Resources for
the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, WJKP, 2009)

August 23, 2026August 23, 2026

The Eighth Commandment: Don’t Steal

Title slide with photos of Mayberry and Bluemont Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
August 23, 2026
The Eighth Commandment
Exodus 20:15, Ephesians 4:28

Sermon recorded at Mayberry Presbyterian Church on Thursday, August 20, 2026

At the beginning of worship:
The Ballard of the Flim-Flam Man is delightful and humorous book set in tobacco market towns of Eastern North Carolina during the 1950s. Mordecai Jones, a character created by Guy Owens, is the Flim-Flam Man. He travels with a younger apprentice, Curley Treadaway. They get into all sorts of mischief as they attempt to separate people and their money. One of the key rules to this dishonest trade, which Mordecai impresses upon his young student is that “you can’t cheat an honest man in the skin trade.”

You can’t cheat an honest man for he’s not out to get something for nothing. You can rob him; you can stick a gun in his back and force him raise his arms while you lift his wallet, but that wasn’t the Flim-flam man’s way. He had certain, although misguided, values. He wasn’t a highway robber, he wasn’t going to forcefully take someone’s money. Instead, he preferred to cheat those with a burning desire to get something for nothing. There is a lesson here for us that we can trace back to the eighth commandment. As the old saying goes, “a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Before reading the scripture:

Like our previous two commandments, the eighth commandment prohibiting the taking of someone’s property is quite concise. Don’t steal, we’re told. We’re to respect the property of others. According to the traditional teachings of the church this includes avoiding unnecessary lawsuits to gain from another, receiving stolen property, and even kidnapping for slavery or ransom. Let’s look at what the Bible says:

Read Exodus 20:15 and Ephesians 4:28

We should ask ourselves what consists of a violation of the eighth commandment. Obviously, if I walk into Nester’s Store and pick up a pack of gum and walk out without paying for it, I’m guilty. If I steal a car, I’m guilty. If I break into one of your homes and steal your prized black velvet Elvis portrait hanging over your fireplace, I’m guilty. Cut and dry examples. In God’s eyes, I’m guilty. In the eyes of the law, I’m guilty. And in the case of the Elvis painting further penance would be dished out at home when I attempt to hang the painting. We all agree on these examples, but interestingly, the church’s traditional understanding of this commandment isn’t limited to physical theft.

The Westminster Larger Catechism suggests stealing includes tricks and schemes which seek to gain our neighbor’s wealth, dishonesty in business dealings, deceptive advertising, counterfeiting money, charging exorbitant interest, being greedy, and even misusing or wasting God’s gifts.

When you expand the list like this, it points out places in our lives where we’ve not lived up to the standard set by the church. It’s quite a list and many of them are just as much of a problem today as they were back in the 17^th century when the catechism was first published. Just think about all the business scandals we’ve gone through over the past twenty-five years. To bring the catechism up to date, we should also include insider trading and falsifying stockholder reports.

To understand the problem of theft from a Biblical perspective, we must understand the Biblical notion of property. Here in the USA, we talk a lot about private property and our rights. If we have a piece of land, we act like we’re little kings within our boundaries. But that’s a different understanding of property from what we have in Scripture. According to the Bible, we don’t own a thing. Instead of owing property and thereby having certain rights, in Scripture any wealth—whether land, durable goods, knowledge, or capital—belongs to God. It may be ours in our eyes and certainly in the eyes of the county tax folks, but in the eyes of God, it belongs to him. We’re allowed its use God’s property as a steward.

This has implications for the eighth commandment, for if I take what belongs to my neighbor, not only do I commit a crime against him, I’m also stealing from God, who ultimately owns the possession I stole.

This broader understanding of property expands the meaning of theft. Yes, stealing as defined in the state legal code is a crime and the Sheriff will prosecute you. But what God considers a crime may or may not be considered one by law enforcement.

We live within a market economy and demand generally sets the price, but according to the way the church has traditionally understood this commandment, price gouging is wrong. Stealing, according to this broader understanding also occurs when an employee takes advantage of his employer and goofs-off. It also occurs when an employer takes advantage of an employee. Both the employee and employer are called to a higher standard in scripture. And likewise, stealing occurs whenever we fail to use the gifts God has given us to his glory. If we’ve been given great talents and we don’t do anything with them, we’re guilty. Also, if we’ve been given great talents and use them in an evil manner, we’re guilty of stealing from God.

The honest man and woman know honesty and hard work are virtues and don’t jump for the fast buck. Therefore it’s harder to cheat them. We might not think about it in this fashion, but cheating another and trying to get something for nothing are both violations of the eighth commandment. Ponder this: both the Flim-Flam man and his victim stand guilty.

Now, as I’ve shown with the other commandments we’ve discussed, each commandment can be expanded to include positive actions. The prohibition against murder can also include constructive suggestions such as watching out for the well-being of your neighbor. The same is true here, not only are we not to steal, we should also help our neighbor watch out for his property. John Calvin suggests that if we want to know what stealing entails, we should consider the rights of others.“The principal of charity,” Calvin says, “is to be our guide.” This commandment requires us to care for others. This is in keeping with the notion that all we have comes from God. If we’ve been blessed more by God, more is required of us, for we are to use those blessings in a way that honors God and helps our brothers and sisters.

It is interesting that Calvin and other Protestant Reformers don’t limit stealing to ways we generally consider its definition. Certainly they condemned the physical act of taking something which doesn’t belong to you, but they also come down hard on deceitfulness. Perhaps they understood how often those held in high esteem were guilty of such practices. In Dante’s Inferno, his poetic depiction of hell, swindlers are placed deeper in hell than strong-armed men, or “armed robbers.”

John Calvin in a sermon on this passage, divided types of theft into two animal categories—foxes and wolves. The wolf, which has no other means of getting what it needs, resorts to brute power. The fox, however, uses trickery. Both are wrong, but often as a society we come down harder on the wolf and, to some extent, idolized the fox. This, as you can imagine, isn’t anything new. In Roman society, the simple thief could be crucified, while the fox might have been made a governor, given prestige and a province to plunder.

Theft, whether committed by a common criminal or a white-collared executive, is wrong. And today, in the information age, theft is as easy as ever. I wonder if we, in America, haven’t brought into the idea that theft is only related to taking physical property. In this manner, we interpret this commandment as a protection of protect our possessions without requiring any responsibility from us.

How else can we explain so many scandals concerning business practices? If I remember correctly, Kenneth Lay, the CEO of Enron taught Sunday School before going to jail. How did he do that? Or how can we explain parents rising up in indignation at a teacher flunking students who plagiarize? How do we explain the practice of preachers using someone else’s sermons, without giving credit. Or AI stealing information from books under copyright without paying the authors?

In our information age, it is easy to steal. And it’s not just hacking computers, raiding bank accounts and stealing credit card numbers. These are the things we fear and yes, such theft occurs, but so does a more subtle form of theft, stealing and using ideas without giving credit. Or stealing art—the downloading of music and movies without paying the artist. Most of us, at least after about the age of 15, would never consider slipping in to a movie theater without paying. But would we watch an illegal copy of that same movie at home?

There is an old episode of the Simpson’s titled “Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment” which deals with the moral implications of theft.

For fifty bucks, a one-time fee, Homer has a cable television installer hook him up illegally. No longer does Homer pay for cable and he can watch all the shows for free. This little “victimless crime,” (if there’s such a thing), creates chaos in the Simpson’s home. Next thing you know, his son Bart charges classmates admission to watch the Playboy channel.

Bart’s action disappoints Homer, but he has compromised his moral authority. How can he convince Bart of the wrongness of his actions when Homer steals from the cable company. The Simpson family becomes polarized. Marge, the mother, is scared her husband will be arrested. Lisa, their daughter, joins with her mother on a moral crusade. Lisa takes seriously her Sunday School lesson on the Ten Commandments and encourages her father to cut the cable. In the end, that’s what Homer does, but ironically, not until he’s had all the guys over to watch a heavyweight title fight.

Unfortunately, for us, understanding theft is more confusing today than ever, which makes Jesus forgiving the thief on the cross really good news for us all. There’s always hope. But we shouldn’t give up striving to apply this commandment to our lives.

As Christians, we need to claim the high moral ground. Theft is theft, whether we are an executive or a cat burglar, a student copying a paper or a homeowner avoiding paying for utilities. Calvin’s suggestion we consider what is right by our fellowman or woman serves as a good guideline. Are we being fair to all? Another way of asking the question is the popular cliché, “what would Jesus do?” I certainly don’t think he’d be pirating music or misleading stockholders anymore than he would shoplift. What would Jesus do? Or more importantly, what are we going to do? Amen.

Sources:

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Ford Lewis Battles, translator (1559)
______. Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley,
translator (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980),
Childs, Brevard S. The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974), 419-421.
Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain (1955, London: Hodder & Stoughton ,
1963).
Garrison, Jeff. “Sermon on the 8th Commandment at First Presbyterian Church
of Hastings, Michigan. “(August 12, 2007).
Hauerwas, Stanley and William Willimon, The Truth About God: The Ten
Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999).
Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretations, Resources for the
Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, WJKP, 2009).
Owens, Guy. The Ballard of the Flim-Flam Man, (1965: Wilmington, NC: Coastal
Carolina Press, 2001)
Pinsky, Mark I. The Gospel According to the Simpsons (Louisville: Westminster/JKP,
2001).
Presbyterian Church USA, The Book of Confession, “Heidelberg and Westminster
Catechisms” (Louisville, KY, 2021).

August 16, 2026August 23, 2026

The Seventh Commandment

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
August 16, 2026
Exodus 20:14; Matthew 5:27-28

Sermon recorded at Bluemont Presbyterian Church on Friday, August 14, 2026.

At the beginning of worship:
Today we’re looking at the 7th Commandment. I can’t think of this commandment without thinking about Jerry. I met him when he started attending Bradley Creek Elementary School in the sixth grade. From the beginning he tried to make himself look good to the teachers. The rowdy group of boys I ran with found this an irritant.

We had a banquet at the end of the school year. Billy Mason, the principal at Roland Grice Junior High, spoke. He encouraged us to become model students by remembering two passages in the Bible. If we followed these two scriptures they would guide us through our Junior High years and keep us out of his office. He asked if anyone knew which two he referred.

Some girl up front, the type who always had the right answer, raised her hand. The principal gave her a nod and she nailed it: “Do unto others,” the Golden Rule. The principal smiled and nodded approval. She wouldn’t be seeing the inside of his office.

Then the principal asked for another volunteer and Jerry stood up and boldly proclaimed: “thou shalt not commit adultery.” For a moment the principal remained speechless as we burst into laughter. Not that we knew exactly what adultery entailed, we just knew it wasn’t something we were likely to do in Junior High.

After gasping for air, the principal tried to regain order. He mumbled something about how he hoped we would obey that commandment, too. But he was thinking of a different one. He encouraged us to keep the fifth commandment, to honor our fathers and mothers. In other words, if we acted as if our mothers were watching, we’d have a healthy dose of old fashion guilt and avoid trouble.

Before reading the Scripture:
Last week, as I closed the service, I added a humorous charge before the benediction. Since I had preached on the 6th Commandment, I told you to go out and don’t murder anyone. Then I said, “but you can do better than that. Go out love everyone.” Afterwards, one of the Elders said he couldn’t wait to see my backflip this week. Questioning what he meant, he said that I sent you out to love everyone and this week, I would be qualifying that charge… He’s right because our language uses love in too many ways. Last week, I was referring to love as a verb, not an act.

Our reading today is another short passage, concerning the 7th Commandment and I will include Jesus’ reinterpretation of this commandment in the Sermon on the Mount.

Read Exodus 20:14 and Matthew 5:27-28

The seventh commandment is a tough one; we don’t like talking about it. I remember a comic strip; it may have been Frank and Ernest. The Hebrew children gather at Sinai, and a weary Moses comes down the mountain. He tells the crowd below he has some good news and some bad news. He bargained God down to only Ten Commandments.Then he gave the bad news, adultery remained on the list.

Adultery was considered a great sin in the ancient world, even before God gave the Hebrew people the law at Sinai and not just for the Hebrew people. You see this in Genesis, with Abraham and Sarah. Thinking he might be killed, Abraham passed Sarah off as his sister. Sure enough, a king set his eyes on Sarah, but before he takes her in his harem, he learns the truth through a dream. He feels he has been tricked and is upset for he came close to committing a great sin.

Literally, the seventh commandment shouldn’t be that hard to obey, even though it’s often broken. But as common of a sin it is, Jesus doesn’t let those of us who have managed to keep the Commandment in a literal sense, off the hook. He pushes the boundaries beyond the physical act and has us internalize it. Like with anger and murder, lust become equivalent to adultery. Unless you are blind and have no touch and smell and hearing, according to Jesus’ interpretation, you’ve probably broken the seventh commandment. Only God really knows, but I suspect most of us have had a few impure thoughts. Such sinfulness is just another reminder of how far the human race has fallen and how totally dependent we are upon God’s grace.

It still amazes me the fuss made over Jimmy Carter’s statement when he ran for President. He admitted to lusting in his heart. What’s surprising is that Jimmy may be one of the few politicians who stopped there and didn’t proceed on to the act itself. Back in the 90s, both our President and Speaker of the House, Clinton and Gingrich, engaged in such actions while pointing the finger at the other. And I won’t go into our current crop of elected adulterers. Unfortunately, those governing us often fail to served as good role models.

As hard as it is to abide, Jesus’ reinterpretation of this commandment is helpful. If you take the seventh commandment literally, you see it applied only to a man who seduced, or was seduced, by a wife or a fiancé of another man. In other words, in a strictly literal sense, this commandment is about protecting the property rights of another man.

The protection of property rights helps maintain stability in society. As I said last week, commandments six through ten provide us the boundaries within where we can live life abundantly. By internalizing the commandment to include lustful thoughts, Jesus once again goes to the core of the problem. Adultery is a spiritual problem which resides within the heart.

The Prophets often referred to Israel as an adulterer for chasing after foreign gods. If you remember, the whole premise of the book of Hosea is based upon the analogy of adultery. The prophet is told to take a prostitute as his wife and to love her, even though she remains unfaithful. The people can see, though Hosea grief, how God anguishes over Israel’s unfaithfulness.

The Christian understanding of marriage is that it’s a three-way covenant. Actually, in some ways, its a four-way covenant. Marriage is not just an agreement between a two people, it also involves God and the rest of the community. We pledge our faithfulness to one another and to our Creator. Committing the act of adultery, because God is involved with our covenant, becomes the same as breaking the first commandment. This is why, if you get into the details of all the laws in Leviticus, you will find that the penalty for adultery in Israel was death. Adultery was as serious as idolatry.

Keeping the seventh commandment presupposes the keeping of the other commitments. Too often we make an idol out of the family and marriage as the only commitment that matters. But that’s not the case; for us to enjoy life as God intends, we must both keep our marriage vows as well as our commitments to God and honoring those with whom we live in community. Just as with the sixth and eighth commandments, breaking the seventh commandment is a violation which affects the entire community.

This is why, when I officiate at a wedding, I ask for the commitment from all present to support the couple in the vows they make. And it’s the same reason that in baptism, we ask for the community’s commitment to help the individual grow into Christ. When it comes down to its roots, our faith is not individualistic; it can only be lived out in community.

I also want to talk briefly about the notion of being single and a Christian. Too often we lift up marriage as the ultimate goal, but we’re probably over reaching by doing that. “The church grows and lives by witness and conversion, not by marriage and family. We don’t have to marry to be faithful to Christ; instead marriage is optional and should be seen more as a calling than some right or a necessity for personal fulfillment.

Jesus’ reinterpretation of the seventh commandment expands the Law further into a community concern which works to protect women and to awaken men to their responsibilities. As Joy Davidman writes concerning this commandment, Jesus “forgave the adulteress who repented and loved God and denounced the lustful and loveless men who caused her to sin.” In the story of the woman caught in adultery, it is interesting that only the woman was brought before Jesus. We’re left wondering about the man.

For us today, we must consider not just the literal interpretation of the seventh commandment. We should also heed Jesus’ words and the advice from the book of Hebrews, “to hold marriage in honor and to keep the marriage bed undefiled, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.” There are a bunch of other scripture passages we could consider, especially in Proverbs and in the writings of Paul. By broadening the meaning of this commandment, from a strictly narrow literal interpretation which protected the man’s rights, to a broader interpretation which protects everyone’s rights, shows God’s intention to build healthy communities, one family at a time.

But then, that was God’s intention all along. If we look back in the second chapter of Genesis, we see that God created the man and woman to help one another and that the two should become one flesh. Adultery is prohibited because it is the knife which cuts through this mystical union and destroys that which God brought together. Honor your marriage vows and look out for one another, in doing so we serve God and one another. Amen.

Sources:

Notes on the 7th Commandment in the Heidelberg Catechism, Center for Excellence in Preaching.

Calvin, John. Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, translator (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980),

Childs, Brevard S. The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974), 419-421.

Christensen, Duane L. Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9: Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001).

Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain (1955, London: Hodder & Stoughton , 1963).

Garrison, Jeff. “Sermon on the 7th Commandment at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, Michigan. “(August 2007).

Hauerwas, Stanley and William Willimon, The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999).

Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretations, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, WJKP, 2009).

August 9, 2026August 9, 2026

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
August 9, 2026
The Sixth Commandment
Exodus 20:13 Matthew 5:21-22

Sermon recorded at Mayberry Church on Thursday, May 6, 2026

At the beginning of worship:
Reuben, a friend of mine from North Carolina, was an attorney before retiring. Don’t hold that against him, he was also a serious backpacker. Back in the 80s, we spent many weeks together hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia into Pennsylvania. As we walked or sat around an evening campfire, we often discussed theological and legal issues and how they inter-relate. On one such hike, I learned of one of Rueben’s courthouse debacles.

Reuben represented a man with a good job and a thriving side-business, making over $150,000 a year. This was 40 years ago. His wife wanted a divorce. She didn’t ask for much: joint custody of their kids, and the house. Rueben advised his client to make the deal.

This stubborn dude didn’t want any part of it. He insisted on fighting for everything, including the house and full custody of the kids. Against Reuben’s. advice, they proceeded to court. The other side called witnesses. Attorneys appreciate clients who tell them everything. Witnesses spoke of how Reuben’s client bragged he would burn his house before giving it to his soon-to-be ex-wife. When Reuben’s client was asked about these threats, he didn’t deny it. Instead, he said, “I’m no longer planning to burn the house down, God will do it.” Rueben wanted to crawl under the table. The room became quiet. Then judge warned the man he better hope God doesn’t burn the house down because he, and not God, would be the main suspect.

The judge gave the woman the house. About a month later, at night, it burned. As we might suspect, God wasn’t involved, except to look out for woman and kids, all who safely escaped.

Now, this guy attended church. I don’t think it was a Presbyterian Church, as we had no churches in that part of the county. The man confused his personal desires with God’s will. He let anger rule, which is always a dangerous thing. It ruined his life and that of his family. There is an important lesson here. If you have any question about God’s will, pray and check the Scriptures. God won’t tell you to do something against his Word.

Before reading the Scriptures:

Thou shalt not kill. These four words from the sixth commandment, as they appear in the King James Version, have given Christians much to ponder. We’ve tried everything to rationalize them. It really means murder, we assure ourselves. And many modern translations use murder: check out the New Revised Standard, the NIV, the Message, and the New King James Version. But the Hebrew word here has a broader meaning—for it can mean the unintentional taking of another life or even a state sponsored execution. Instead of trying to rationalize our way around this command, we should understand God desires a world without violent death. Yet, we live in a fallen world. At best, this commandment causes us to live in tension between God desires and reality.

Another place we can go to learn about this commandment is the Sermon on the Mount, which I preached upon a few months ago. I’ll read both this morning.

Read Exodus 20:13 and Matthew 5:21-22

As we’ve worked our way through the first five commandments, I’ve mentioned the reasons for the law. Today, let add to the list: God’s law helps us discern God’s will. As Christians, our first concern should be to live as God intends. Unfortunately, we confuse our own desires with God’s, as with the client of my friend I told you about earlier.

As much as you dislike someone, God’s not going to tell you to kill ‘em. That’s the enemy speaking. And the same goes with the rest of the commandments. God doesn’t offer dispensations to the law.

The second table of the law provides the parameters in which we live out our lives within an orderly society. If we keep these commandments, society is stable. If anyone breaks them, all society suffers.

Thou shalt not kill. We like the modern translations better, ‘don’t murder.” For you see, few of us actually murder other people—at least not literally. Of course, Jesus includes character assassination as a form of murder. And then, we know the Bible acknowledges occasions where killing is necessary. How do we handle this?

First off, we’re not Hindus. To refrain from killing would mean we’d have to be vegetarian, for it doesn’t distinguish what is killed. Furthermore, within Israel’s theocracy in the Old Testament, war and capital punishment were allowed under certain circumstances and within certain regulations.

What is forbidden here, in the sixth commandment, is for one individual to go out and take the life of another. But that’s not quite it either, for the word implies more than just premeditated murder, or even murder committed during a time of heighten emotions. Both of these are obviously condemned, but so is manslaughter, the unintentional killing of another member of the human race. In the 35th chapter of Numbers, God commands Israel to set up cities of refuge where those guilty of manslaughter can flee for safety.

But ideally, there would be no first degree murder nor manslaughter. Obeying this commandment means we not only refrain from killing, but also that we take seriously the well-being of our neighbors. In our modern world, recklessly driving down the street of a neighborhood while kids play violate the Commandment. Even if we didn’t mean to harm anyone, by not avoiding situations which could unintentionally cause the lost of a life, breaks the commandment. The implications of this command reaches beyond premeditated murder.

John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, provides a twofold purpose for this commandment. First, we are created in the image of God and to kill means that we violate God’s image. We should “learn to walk without causing injury to anyone,” Calvin admonished Geneva in a sermon, “otherwise God becomes our mortal enemy.” All humankind is under God’s protection. If we kill, we invite God to step in and intervene. Because we are created in God’s image, we must hold our neighbor sacred. God also created them in his image.

Calvin’s second reason is that we share the same flesh with the rest of humanity and because “the Lord has bound mankind together by a certain unity,” we should concern ourselves with the safety of all.

Thou shalt not kill… The words roll off the tongue as an imperative. The sharpness of this command demands attention. Yet, as I’ve tried to imply, there is a much deeper meaning here than refraining from murder. Jesus, in our New Testament, equates unrighteous anger with murder. Murder, whether premeditative or a crime of passion, often springs from anger.

Jesus goes to the root of the cause and encourages us to purge ourselves of such thoughts. We’re not to be harming one another with our words. We’re not even to think about it. At the time of Jesus’ reinterpretation, his Jewish contemporaries had fantasies of what they’d like to do to the Romans who controlled Palestine. Taking this commandment literally discouraged revolution against the Roman Legions, or from striking one of those hated tax collectors who worked for Rome. Jesus upsets the balance of things: “Don’t even ponder such thoughts. Love your enemies. Pray for your persecutors.” Calm your tempers and strive not to bring harm to anyone.

If we would, as Calvin suggests and as Jesus taught, look out for the safety of one another, our world would be a better place.

The intention of the sixth commandment is to promote life’s sanctity. The breath of life is a gift of God. As humans, we only have the power to kill, half the power of God, but such power should scare us nearly to death. We can destroy life, but we are not able, on our own, to create life. Instead, at best, we are co-creators with God. But once life is snuffed out, we are unable to do anything about it. So we’re to make the most of our lives, enjoying the benefits God grants us while striving to help others make the most of theirs.

If we could get to the point in our society where we acknowledge the image of God in another individual and consider life sacred so to avoid an untimely death, many of our problems would be solved. This is why I am against easy abortions and capital punishment. I know many Christians, including some of you, disagree with me on one or both of these points, but my position is that life, all life, should be sanctified. Unfortunately, we have a ways to go to get to where society holds the sanctity of life dear.

We often think of John Calvin as a stern old man, which makes his writings on this commandment shocking. Chaos filled the 16th Century. Wars occurred between various Christian sects and against Moslem invaders from the East. Despite this, Calvin boldly proclaimed that even just and unavoidable wars pollute a nation. And he’s right.

In the Middle Ages, when knights and soldiers returned from what was considered a “just war,” they still had to confess and make penance before receiving Communion. Such an requirement today would be seen as “un-American,” but if we realize God’s will is for us to live at peace, there maybe a therapeutic reason for such a requirement as we strive to build a world where life is considered sacred.

Thous shalt not kill. It sounds easy, but it’s not. Maybe we should flip the commandment and ask ourselves how we can promote life? After all, life is the foundation of our faith. Jesus himself said, “I come that you might have life, abundant life.” As his disciples, we’re to be about nurturing life. There’s a lot to think about with this commandment and with Jesus’ reinterpretation. Ponder it. Amen.

Sources:

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559).

John Calvin, Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, translator (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980),

Brevard S. Childs, The Book of Exodus: A Critical, Theological Commentary (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974), 419-421.

Davidman, Joy. Smoke on the Mountain (1955, London: Hodder & Stoughton , 1963),

Garrison, Jeff. “Sermon at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, Michigan. “(July 2007).

Hauerwas, Stanley and William Willimon, The Truth About God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999).

Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretations, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, WJKP, 2009),

Russell, Norman L. Suicide Charlie: A Vietnam War Story (1993, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995),

von Rad, Gerhad. Deuteronomy, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966.

August 2, 2026August 2, 2026

The Fifth Commandment: Honor Your Parents

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
August 2, 2026
Exodus 20:12 Ephesians 6:1-4

Sermon recorded at Bluemont on Thursday, July 30, 2026

At the beginning of worship:

A man, his wife, and son, live together. The man’s elderly father’s health declined to where he could no longer take care of himself. To his wife’s dismay, her husband brings his father into their home.

The old father cannot eat without spilling and knocking his food all around the table. After a few days of this, the wife insists the man eat in the corner, not at the table. But he still knocked his food on the floor. One day, the wife decides if the man is just going to drop his food on the floor, he can eat it there. She finds a trough and puts his food in it and places on the floor. The old man doesn’t seem to notice his lack of dignity, he just lies down and eats like a dog, with his face in his food. This goes on for a few weeks.

Then, the parents notice their son building something which looks a lot like a trough to feed animals. They ask him about it. The boy proudly explains he made it from them, for when they are old and must eat from the floor.

“A child will lead them,” the good book says. The parents immediately came to their senses and realize they’re not honoring the husband’s father. The next meal they set a place him at the tablet.

Before reading the Scripture:

We traditionally divide the Ten Commandments into two tablets or tables. So far this summer, we’ve looked at the first tablet, commandments one through four. Each of these shows how we relate to God.

The second tablet deal with our relationships to the human family. The fifth commandment forms a bridge between the two. We are to honor our fathers and mothers, a commandment which closely parallels the first commandment.The first tells us to worship God alone, the one who gives us life. But likewise, our parents, those who play a significant role bringing us into this life, deserve honor. They’re not to be worshipped; we’re not ancestor worshippers. But they do have a special role to play in our birth and development. Our belly buttons remind us we didn’t come into this world on our own. Yes, God gives us life. But life comes through our parents. For this reason, they’re to be honored.

Read Exodus 20: 12 and Ephesians 6:1-4.

Our parents are important not only because it is through them that we receive the gift of life, but also because it is generally through them that we learn about Jesus and experience faith. Now, this is not always the case. At times a friend or a spouse or a colleague mentors us in faith. In such cases it’s like having two sets of parents, one that gives us life, another which offers us new life in Christ.

We can compare our life with Christ with our life with our parents. We start out totally dependent upon them—think about all that our parents did for us, starting with changing diapers and feeding us. As we grow, we began to do those things on our own, till one day we are freed from our parent’s control and must take responsibility for our own lives.

Likewise, we start out our Christian walk, totally dependent on Jesus, without even knowing why. But as we grow in faith, we find that he gives us more freedom as we learn how to apply our faith to our lives.

Honor your father and your mother, an enlightening commandment. In the Patriarchal world of the Old Testament, men ruled. And since it was also a tribal society, at the time God gave the commandments, the leader of the tribe was also given i allegiance.

But the Ten Commandments come along and suggest we honor, not only the father of the house, but also the mother. This is significant. Parents, both of them, are placed on a pedestal. The man is not set aside as the most important, but shares this position with the woman. Not only is the tribe important, but also the nuclear family. In fact, families become the building blocks of a stable society. And when families break down society become chaotic. Without the role model of good parents and with everyone striving to look out for themselves and no one else, the structure of society melts away.

I’m pretty sure it was Anne Lamott who said that “families are where we learn forgiveness.” That’s true. And I think we learn even more: we learn tolerance and acceptance. We learn what is important for society; life isn’t just about us. Living in a family, we learn it takes everyone to make it work. This, by the way, is also taught in the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods,” we’re told. We’re not to promote ourselves into the Trinity, as qualified as we might think we are. It’s not about me, it’s not about you. The first and the fifth commandment teach that we have first pay attention to what God wants and then to what our families need. We have to focus on something other than ourselves.

That said, it goes without saying that parents are also suppose to show respect to their children as Paul reminds us in the passage we read from Ephesians.

Honoring our parents is a generational thing. If we honor our parents and those who have come before us, for I think the commandment extends to not just our biological parents, we then teach our children to honor us and in so doing, we help build a stronger society.

For an example of just how destructive not honoring our parents can be, remember the chaos which ensued in Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge take over of that country in the mid-70s.

The Khmer Rouge taught people not to trust anyone who had been in authority, including parents. They encouraged children to rat out their parents for dangerous thoughts. This destroyed the traditionally strong sense of family and respecting elders which existed in a nation traditionally based upon the teachings of Confucius. The country quickly purged into darkness as the killing fields grew.

Instilling the importance of this commandment into our children’s psyche, we help stabilize society. And if that’s not reason enough, we should remember it’s our kids who get to choose our nursing homes. With this commandment, like many of the others, what goes around comes around.

Let’s face it; we owe our parents a great debt. They brought us into this world; they gave us life, they changed our diapers and fed us when we couldn’t take care of ourselves. Hopefully they showed us love. Therefore, we honor them. But there is more to the meaning of the commandment.

Throughout the history of the church, those interpreting the fifth commandment have always pointed in two directions. First, as I’ve already covered, we.honor our natural parents But on a secondary level the commandment is also seen as our requirement of honoring those to whom God has given authority. In other words, the civil authorities, those who lead us in government, are to be afforded the same respect.

Paul makes it clear in the thirteen chapter of Romans that we are to honor those in positions of authority. Now granted, some parents do not earn the right to be honored, and others abuse their position of authority. Since God allows them to be in positions over us, we honor them till what they do goes so far against God’s word that we must obey God who always deserves our loyalty.

John Calvin suggests we show homage to God when we are obedient to those in authority. Of course, we expect them to be godly and to do their best to govern justly and fairly. Otherwise, they violate both God’s and our trust. We do not have to obey them for our first allegiance always remains with God.

By the way, I hope you can see that there is a difference between honoring and obeying. Just because your mother is Ma Barker or your dad is Jesse James, you don’t have to go out and rob banks. But when or parents and those in positions of power are honorable and we submit ourselves to them, we learn what it means to submit ourselves to God’s will.

The fifth commandment also comes with a promise. If we honor those over us, if we respect and look up to our parents, God promises us a long life, a life in which things will go well for us.

This commandment, as a bridge between the two tables, sets the stage for all to come. For when we break any of the other commandments, we are not honoring our parents. I’m sure most of your mothers, at some point, indicated her embarrassment by something you’ve done? It’s old fashion guilt rising up which, if you think about it, has a stabilizing effect on society. Remember the family is the basic building block. The fifth commandment sets the stage for what’s to come. Strong families create healthy communities, so as we start this second table, look at how we can order society so as to strengthen it and to develop it into a place where all of us can safely grow in our faith in Jesus Christ.

Ask yourselves how you honor your parents? We’re not to worship them; we’re not even to follow them when they’re wrong. But our parents deserve our respect and when we give it, we help build a stronger and more godly community. Amen.

This sermon was edited from a sermon preached in July 2007 at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, MI

July 26, 2026July 26, 2026

Keep the Sabbath Holy

Title slide with photos of Maybrerry and Bluemnt Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
Exodus 20:8-11
July 26, 2026

The sermon was recorded at Mayberry on Thursday, July 23, 2026

At the Beginning of Worship

My Dad's catch, fishing on Masonboro Island

I come from a family who fishes for sport. Growing up in Moore County, North Carolina, we fished farm ponds which provided bream and bass for the dining room table along with irrigation for tobacco fields. When we moved to Petersburg, Virginia, my dad took my brother and me fishing along the banks of the Nottaway River. Fishing was done on Saturday or in the evenings after work. We never fished on Sunday as it was too much like work since we ate our catch. The only labor I remember occurring on Sunday was cranking an ice cream maker on my grandparents back porch. At our house, we had the electric model.

Then, when I was nine, we moved down near the coast. A few weeks after arriving, my mother got us kids ready for church. Dad was no where to be seen. This wasn’t unusual as sometimes he had to work on Sundays, but when we learned from Mom that he had been invited to go deep sea fishing, my theological brain (or maybe it was my cynical brain) went to work.

“You mean it’s okay to fish on Sunday in salt water but not fresh water?” I asked.

Today we’ll begin our look at the fourth commandment—keep the Sabbath Day holy.

Before reading the Sermon

I want to point out the two different reasons given for the commandment on keeping the Sabbath holy. As I’ll read in Exodus, God took a day off after creation and commands us to do the same. If God needs a break, and we’re not better than God, we should take a break.

Deuteronomy likes the reason for Sabbath observance to Israel’s experience in bondage in Egypt. As slaves, they had to work when commanded. But God requires Israel to rest and also to provide rest for slaves and servants and even animals.

Read Exodus 20:8-11

Smoke on the Mountain, Joy Davidman’s book on the 10 Commandments which I have referred to several times, contains a fantasy. A Martian anthropologist visits earth. Davidman wrote in the early 1950s when it was still possible to believe green people with flying saucers inhabited the fourth planet. The Martian’s assignment was to study human religious behavior.

His report concluded that like most “primitive societies,” those of us who inhabit the third planet worshipped the sun. Every seven days he witnessed a “solar worship ritual.” Some, he reported, adored the sun by baring their bodies by lakes and the seashore. Others gathered in large arenas where the crowds watched strangely dressed priests perform rituals with a ball and wooden stick. Others addressed a smaller ball with long skinny sticks. These balls, the Martian assumed, are icons of the sun.

But his report also included a description of a heretical sect. Some people, he noticed, did not worship the sun. They dressed differently on the seventh day. The heretics, as the alien labeled them, shun the outdoors. They gathered in buildings often with colored windows, obviously to block the sun. The anthropologist was not sure, but thought these strange unbelievers may have been excommunicated and were being punished. After all, “Their faces and gestures show none of the almost orgiastic religious frenzy with which the sun worshippers pursue their devotion.”

Was this Martian right or wrong, Davidman asks. “For,” she says, “Sunday is still a holiday for us, but for many it has ceased to be a holy day.” We’re told in the fourth commandment to “Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.” What does this mean? Is it to be a somber day where we gather in our “Sunday best,” with long faces to worship the Lord? And what constitutes the day being holy?

Holy is a term generally attributed only to God or to that which God claims for his own glory. A holy day is one in which we dedicate to God. We set it apart. The Martian rightly observed that one day a week is different—it’s a day that most, not all, of the population is free from work. But is the Sabbath, for us, holy? Or have we profaned it into a holiday far removed from its roots? We live with a tension. As Jesus points out, the Sabbath shouldn’t be legalistic.

Obeying the fourth commandment is one area I think our Calvinist and Puritan ancestors did us a disfavor. John Calvin cited civil order as a reason for keeping the Sabbath. We generally think of Calvin as a theologian, but forget he was also a lawyer and a bit of a political philosopher. Calvin felt it was good for society to have a day set aside for preaching, for such grounding in God’s law helps control and restrain society.

Furthermore, Calvin came down hard on living it up for “sport and pleasure.” This he considered makes a mockery of God’s holy name. Calvin desired order, yet, in his defense, he played with children on Sunday afternoons. Over time, the Protestant establishment developed strict laws for maintaining God’s day.

Thomas Watson, the Puritan I’ve quoted two weeks ago, suggests that on the Sabbath we should all get up before dawn since our Lord’s resurrection occurred before daybreak. Talk about nit-picky legalism! Yet, I’m always up before dawn on Sundays.

The strict and legal Sabbaths of the past were wrong, but for believers so are the free-flowing Sabbaths of today. God tells us to take one day in seven and use it for rest and worship, but with smart phones, most of us never leave work behind. This morning I want us to look at a number of ideas concerning the Sabbath and on what this commandment might say to us today, in the 21^st Century.

First, let’s think about the day itself. In the Jewish tradition, the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. Early Christians decided to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday, the first day of the week. There are many reasons for this shift. First, they started gathering on Sunday, the day Christ rose from the grave, to recall his resurrection.

Second, their experience of grace in Jesus Christ made them realized that keeping the letter of the law doesn’t bring salvation. Freed from the strictness of the law, they moved the day forward.

Now granted, some Christian groups insist the Sabbath be observed on Saturday. They debated this even during the Reformation. John Calvin defended the rights of those who celebrate the Sabbath on another day, as long as their reasoning wasn’t based upon superstition. In other words, don’t think keeping the Sabbath on Saturday gains you more favor from God.

A third reason behind moving the Sabbath to Sunday was to demonstrate how God’s grace precedes any efforts of our own. Just as in the Jewish tradition, where day begins at sunset and thereby begins with rest, so too our week begins with rest. We rest and then, in thanksgiving, we work. This cycle reminds us that grace precedes law.

The Sabbath was the first labor law. You see, the fourth commandment recognizes our need to work—“for six days you shall labor.” God created us to work. Genesis tells us the first man was created to till the earth; he was the caretaker of the Garden of Eden. Work is a holy task, created by God.

Work is good, but with work comes the need to rest. God rested on the seventh day. But while slaves, our ancestors were not able to rest. So this command requires rest to extend to our families, our employees, and even slaves. This labor law even extended to domestic animals. All creation needs rest. I may have come down a bit hard of Calvin’s interpretation of the Sabbath, but I like the way he interprets this section of the commandment. Linking the commandment to the memory of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, Calvin comes to the conclusion the Sabbath means we must “humanely treat those who are under our powers.” In a broader scope, keeping the Sabbath commandment means we not only make time for ourselves, but we also insure that those around us have time to rest and worship.

The Sabbath is also given by God as a way to force us to slow down and, thereby, allow us to savor God’s creation. As Simon and Garfunkel sang,“Slow down, you’re going to fast.” And our world is much faster than it was in the 1960s. Observing of the fourth commandment is in greater need today, for we must learn to slow down and, as the old cliché goes, “smell the roses.” We need time to consider the glory of God, time to study God’s word, time to be in fellowship with God’s people. We were not created as machines; we’re created to glorify and enjoy God And if our lives are too hectic, we are probably not able to glorify God nor do we fully enjoy the benefits God provides.

Observing the Sabbath is a spiritual discipline which takes practice. Each of us has to find our own ways to observe this day, to make the Sabbath holy. Certainly observing the Sabbath involves gathering with God’s people for worship and study. But what do we do with the rest of the day? Do our afternoon activities glorify God and fulfill the intention for the day? It’s a question only you and God can answer.

By resting one day in seven, we show we can’t do it all. We must stop what we’re doing, a discipline which helps us trust God. All of us, even the most religious, risk falling into a trap of believing God needs us to carry out His will. But that’s a fallacy. God doesn’t need us, we need God.

How do we keep the Sabbath holy? Treat others with dignity, allowing them time to rest? Trust God enough to allow things to wait. Observing the Sabbath helps us depend on God. As the Psalmist says, “the earth and its fullness belong to God.” We didn’t create the world and ultimately, the Sabbath reminds us, we’re not in control of it. Amen.

I am not sure why my footnotes are not coming through now that I have shifted from Word to Pages. Here are sources used in the sermon:

Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1559

Calvin, John. Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, translator. (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980),

Davidman, Joy, Smoke on the Mountain (London: Hodder & Staunton, 1963).

Hauerwas, Stanley and William Williamson, The Truth About God; The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 48.

Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, KY:WJP, 2000).

Watson, Thomas, The Ten Commandments (First published as a part of A Body of Practical Divinity, 1692: London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970).

_{This sermon is a variation of a version preached on July 15,2007 in 1st Presbyterian Church of Hastings, MI}

July 13, 2026July 13, 2026

The Third Commandment

title slide with photo of Bluemont and Mayberry Churches

I’m sorry I didn’t get this up yesterday, but in changing over computers and programs, I ran into some technical issues! For some reason, I lost the footnotes. I’ve added the sources at the bottom.

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
July 12, 2026
Exodus 20:7, Revelation 5:9-12

This sermon was taped at Bluemont on Thursday, July 9, 2026

At the beginning of worship:

Let me tell you a story about Brian, a friend from my elementary and junior high years. Although we attended separate schools, we grew up in the same church. We also joined the same scout troop and remained members until Brian moved with his family to South Carolina. The two of us competed against it other. We struggled to out rank the other in scouts. We both had our eyes on the same girl. And we both sought positions of authority. At one time or another, we both served as patrol leader and as the other’s assistant. Unlike me, Brian aspired to the presidency of our church’s Junior High youth group.

I’ll never forget the night of the elections. A new school year began, so we reorganized the youth group. We had new kids aging up into the group and older ones, who had been leaders, moving into the high school group. Brian campaigned for the position of president. He coveted the position; a sin I’ll cover at the end of this series on the Commandments.

That evening, however, Brian did something which worked against him. He volunteered to give the opening prayer. Generally, getting a young teenager to pray in public required serious arm twisting from our adult leaders. This evening, Brian’s hand shot up before they finished asking the question. None of us who heard that prayer will ever forget it. It went something like this, “O Lord, I want to be president. Please help me.”

This prayer was too much for us budding Calvinists. Brian lost the election.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” the third commandment reads. Obeying this commandment is more than just refraining from mumbling God’s name in a fit when we curse and swear. Of course, we shouldn’t curse and swear. But there’s more to the commandment.

Before reading the scripture:

We are looking at the 3^rd Commandment today. How to translate this commandment has been debated over the years. The King James Version translates it as “You shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…” A recent Jewish translation reads, “You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.” In a moment we’ll hear another reading as we consider how we might apply this passage to our lives. All translations capture part of the truth.

I will also read a passage from Revelation which shows how we should revere God.

Read Exodus 20:7, Revelation 5:9-14

Like all the commandments, the third is simple and to the point. But reading it in different versions, we see the difficulty in translation. The Commandment comes with a warning, indicating we should take note of the commandment and how we violate it. God’s name is holy. It’s a name, as we profess in the Lord’s Prayer, to be hallowed. But its meaning goes beyond not swearing or trivializing God. The third commandment is not just a warning against profanity. However, this is often how we view the commandment: “don’t swear or curse and you’ll be alright.” By the time I’m through with this sermon, I hope you understand a deeper meaning.

If our use of language is what this commandment is all about, then Hitler, who shunned profanity, could be an example of how to keep it. I think he broke this commandment as frequently as he did the others.

Let me begin with a definition of blasphemy. “Blasphemy is speech which attempts to make God a part of our lies.” The author of this definition goes on to say: “It’s a sign of our infidelity that we are no longer outraged by it.” Most all of us would agree saying “G-D you” is blasphemous. It’s calling on God to agree with our assessment that the object of our wrath deserves damnation. But that’s a clear-cut example.

Yet, we’re guilty of blasphemy, of breaking the third commandment, whenever we invoke God’s name to get our way. We’re guilty when we fail to be honest with God. And we might even be guilty when we misrepresent ourselves to others. After all, when people know I am a Christian, they assume because of my identity in Christ, I am truthful. When I’m not, I stand guilty before God for using my relationship with my Savior to further a lie. If you’re a salesperson and use a Bible verse on honesty in your pitch, you better be careful. Another example would be Brian’s prayer, but I won’t say anything more about that.

Joy Davidman, in her book I mentioned two weeks ago on the Ten Commandments, suggests this command is like a sign we might see on a fence around a power plant. “Warning: High Voltage.”

We have a God of power, but we’re not to call on God for personal gain which would not bring him glory, nor are we to use his name in a superstitious manner.

There is a great illustration of this in the old movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you remember, the movie pitted Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Karen Allen, his good-looking assistant, against Nazis. Everyone’s after the Ark of the Covenant. Jones, a scientist, is interested in the Ark for archeological reasons. The Nazi’s interest is more sinister. They hope the Ark can help their armies to dominate the world. At the climax of the movie, the soldiers of the Third Reich recovered the ark and capture Jones and his beautiful sidekick. Then a Nazi officer approaches the Ark chanting some ancient words, hoping to tap into its power. Opening the ark, he finds only sand. He laughs, thinking they have been fooled. Then the ark comes alive. The Nazis die. Jones and assistant are safe.

Of course, Indiana Jones is fantasy, but in this one scene, the meaning of the third commandment is portrayed. At first, the ark seemed harmless. “It’s just sand,” the Nazi said as the grains poured through his hands. “It’s just words,” we might say. But what at first seemed so harmless becomes deadly. Seeking the power of the ancient ark for evil means, for a menacing purpose, the Nazis violate this commandment. They experience the wrath of a God who will not “hold guiltless those who take his name in vain.” It’s the same way with us taking God’s name in vain. At first, it may seem harmless. In time it can become deadly.

To fully understand this commandment, we need to consider the importance of a name.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, there is an implied power which comes with the ability to name something. Think back to the creation account found in Genesis 2. First, God creates Adam. Seeing the man is lonely, God goes about creating animals and each specie he brings to Adam for him to name. The theological implication is that the power of naming places the human specie above the rest of the animal kingdom. God, on the other hand, names the first human and thereby shows his position over us. But God doesn’t give us his name. God tells Moses “I am who I am.” In other words, we are creatures created by a God whom we cannot control. Trying to control God violates this commandment.

Now, if we don’t really know God’s name, we might think we are unable to violate this commandment. But, as I’ve tried to impress upon you, this isn’t the case. For we can call upon God, even praying as Jesus did, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” We just need to make sure that our purposes are noble.

Thomas Watson, a Puritan author from the 17^th Century, in a commentary on the Westminster Catechism, includes our tendency toward hypocrisy among the ways we break this commandment. According to him, “professing God’s name and failing to live answerably to it,” violates the intent of the commandment. In other words, saying that we believe in God and then acting like we are a god, or doing those things our corrupted hearts desires rather than living by God’s law earns God’s displeasure.

John Calvin, while discussing prayer, reminds us that “there are some who not only dare to pester God with all their follies, without any reverence or shame, and to lay before his throne anything that they have idly supposed might be good.” God’s name is holy; we should not be foolish enough to ask from God what is not good, nor should we invoke a name with such power for what is truly trivial. When we call upon God, let it be for noble purposes. In addition, as Christians we should not curse using God’s name. God is holy and to associate God’s holiness with something profane displeases our Creator.

There is another area we need to examine in our discussion on this passage: that is the use of oaths. In writing about this commandment, Calvin devotes more space discussing the right and proper use of oaths than he does discussing the commandment itself.

And a few months ago, when we worked through the Sermon on the Mount, I spent a lot of time discussing oaths. For Calvin, the problem wasn’t taking an oath; the problem resided in not abiding by or trivializing an oath. If at the end of such an oath, when we plead, “So help me God,” we better mean what we say. Or if we swear that something is true, it better be true. Otherwise, we take God’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.” It’s a simple commandment with a clear warning and great implications. Don’t trivialize God. If you live your life as a Christian, be careful you don’t lie to God. Nor should you, by actions unbecoming of our Savior, lie to others about God. Amen.

Sources:

Calvin, John, Institutes, III.20.5

Davidman, Joy, Smoke on the Mountain (London: Hodder & Staunton, 1963).

Gowan, Donald, Genesis 1-11: From Eden to Babel (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1988).

Hauerwas, Stanley and William Williamson, The Truth About God; The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 48.

Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church (Louisville, KY:WJP, 2000).

Watson, Thomas, The Ten Commandments (First published as a part of A Body of Practical Divinity, 1692: London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970).

Wendel, Francois, Calvin: Origins and Development of his Religious Thought, Philip Mairet, translator (1950, Durham, NC: Labyrinth Press, 1987).

This version is revised from a sermon preached on June 24, 2007 at First Presbyterian Church of Hastings, MI

June 28, 2026June 28, 2026

The Second Commandment

Title slide with photos of Mayberry & Bluemont Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 4
June 28, 2026

This version of the sermon recorded on Friday, June 26, 2026 at Bluemont.

At the beginning of worship:

This has been a long and hard week. Thursday, I had an all-Commissioner meeting of Presbytery in Roanoke. I arose up early to get the trash out before driving up to the Star City. When I opened my email, I learned that Loren, the interim pastor between Stewart’s retirement and my coming, lost her husband.

While in Roanoke, I planned to visit Peggy Slate in the hospital. Peggy ran the Higher Ground Retreat Center, just north of Bluemont. She also kept Wild Goose on track. I texted her daughter to let her and her father know my plans. In the middle of my meeting, I received a text saying Peggy’s kidneys failed and was moving to hospice at noon.

Then about 2:30, I received another text saying she died, not long after arriving at hospice. I left the meeting and spent time with her husband Guydell and children.

Then, after I got home, Barbara Wagonner texted that Mel Condit, a recent new member at Mayberry, died. For the past several months, Mel battled cancer. He was released from the hospital just a few days earlier. A wonderful addition to our church and community, Mel will be missed.

I’m older than Loren’s husband, the same age as Peggy, and a bit younger than Mel. Thursday, it hit hard. Our time on earth is short; life is precious. We should make the best of it, and should comfort one another during times of grief.

Before reading the Scripture:

Last week, we looked at the first commandment which excludes all other gods. Today, we’ll look at the second commandment which forbids any physical representation of either another god or the one true God. At Sinai, the idea of no idols showed a radical departure from the norm. At this time, everyone used art to depict deities. Israel stood alone and offered a new way of looking at God.

There is only one holy God who must not be depicted in artwork. This doesn’t mean that art is bad; it’s just not to be used to depict the one beyond our comprehension. Instead of knowing God through paintings or sculpture, we meet God in scripture. Even objects in church—from the Bible on the pulpit to fancy windows—must not be worshipped.^[1]

In their deliverance from Egypt, Israel encountered the living God, whose reality can be described, and then only partially, with language.^[2]

Today’s text is from Exodus 20, verses 4-6, and Deuteronomy 4:15-20, where we’re given more reasons to have no idols.

Read Exodus 20:4-6, Deuteronomy 4:15-20

A salty old sailor sat through a sermon at the Seaman’s mission. The preacher went on and on with the dos and don’ts of the Ten Commandments, visibly shaking the old seaman. “What’s the matter,” his buddy asked. “Well,” he said pondering, “at least I ain’t made no graven images.”

God, in the Second Commandment, goes to great lengths to stress the importance of not having idol in any form. Whether it comes from the heavens, the earth or the waters, idols are off-limits. God is creator, not a creature. God is the artist, not the subject of art and therefore is not to be portrayed in artwork, which draws upon the created world. The Almighty refuses to be objectified. If we objectify God, we then assume we can handle God.

We might wonder why God gets so upset over idols. After all, why would a a great and powerful God be threaten by us worship of something less than himself? Yet, idolatry is always more a reflection on us than upon God; God isn’t threatened by our misguided actions. God has the power over all other make-believe gods and there is no danger of him losing his position as the Creator and the Sustainer of the world. Instead of God taking this personally and being upset, God’s concern is our well-being.

As Bob Dylan sings, “you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”^[3] In a study on the Ten Commandments, the authors note:

“modernity did not succeed in killing the gods, rather it succeeded in fostering rampant superstition. Modern people like to think that as we become more educated, liberal, enlightened, the less we need to worship gods. No. We appear to have been created to worship…^[4]

We’re created restless, with a longing, an emptiness. We’re created with this desire that we try to fill. God created us this way so that we might see the need to have him fill our restless desire to worship something beyond ourselves. But God wants us to come freely, which means that we will also be tempted to create our own substitute for God. All of us have this desire for fulfillment; idolatry is when we try to satisfy it with something that is less than God.^[5]

Joy Davidson, who would later marry C. S. Lewis, wrote a commentary on the Ten Commandments titled, Smoke on the Mountain. Addressing this commandment, she said, “idolatry lies not in the idol, but in the worshipper.”

The horror of idols is that they’re impotent, they’re without power, and they can give us nothing. Instead, idols rob us of the power we have within ourselves and from God through the Holy Spirit.^[6]Certainly our idolatry have become more sophisticated. We gave up on Aaron’s golden calf and miniature statues of Artemis which endeared the Ephesians.^[7] But are we putting our trust in God, or in something else? What is it that we worship? What do we do with our desire to connect to something beyond ourselves? Do we go to God or to something less that has only enough power to rob us of a relationship to the living God?

Let’s ask ourselves? What are our Golden Calves today? What keeps us from fully enjoying God? When I look at the walls in my office, I see the various token representations of my accomplishments. I feel proud and might think to myself, “I’ve done some neat things.” Some of you have accomplished a lot more. But when I think, “Gee Jeff, you’re good,” those mementos become first cousins to that sacred cow of Sinai. What is it that we value the most?

Our accomplishments, our diplomas, our homes, our jobs, our cars and boats and motorcycles, our families? These good things can also be substitutes for God. God wants us to enjoy the finer things in creation, but he alone should be the object of our devotion. Akin to how one spouse will covet a devoted relationship from the other, so God desires our devotion.

God provides a reason for such a relationship. If we, who have been chosen by God, worship something else, we’re cursed. Yet God offers even more abundant blessings if we keep it.

Let’s talk about this curse. We may think it unfair God’s wrath is not only experienced by the idolater. It extends to his or her offspring for three to four generations. Yet, if idolaters share the wrong message with their children, how will they hear? The message of the idol will be carried on within the family for generations and the barrier they built between them and God will continue.

Psychologically, this curse plays out in the family systems of alcoholics and drug addicts. There are books written about the phenomena, such as Adult Children of Alcoholics.^[8] Someone who is a dependent upon some substance is essentially an idolater. The substance becomes their God. And within their family, because of how people live with and around them, the abuser’s family carries the curse with them.

John Calvin suggests the curse is not so much the result of God inflicting it, as the absence of God, which allows it to continue.^[9]The curse continues until someone says “enough” and invites God back into their life.

Now, consider the promised blessings. Idolatry brings a curse, but the blessing of faithfulness stands in sharp contrast. The curse continues for three or four generations, the blessing to the thousandth generation. God’s mercy overwhelms his wrath. Surely the Psalmists got it right when he proclaimed, “the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”^[10] As human beings, we tend to be overly concerned with the wrath of God and the possibility of punishment. We forget how much greater God’s capacity to love is when compared to his anger. John Calvin, in his sermon on the Second Commandment proclaimed that it is “almost against God’s nature” to punish.^[11]

God’s love is much greater than we can imagine, hence the reference to a 1000 blessed generations. Think about this. Biblical standards set a generation at 40 years. A 1000 generations would be 40,000 years, which would mean that we’re not yet at the 10% mark for the blessings bestowed on those like Joshua and Caleb who were faithful during the Exodus. The blessings from that era continue!

Surely this commandment means that we are not to depict God in any creaturely way. But as Christians, we acknowledge that 1400 years after the commandments, God came to us as a man. In other words, God himself chose to relate to us in a way we can understand. Yet, interestingly, we’re not given a physical description of Jesus. The mystery of what God looks like continues! Instead, we’re told that we will meet him when we reach out to someone in need and that we’ll feel his presence when two or more are gathered in his name.^[12] God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean we are allowed to worship a picture of Jesus, even if we had one. But the incarnation gives us a better understanding of the nature of the God we worship and adore.

Through Christ, we can have even a more personal relationship with God, which is what God longs for and we need. We can’t have this relationship with a piece of art; nor can we have such relationship with a god who’s nothing more than a projection of our own wants and needs. We can only have such a relationship with the living God. Only such a God can offer us salvation and ever lasting life.

Let me now say something about religious art. This is one of the areas we live out our faith in tension. Our devotion is to be to God, revealed through Jesus Christ. We all have crosses, Bibles, pictures supposedly representing Jesus, but none of these are to be worshipped even though sometimes, if used right, can help us focus more on God.

In Reformed Churches, if you go back in history 150 years, you’d be surprised to find no pictures of Jesus and no crosses. If the sanctuary had stained glass, it was only decorative; they’d be no pictures of anyone in it. Over the past century and a half, we’ve back off such a strong prohibition against these types of art. However, we should remember no picture representing Jesus is accurate and be on guard that such art does not become a focus of our worship. For the God we worship transcends our abilities to create. And only a God who transcends our limited view has the power to be useful.

Think seriously about how you depict God. Make sure the God you worship isn’t some false god, but the God revealed in his Word, who has the power to create and to save. Amen.

This sermon was edited from a sermon preached in Hastings, Michigan in 2007.

^[1] Daniel D. Patrick, The Ten Commandments: Interpretation, Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church Louisville, KY: WJKP, 2000), 56.

^[2] Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1-21:9, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), 114.

^[3] Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody” (1979)

^[4] Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Truth about God: The Ten Commandments in Christian Life (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 36.

^[5] cf, Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing: The Search for A Christian Spirituality (NY: Doubleday, 1999), 3-5.

^[6] Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments in terms of today (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963), 38-39.

^[7] Acts 19:23ff.

^[8] Janet Geringer Woititz, Ed.D., Adult Children of Alcoholics (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1983, 1990).

^[9] cf, John Calvin, Institutes, II, vii, 18-20.

^[10] Psalm 145:8. Variations of this theme is found throughout the Old Testament.

^[11] John Calvin, Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, translator. (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1980), 78.

^[12] See Matthew 18:20, 25:40.

June 27, 2024June 29, 2024

Thoughts on the Ten Commandments

Title slide with photo of my elementary school

In early June 1969, I graduated from the sixth grade. We even had a graduation banquet. The principal of Roland Grice Junior High, Mr. Mason, spoke. He told us there were two laws in the Bible that if we obeyed, we could slide through our next few years of schooling without an intimate meeting with his “Board of Education.” He had constructed this “board” from solid oak. Corporal punishment was still in vogue back in those days.

Then Mr. Mason asked if any of us knew which laws he was referring. Some girl’s hand, one who sat up front, shot up. Mr. Mason called on her.

“Do unto other’s as you’d have them do to you,” she answered.

Very good,” the principal said. “Anyone know the other law?”

At first no one answered, so he offered a clue. “It’s in the 10 Commandments.”

At this point, Jerry’s hand shot up. Mr. Mason called on him and he said, “Thou shall not commit adultery.”

The whole room erupted in laughter. Even though most of us only had a vague idea about what breaking the commandment meant, we were pretty sure it was the one commandment we’d probably not break during our seventh year of schooling.

Now, the state of Louisiana requires schools to display the 10 Commandments in classrooms. Some think this violates the separation of church and state. Maybe so, but it might also be an opportunity. Let me offer a suggestion for how teachers might engage their students using the commandments to learn about current events and human depravity.

An educational tool:

Each day, have the students to read a newspaper. Encouraging them to look for examples of how politicians and public officials break each of the commandments. This could be made into games using bingo-like cards. The class strives to find examples of broken commandment as the students individually compete to complete a straight row on their cards.

Think of the possibilities. It’d be easy to fill in the blank for the seventh commandment with the number of politicians sleeping around. But the eighth commandment would also be easy. Plenty of public servants have their hand in the government’s till. The ninth would also be a gimme for I know of no politician who doesn’t stretch the truth. And how about the politician who covets his neighbor’s house (or office) and breaks the tenth? Or the one who desires a graven image of someone or something they worship and breaks the second. The possibilities are endless.

Let’s encourage the students to let their imagination run wild. They’ll learn a lot! And in no time, politicians will clamber to the schoolhouses to pull down the commandments. But before then, the students will learn that the oratory ability has nothing to do with the truth, that we all fall short and should be humble, and that without God’s grace, we’re doomed.

The value of the Big Ten

Now don’t get me wrong. The 10 Commandments have great value. They provide us with a boundary in which we might enjoy the life God offers. I’ve done a lot of thinking about the commandments throughout my ministry. Below is an article of mine that appeared (in slightly different forms) in a newspaper and magazine back in 2003. But more important than the Big Ten, are the ultimate two commandments: love God and love your neighbor. And let’s not forget the Christian principle of humility. Bragging about keeping the commandments either breaks the ninth or trivializes them as we think higher of ourselves than we should. The Commandments should be humbling to us all.

And, if you are wondering, the answer to Mr. Mason’s question was the fifth commandment, “honor your father and mother.” It should also be easy to find examples of politicians breaking this commandment.

The Ten Commandments (2003)

A variation of article appeared in The Presbyterian Outlook, September 29, 2003, along with an opinion column in The Daily Spectrum, a newspaper published in St. George, Utah.

They’re marching in Alabama again. This time the destination is Montgomery and those who march support Judge Roy Moore’s fight to keep a granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse lawn. They removed the statue on August 27. It appears Moore and his supporters have lost, but they promise to keep fighting. Sooner or later, the United States Supreme Court will have to step up and rule, but so far, they’ve refused to handle this hot potato.

I’d sleep better if the Supreme Court decided such symbols acknowledge a foundation of Western law and are thereby an appropriate symbol that doesn’t violate the separation of church and state. Or maybe not. Of course, there are a variety of interpretations to what the founders of the Republic meant by such separation. As one who swore off the study of jurisprudence for theology, like the Supreme Court, I’ll pass on that potato.

Instead, let’s consider what the commandments are all about. The Big Ten provide a boundary by which we live as God intends, outlining that which enhances and destroys relationships. Theologians distinguish between two tables of the law, the first deal with how we relate to God and the second addressing our relationship with others. Put together, the two tables set the context for a society that honors God and other members of the human family.

In ancient times, Jewish rabbis supposedly placed a drop of honey on the tongues of those studying the law to remind them that God’s law is sweet, not bitter. Theologically, the law is understood as life-giving.

A few generations, Presbyterians and most all Christians spent more time studying the Ten Commandments. Preparatory lectures, focusing on the commandments, were held a few days before Communion so members could prepare themselves for the sacrament. The catechisms of our denominations as well as those of other denominations go into detail of the fuller meaning of each commandment. If you read the Heidelberg Catechism, you’ll discover “Thou shall not steal” includes no deceptive advertisings. And in the new Catholic catechism, acts leading to the enslavement of another human violates the commandment. In other words, we should be careful about misrepresenting a used car or purchasing Goods produced in a sweatshop.

“Thou shall not kill” also means more than not murdering someone. Martin Luther equated failure to feed the hungry, when you had the ability, with murder. Likewise, “bearing false witness” is more than just telling lies. The Westminster Catechism extended the commandment to exclude backbiting and vainglorious boastings, sins prevalent throughout society.

I could go on with examples of how we ignore each of the Ten Commandments, but I won’t. Every generation has a problem with lawlessness. Instead, we should understand that even if we have monuments by all courthouses or on every street corner, we wouldn’t necessarily become better citizens. It’s odd that about the time many churches de-emphasized the study of the catechism, granite and bronze memorials started popping up around the country.

In the 1950s, thousands of monuments were dedicated in the aftermath of Cecil B. DeMille’s’ blockbuster flick, “The Ten Commandments.” Today, we’ve lost the fuller understanding of the law while trivializing it into something chiseled on a rock. With the law publicly displayed, we prat ourselves on the back and brag about our piety while forgetting what the law is all about. Perhaps we should thank the ACLU. Maybe the publicity generated by these lawsuits will force us to understand that the commandments are not an image to be viewed. Instead, the law is to be studied. As both Moses and the prophets insist, written on our hearts (Deuteronomy 6:6, Isaiah 51:7, and Jeremiah 31:33).

Before marching off to Montgomery, take time to study the commandments. In the larger scheme of things, having a granite slab out in front of the courthouse won’t make a bit of difference. What will matter is who we apply the commandments. If we write them on our hearts as the Hebrew Scriptures encourage, rest assured they’ll be safe from an ACLU lawsuit.

Update on my 2003 opinion column:

The 10 Commandments for Mr. Moore, a former judge and politician, appears not to have weathered well. It was only for looks, as he had a problem with the seventh, which led to his downfall.