The Deeper Meaning of The Ten Commandments

I generally write a piece when the Ten Commandments come around in the Sunday lectionary, but got behind this time so am catching up a few days late.  Although much has been said about restoring them to the classroom and court house, it would be a hypocritical waste.  Two fake tablets with ten Roman numerals say nothing. 

One cannot take pride in simply seeing them posted, not even in church; neither can they be limited to a plain reading.  That’s not their intent.  It’s the full spirit of the law that counts, and that’s both simpler and deeper than their plain reading would suggest.  It’s simpler because the ten come down to just three basic commandments: honor and love God; live with integrity in every relationship; the sabbath is for your benefit, take it.  They’re deeper because their words probe into the darkest corners of our words and deeds.

The first set of commandments are clear: God wants to live in a loving relationship with us, and there is no room for other gods.  Why God should love us is a holy mystery to be gratefully accepted, not solved.  We should love God, if for no other reason than God is the source of life itself, and desires that we have it in abundance. 

To honor father and mother is to honor the legacy of our ancestors who have bequeathed to us the knowledge of God and set an example of what faith means.  To honor it means to know it.  The story of our faith is the foundation on which we are to build, as we are able, for the generations that will follow us.

Murder is an extreme act of violence, but lesser words and deeds can kill parts of the soul that only God can restore to life.  The cruelty we inflict on one another from generation to generation can be a form of murder, a little bit at a time. 

The common meaning of adultery is to cheat on one’s spouse.  Adultery also means to corrupt the integrity of a product or relationship.  Any word or deed that violates trust is a form of adultery.  Adulterated foods and medicines grab headlines.  So does deliberate environmental pollution.  But perhaps the most common form of adultery is malicious gossip that undermines good names and reputations of family and friends who trusted us.  

The law says stealing is a crime.  In subtler ways the law says nothing about, words and deeds can appropriate for one’s use that to which they have no right.  Cheating and plagiarism by students is one obvious example that gets repeated ad nauseam by adults in their work and social life.  Comedic images of crooked used car salesmen are caricatures of ordinary people, in ordinary life, stealing from each other. 

Bearing false witness, like adultery, betrays trust.  It’s more than saying something about another you know is untrue, it’s about saying anything with intent to hurt, or about which the truth is speculative but potentially embarrassing, humiliating.

One definition of covet is to excessively and culpably crave what another has.  It’s equally coveting to excessively and culpably crave that another not have what you have.  Coveting exists where the rule of scarcity dominates life.  If there is only so much of the good stuff to go around, it’s a competitive scramble to get as much as one can, and keep others from getting what could be yours.  It’s part of what has made systemic racism so hard to recognize and correct.  Coveting is incompatible with Jesus’ way of love, and the life of abundance he desires us to live into. 

If the deeper meaning of the Ten Commandments is too much, just work on loving God, loving your neighbor, loving yourself, and loving each other as Jesus loves us.  You won’t go far wrong.