The Prohibitive and Protective Aspects of God’s Law

If you’ve been participating in this year’s Bible Reading Plan utilizing The Bible Recap, you will have been reading through Exodus recently. Don’t worry if you haven’t been following along, you can either start now and join in or go back and read the passages mentioned below. It will still hopefully be a blessing to you. Once you get to Exodus 20 through the rest of the book and into Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, after that, the focus of the narrative centers on the giving and explanation of the Law to God’s chosen nation, Israel. As 21st-century Christians, these passages fluctuate between confusing, boring, and scaring us if we are honest. Some of the law seems straightforward forward, like “Do not commit murder.” Cool, got it. Others are not so straightforward. “Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk” or “Here’s when and how to help an ox get out of a ditch.” Ok, I don’t got it anymore.

Jewish scholars have identified around 613 individual commandments given in the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible) alone. I want to give you a quick guide for how to approach the Law as given in the Old Testament and how it isn’t meant to be confusing or arbitrary at all. Instead, a clear understanding of the Ten Commandments can help explain any one of the 613 commandments given listed.

Let’s start with an illustration. I love to cook and to learn about and practice cooking techniques. One cooking technique that essentially all chefs swear by is making stock. A good stock is made by boiling down bones or offcuts of meat with aromatic vegetables and herbs to make a rich and hearty cooking liquid. It takes all the essential elements of what you put in the pot and condenses them down into something that looks simple but tastes delicious. Chefs will often take something like a gallon of stock and boil it down into a few cups of concentrated sauce called a demi-glace. You get the picture; you can take pounds and pounds of ingredients and concentrate them into something that will fit in a small container.

This is how we should view the Ten Commandments. They are the boiled-down, concentrated essence of God’s character and ethics that we should follow. That means that any lesser command that we find in Scripture has its basis in the Ten Commandments. It isn’t some random whim of God that He put into the Bible arbitrarily. 

To better understand the Ten Commandments and their implications, we will use a trick that many biblical ethicists employ. We need to look at each command positively in order to see what the command protects and not just what it prohibits. The stated “Thou shalt not” structure of the commandments describes what they prohibit clearly, but we need to understand that whenever you have a prohibition, it is written to protect something. For example: “Kids don’t get on the living room couch with your shoes on.” The prohibition is clear, but it is put in place to protect the expensive, formal couch from the various stains that your children’s shoes would inflict upon it. You could state the rule positively by rephrasing it as “Use great caution to safeguard the couch from stains and damage.” Let’s see this filter applied to the Ten Commandments. Much of this content is summarized from An Introduction to Biblical Ethics by David W. Jones.

Commandment 1

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Stated Positively: You shall have only the LORD as your God.

Focus: The internal and exclusive worship of God

The first commandment is the most fundamental of them all and the easiest one to violate. If we were capable of keeping this command perfectly, we would not need to be told other commands. We simply wouldn’t go against God’s will and character. This command most obviously prohibits God’s followers from worshipping other false gods like Baal, Molech, and Vishnu, among others. But it serves as a warning that countless other desires and feelings will vie for the place of God in our lives. We are always tempted to define ourselves or find our joy in things other than God. The claim of the first command is that sin in any area is a reflection that we are valuing something or someone else or even ourselves over God in our lives internally, leading to the external sins listed further down in the Commandments.

Commandment 2

“You shall not make an idol for yourself in the shape of anything in the heavens above or the earth below or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.”

Stated Positively: You will worship God properly, how He desires to be worshipped.

Focus: The proper external worship of God

Not only is God the only being worthy of worship, He also regulates how He is to be worshipped. The hundreds of ceremonial, sacrificial, and even dietary laws flow from this command. God did not want Israel to worship Him as the pagan nations around them did. They included practices like mutilation, sexual debauchery, and even child sacrifice. So, when you read a detailed description of how the Tabernacle had to be built or a sacrifice conducted, you see the Second Command being played out. When Israel disobeyed this command by adopting pagan practices or gods in addition to their worship of God, they inevitably slipped further and further into sin. While Jesus fulfilled many of the ceremonial laws in his life, death, and resurrection, many New Testament passages about how the church should be conducted in an orderly manner and how the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper should be administered call back to the Second Command and its direction for worship. 

Third Commandment

“You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Stated Positively: Revere God’s reputation and use His Name properly.

Focus: Verbal worship and representation of God

The main way we think of this command is not to say God’s name when we are frustrated or when we stub our toe. This may be true, but it greatly reduces the impact. We violate this command whenever we misrepresent God in our lives. Think of when someone portrays themself as a Christian to the world, saying all the right things in public, only for it to be discovered that they are hiding dark and sinful acts done privately. This dishonors the name and reputation of God. His name is being misused. Biblical commands dealing with hypocrisy and making false oaths are outworkings of the Third Commandment. Whenever our external actions/words do not match our internal motivations and beliefs, we are taking the Lord’s name in vain. 

Fourth Commandment

“Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.”

Stated Positively: already positive

Focus: Associating the rest of human work with the worship of God

The command to rest on the Sabbath calls back to the Creation story in Genesis 1-2. After six days of labor creating the universe and everything in it, God rests (literally sabbaths) on the seventh day. The Fourth Command shows us that this is God’s intent for his people as well. He wants them to trust in His provision enough to take time from work to rest, recharge, and worship Him. The Torah contains many commands that come from this and describes what kind of activities would be considered work on the Sabbath. Jewish scholars so valued this command that they added even more restrictions to it. The idea of rest and the Sabbath was even extended to Israel’s agricultural and social practices as the land, animals, and servants were to be given rest in certain Sabbath years. How the Sabbath Day should be kept in our present church age would be another blog post entirely, but we can summarize that the fourth commandment tells us that proper worship of God includes rest from work to more fully enjoy and find our peace in Him.

Fifth Commandment

“Honor your Father and Mother”

Stated Positively: already positive

Focus: Value of Human Authority

If you think that because you are an adult, you have outgrown the Fifth Commandment, you would be incorrect. Every biblical command about how to rightly honor and submit to earthly authority is an offshoot of the Fifth Commandment. Father and Mother are used as examples because for most people, they are the first authority that we interact with. How we honor human authorities says a lot about how we will honor and submit to God as our ultimate authority. This isn’t always easy because our earthly authorities are sinful like all people are, even our father and mother. That is why the command isn’t calling for unthinking obedience but proper honor. If an authority demands things that prove to be abusive, neglectful, or otherwise against God’s law, then we can use discernment in how to deal with those authorities. But for rightful authorities, it shows that they are supposed to not only comply with their authority but to respect them with the right attitude and deference. 

Sixth Commandment

“You shall not commit murder.”

Stated positively: Protect innocent human life.

Focus: Value of human life

This command is often oversimplified to, “Do not kill.” This leads to confusion and not clarity. The word refers to the malicious killing of an innocent, so it is much better understood as murder. Genesis tells us that all people are created in the image of God. It is this shared trait that inspires this command. One image bearer should not take the life of another innocent image bearer. It is a violation of human dignity. All biblical commands that involve the protection of life or tell us not to seek ultimate revenge or justice come from this command. In fact, following this command even demands that we go out of our way to make sure that life is not threatened through negligence. Biblical laws about purity and isolation when one has an infectious disease or a curious law in Deut. 22:8 about building a railing on the flat roof of your house so that no one falls off it and dies display this concept and serve as an example for our modern building codes and negligence laws. The sixth commandment then speaks strongly against practices such as abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia in our current culture.

Seventh Commandment

“You shall not commit adultery.”

Stated positively: Maintain marital intimacy both physically and mentally.

Focus: Value of relational intimacy and marriage

The seventh command shows that sexual relations have a specific context in which they are to be performed within a committed marriage between one man and one woman. Any violation of this goes against God’s design, attempting to surpass his authority as God. Much like how the fifth command’s focus on the father and mother as authorities reflects our desire for God to be our authority, faithfulness to our one spouse in marriage sexually reveals a tendency to be faithful to God as our only savior. The Bible repeatedly uses infidelity as a metaphor for worshipping something other than God. This also speaks against the mental aspects of adultery, such as lust and the watching of porn. In our love for one another, we are called to be faithful in marriage and not lead others to be unfaithful in their marriage.

Eighth Commandment

“You shall not steal.”

Stated positively: Be a good steward of what God gives you and others.

Focus: Proper view of our resources.

An interesting aspect of the Eighth Command is that there is no object stated in the law. It isn’t only speaking of material possessions but prohibits the wrongful taking of anything that does not rightfully belong to us. It addresses the idol in our hearts to value the creation over God as the Creator. This is why we see many laws about not taking advantage of the weak or not acting shady in business or personal dealings, such as the secret moving of boundary markers (Deut. 19:14). While this verse does support the concept of personal property rights and ownership, it also upholds the principle that God ultimately owns all things and we are merely the stewards of these things during our lifetimes. Whenever we are tempted to take ownership or praise for anything that is not rightfully ours, we are dealing with an eighth command issue.

Ninth Commandment

“You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor.”

Stated Positively: Value and promote truth, especially within interpersonal relationships.

Focus: Stopping the use of malicious non-truth telling against others.

The ninth commandment is often used in supposed “ethical dilemma” conversations. Generally, these revolve around the question of whether believers are allowed to lie in a situation that would protect others, such as during the Holocaust. These types of discussions can get people into ethical knots where the only solution is to propose that some sins are worse than others or that ethics have a situational aspect to them. This displays a misunderstanding of this command, however. The language of the command prohibits false witness or testimony, not the use of untruth in all situations. Bearing false witness relates to legal and social situations. It is the use of untruth to hurt another person. Therefore, what is actually prohibited by the ninth command are sins such as libel, slander, gossip, and perjury, to use a broad term, malicious, non-truth telling. This understanding not only gives us peace and freedom from the moral dilemma of, say, hiding a gift from someone until they can open it or deceiving someone while engaged in games and sports. It also displays the robust nature of God’s law itself. Believers do not have to live life like they are in an ethical catch-22 where it is impossible to follow one command in the face of another command. 

Tenth Commandment

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house…wife…servant…or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Stated Positively: Be content with all that God has blessed you with.

Focus: Proper internal motives so as not to commit the external sins of the rest of the Law.

Much like the First Commandment could be cited as the ultimate command for all people, the Tenth Commandment bolsters believers against the first step in committing the sins prohibited in commands 5-9. It is when we lose contentment and begin to covet others that we are motivated to act out in anger, theft, lust, and other actions. Jesus taught this very concept in the Sermon on the Mount when he stated that lust and hate in one’s heart were the same as adultery and murder acted out. One gives birth to the other. The tenth command even mentions the areas of property, sex, and power/status but talks about not coveting house, wife, servants, and herds of animals. When we begin to sinfully desire someone else’s goods, gifts, or positions, we are more likely to lie, cheat, and steal to obtain them. This makes the Tenth Commandment probably the hardest to keep for believers then. The fear of getting caught and punished is often enough to keep us from acting out our worst thoughts and desires, but we still struggle with those thoughts and desires. This covers any laws that deal with the motivations or attitudes of those who would follow God. 

Hopefully, the concept of looking at both the Prohibitive and Protective aspects of God’s law will open it up to you in a way that you have not experienced before. It can provide clarity and a path to follow from any moral precept back to God’s boiled-down character, as seen in the Ten Commandments. Thankfully, as Christians, we trust in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection as our source of God’s saving grace in our lives. Understanding this helps give us the freedom to pursue God’s morality from a place of victory and power. God is not an arbitrary task master when it comes to His ethics and morality. With just a little thought, you can trace everything back to this simple list.