The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Luke W. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Research on the Ten Commandments
The Decalogue is both vertical and horizontal: it teaches us how to relate to God and how to live with people.
We are commanded to have no other Gods before Him. God pre-existed all of creation. We should have no others Gods before Him because there were no Gods before Him; He is the beginning and the end.
God tells us to have no idols. Idolatry is the source of sustained sin. Pauline epistles frequently use the metaphor of the race or the games. The games of that day were played before the emperor and there was an idea, almost a belief, that as the athletes competed they were proclaiming the emperor to be God. The way we live our life as a Christian should declare our God to be the one true God who was made manifest in the personage of Jesus Christ. When we have patterns in our life that are sin we are proclaiming an idol to be God; the worship of God cannot result in sin. In the same way just as God pre-existed everything, He is the one source of meaning and truth. Since idolatry praises something other than Him it is mere foolishness.
Verse seven of Exodus, chapter 20 teaches us to not misuse God's name for the "LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name." We fear God because He is holy and His name is above every other name. Idols are dumb; His name carries the power. To misuse His name is to mock the essence of God.
Finally, (for the vertical commands) we are to keep the Sabbath. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:5). This simply means that He is our Rest. Keeping the Sabbath for the Jew looked forward to the Messiah; what they saw in part we had revealed.
The final six commands deal with our relations to people on Earth.
We are to honor our mother and father. The verse concludes saying "so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you" (Exodus 20:12). It could be that this promise is frequently misinterpreted. Joshua set up standing stones to remind the following generations of where the priests had carried the Ark of the Covenant (Joshua 4:9). As long as the Israelites would obey God they could stay in the land that God had given them. Putting these two things together, perhaps they are being instructed to remember the stories given to them by their father and mother so that they will not sin and fall away from God. It is a command, maybe, to remember the faithfulness of God; He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We should not murder. Man is in the imago dei; killing him violates something very sacred indeed.
Adultery is forbidden. The marital relationship is brought together by God. Ripping apart what God has brought together is wrong.
Stealing takes that which God has given to somebody else; it is also not of God.
We also are commanded to not bear false witness. If Jesus was the truth and He dwells in us should we utter lies?
Finally we are not to covet. God knows when the sparrow falls and He will provide what we need – physically and emotionally.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus answered saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). In the answer He pulls together the vertical and horizontal dimension of living; He is the God who provides unity and coherence to all.
