And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
God promises to show mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments, joining love and obedience as one inseparable condition. That mercy stands in contrast to visiting the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, giving life to the obedient and death to the disobedient, and it reaches to thousands of generations far outreaching judgment limited to the third and fourth. The promise belongs to the moral law spoken by God Himself at Sinai amid awful majesty and glory, which expresses His own holy, just, good, eternal and unchangeable character and remains the binding standard of righteousness and judgment for all people until the close of time. Loving God means supreme, undivided affection proved by willing, complete obedience to all ten, with the first four defining duty to the Maker and the last six duty to fellow humans summed in loving God supremely and neighbor as self. That obedience does not earn salvation but is the fruit of faith, for Christ kept every commandment in humanity, revealed its far-reaching claims, and as Mediator and Pardoner gives power to share the divine nature and live it, so mercy does not cancel the law.
Promise and Its Contrast
The promise is that mercy is shown to thousands of those who love God and keep His commandments, with love and obedience joined together as one condition for receiving it. Loving Him is joined with obedience to His requirements, so that those who keep His commandments have assurance of a place in the kingdom of glory, and the commandment belongs to His law which expresses His character and sets out His requirements for all mankind. That mercy stands in direct contrast to visiting the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, setting mercy toward the faithful alongside warning of judgment and punishment upon persistent wrongdoing. The warning belongs within the commandment against making and worshiping idols, with love and obedience set against the consequences described for haters, and the Sabbath commandment as part of the commandments given at Sinai whose blessing and holiness rest on creation and rest on the seventh day.
The mercy reaches to thousands of generations and across generations to those who love Him and keep His commandments, far outreaching consequences that are limited to the third and fourth generation. The preceding verse gives the conditions for this promise, with continuing mercy connected to loving Him and keeping His commandments, and the heart's inclinations made right when restrained by His precepts while haters face the consequences of iniquity. Its setting in the law given at Sinai connects divine blessing with obedience, yet disregarding that law and allowing open violations to go unrebuked hinders the blessing of heaven upon the people. God means exactly what He says in promising mercy, as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, and who repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them without slackness. That mercy belongs to those who love God supremely and keep all ten, both the first four toward God and the last six toward neighbor, with love for God shown in love for the people for whom Christ died and with obedience as evidence of genuine knowledge of God unto eternal life.
The promised mercy means life to the obedient, while disobedience means death, for the holy precepts were spoken from Sinai with God's own voice and written with His finger upon tables of stone, standing alone in distinct and awful significance of supreme importance as a transcript of His character. Obedience brings a bountiful harvest in that mercy extends to children and grandchildren through the third and fourth generations, a principle that remains in force, and God loves and honors obedience as He did when He gave the law at Sinai. He manifests great mercy and unlimited love toward people who serve Him through obedience to His law, and the promise underscores the blessing attached to loving obedience against the plain warning of the commandment against images as a warning against idolatry. Faithfulness to Him is met with a far-reaching promise of mercy that implies worship of the true God, within the law's binding claims as His standard of action requiring obedience, and though He bears long with transgression His authority and the just claims of His binding law will finally be acknowledged. From Sinai He declares that He is a jealous God, requiring willing sacrifice and accepting no partial obedience, no divided interest, and no making of His commandments a matter of convenience, so that to use the Sabbath occasionally for secular business is as ruthless a violation as to reject it entirely.
Sinai Giving and Setting
The verse belongs to the instruction given to Moses in the mount, standing with Exodus 19-24, which is to be studied and presented now as much as it was needed by Israel in the days of Moses. Its laws were written in a book to guard against injustice and to guide dealings with one another. The Teacher who gave it on Sinai is Christ, who afterward spoke in human flesh.
It was spoken by God himself at Sinai and Horeb with his own voice to Israel, as Ruler of the world making known majesty and authority. The utterance came in awful grandeur, majesty, power and glory amid trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, cloud, tempest, thick darkness, smoke as of a furnace, fire as devouring fire, earthquake and trembling mountain. The power and glory with which it was given reveal its importance, impressing the people with the sacredness of the law and the importance of obeying it and inspiring confidence in him. It is part of the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai. God delivered Israel from Egypt so they could keep this law, which had been given in Eden.
Its place in that proclamation shows the sacred importance of God's law and the importance of obeying it. The solemn display of divine power and majesty also reveals God as a God of love. The law containing the verse expresses God's goodness and holiness by making known what the Creator expects from his creatures.
At the proclamation the people were overwhelmed with terror, stood afar off, trembled as they recognized their transgression, and entreated Moses to speak with them lest they die. They did not understand that Christ was their appointed mediator, without whose mediation they would have been consumed. They also had little understanding of pardon through Christ, the promised Messiah whom their offerings typified.
The law was engraved by God's own finger on tables of stone because men were prone to forget and could not be trusted to keep it in memory. It was written to remove all possibility of mingling heathen traditions with its holy precepts or confounding its requirements with human ordinances, practices or customs. Its far-reaching principles were amplified in the judgments and Mosaic laws written by Moses from the mouth of God while with him in the mount, giving minute directions about duty to God, to one another and to the stranger so none need err. Had its principles been practiced there would have been no need for those additional directions, no need for its proclamation from Sinai or engraving on stone, no seduction into idolatry, no bondage in Egypt, and no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision.
The law already existed and was not new at Sinai. It was first given in Eden, given to Adam after the fall, taught to Adam and Eve and passed down through faithful generations, preserved in the ark by Noah, and observed by Abraham. It was lost sight of during Israel's years of bondage, when many mixed its precepts with heathen customs and confused it with idolatry, and was proclaimed again after deliverance from Egypt and the dividing of the Red Sea. God came down upon Sinai enshrouded in glory and surrounded by angels and spoke the law with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people, trusting its teaching to no one else, not even angels, to leave them without excuse.
Israel was taken into covenant with the Lord as a peculiar treasure and holy nation to be united with a holy God, called to make known the principles of his government in heaven and earth to every nation, kindred and tongue. The ten were by no means given exclusively to Israel to be confined to them, but the Hebrews were made depositaries of the law to be handed down, and their history was written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Its commandments were the terms of Israel's solemn covenant, binding them to obey all that God commanded.
Israel prepared to hear it with washing of clothes, showing that cleanliness and order were required and impressing God's purity and his care for physical as well as moral well-being. While Moses received the commandments the people should have meditated on them and taught them to their children, and failure showed unfaithfulness to the relationship in which God could fulfill his covenant. The sacred ark contained the law but was not itself God, and possessing it did not secure prosperity apart from obedience, for God sent prosperity or adversity according to whether his law was obeyed or transgressed. Obedience to the commandments was tied to Israel's prosperity. The ark containing the tablets was later hidden because of sins.
The verse was spoken by God himself and written by his own hand, of divine and not human composition, distinct from the rest of the Bible in which God-given truths are expressed in the words of men, presenting a union of the divine and the human. Father and Son were present together on Sinai's holy mount. Written revelation began in the time of Moses after twenty-five hundred years of human history with no written revelation, when those taught of God handed down knowledge orally from father to son, and Moses as historian of creation and the law embodied inspired revelations in an inspired book at the start of a work continuing sixteen hundred years to John the recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.
The law was proclaimed by Christ himself at Sinai as Creator, veiled in the cloudy pillar, who made the law and knew every part and principle. It was proclaimed on Sinai by Christ's own voice, and the same clear ringing voice was later heard in the temple at Jerusalem during Israel's wilderness journeyings as direct communication from heaven. Its place in that law shows the importance of God's commandments for all ages and its changeless, eternal binding claims are to be set forth clearly before large congregations and rulers and subjects, bringing hearers as it were to the foot of Sinai, awakening duty and converting the soul.
Israel violated the commandments only a few weeks after hearing them in solemn covenant promise, demanding other gods and making the golden calf when Aaron proclaimed a feast, despite God's continued presence and care. That making and worshiping directly violated the commandments against other gods and idols recently expressly given and therefore known. The people broke the law in sight of Sinai and later in Canaan until scattering by enemies, yet mercy remained open with calls, warnings, prophets and finally his Son.
God gave Israel the commandments with spiritual and temporal advantages as a protection setting them apart from surrounding nations, on condition for fulfillment of promises. Obedience was meant to be their life and to make them an example of true righteousness and a model demonstrating the benefits of heaven's principles, including health, prosperity, honor and exaltation. Blessings were to follow obedience and curses disregard, as repeated by Joshua with Moses' statutes and precepts. Israel's later laxness and violation brought God's displeasure and punishment after great deliverances and privileges, culminating in rejection of Jesus, the greatest gift given them.
Nature of Enduring Law
Exodus 20:6 belongs to the law that reveals God's will and the principles of His government, the standard by which people are judged where obedience to its perfect and righteous principles determines a sentence of life or death. That law proclaimed at Sinai exposes whether people have served God faithfully, condemning those who set aside its precepts and lead others to transgress. Its precepts are revealed plainly to all as the expression of His righteousness and the rule of judgment, showing faithfulness or transgression.
The verse belongs to God's law which expresses His character, is a transcript of His character, holy, just and good, eternal, unchangeable and perpetual as God Himself. It is the binding moral standard of righteousness in heaven and earth and the standard of character and judgment, given at Sinai in solemn grandeur when God spoke its precepts and engraved them with His own finger on stone. Given in Eden and given again at Sinai to be made known to every nation, it reveals the eternal, unchangeable character to all inhabitants of earth, and laying hold of it brings safety, true greatness, healthy spiritual experience, and experimental knowledge of Him as heart and mind harmonize with God to understand divine requirements. The ten are God's great moral standard and foundation of prophets and apostles, the ten precepts and moral law proclaimed by God at Sinai, His law for His household on earth, His constitution and government requiring loyalty so that breaking them is rebellion. They are not left for man to trim to ideas or convenience, but subjects must bring themselves into subjection to the law rather than bring it into subjection to themselves, with the first four concerning duty to God and the last six duty to others summed in love for God and neighbor. Knowingly setting the will against its binding commands is transgression, and God means exactly what He says in promising mercy while repaying haters, blessing obedience including the seventh-day Sabbath and refusing any interpretation making disobedience trifling.
The law of ten commandments is separate from laws regulating sacrifices and offerings which ceased at Christ's death when type met antitype, while the ten did not die with Him and remain binding under the gospel in spirit as well as letter. Satan, failing to hinder salvation fulfilled when Jesus was crucified and rose the third day, seeks to make even crucifixion and resurrection serve his advantage by leading professing believers first to believe sacrificial laws ended and then to believe the ten also died. This moral law expresses God's enduring claims, binds all people in every age unchanged through time and eternity, with related precepts explaining and guarding the Ten as living faith rather than dead formalism, not ceremonial types that ended. The Ten remain binding and enduring for all mankind after Christ, as Paul kept them in letter and spirit, so widespread transgression does not lessen guilt. Obedience is necessary for health, truth, happiness and heaven, and treating them as no longer binding excuses theft, perjury and other wrongdoing under Christianity and removes moral responsibility giving license to sin, since its requirements are not arbitrary or severe.
The law proclaimed at Sinai is obligatory for all people until the close of time, keeping it is not optional or dependent on convenience. God requires willing sacrifice with no partial obedience or divided interest acceptable, and these words remain binding though spoken long ago to Abraham's descendants, with mercy contrasting judgment on haters. God does not lower or alter it to accommodate weakness and sin since Christ died because it could not be changed, but in love gave His Son who lived the law in humanity to bring power to overcome sin and share divine nature in obedience, the same demands of love and obedience remaining terms of eternal life and standard of character not lowered in the gospel. The commandments are a righteous moral code finite people cannot improve, so no commandment can be discarded and tampering is rebellion against His authority, true religion yielding the will in reverent obedience. Satan in heaven sought a flaw to argue for change, deceived thousands of angels, was cast out unchanged in one jot, yet the law was not changed in one jot or tittle; God is wise and unchangeable, and those flattering themselves they can find a safer rule than God gave are deceived by the same delusions that led angels to join Lucifer in questioning authority and justice, while Christ will not countermand His statutes and breakers teaching others to break follow another leader not Jesus who kept His Father's commandments as pattern.
God's rule for conduct is plainly defined so no one need mistake it, and the commandments plainly set out what people must and must not do, to be respected by children through obedience. Sin is transgression of this law, and knowingly setting the will against it, turning from known truth, or professing faith without doing it brings guilt, darkness and sure punishment with no excuse. Knowingly transgressing after learning of Christ's sacrifice is grave sin, and to know truth then turn denying Christ and refusing obedience to first four toward God and last six toward man including the Sabbath places one under the prince of darkness. Profession of lip without obedience bears evil fruit, for not everyone saying Lord, Lord enters heaven but he that does the Father's will; hearing and doing builds on rock while hearing without doing builds on sand to great fall, and mighty workers of iniquity will be told I never knew you. The law is God's authoritative standard from creation, remaining binding so that at Christ's coming every person faces its judgment including those who taught it was no longer binding. It is the same law from the beginning taught by Christ with no change whose far-reaching principles remain the standard when judgment sits and books are opened, foundation of the new covenant where truth, holiness and perfection are attainable, the law the tree and gospel its blossoms and fruit, Jesus as Head fulfilling all righteousness to show man can meet every specification through grace so none need miss heaven and keeping makes the path easier, magnifying the law.
The ten commandments written by Jehovah's finger on two stone tables are kept in the ark in the heavenly most holy place, where Jesus entered in 1844 after shutting the holy place door. Enemies of present truth try to reverse this by opening the holy door Jesus shut and closing the most holy door Jesus opened. The verse is one of the ten precepts spoken by Jehovah amid trumpet, thunder, lightning and glory as the mirror revealing man's condition and rule showing sin's offensiveness. Spoken from Sinai's summit in trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, cloud, tempest, thick darkness and devouring fire when Israel was taken into covenant as peculiar treasure and holy nation to be united with a holy God, its utterances overwhelmed Israel with terror so they stood afar off entreating Moses to speak lest they die, revealing guilt before a pure holy God. It is part of the Ten represented alongside Christ's declaration that He did not come to destroy the law or prophets.
The verse belongs to the law spoken from Sinai whose principles are to be held firmly, to be kept before old and young till the close of time. God Himself came down on Sinai to speak with a voice making the mountain tremble to its base, and the lesson of mercy taught to Israel abiding there was not to be lost till the close of time, youth amid nature and everlasting hills learning lessons for education, character formation, and continual deepening interest as constant students. It is to be set forth clearly before congregations and rulers as at Sinai's foot to awaken duty and convert souls, changeless and eternal as Jehovah's throne with binding claims, its solemn repetition impressing many, making sinners tremble, awakening duty, proving perfect in converting the soul, showing all work in harmony either with the Lord or the great rebel. It is to be taught to children from principle not compulsion, plainly stating what God requires and forbids, recapitulated as Moses recapitulated it and connected with importance of obedience, without letting differences over diet become barrier between brethren. The commandments' lessons record sacred principles of morality, justice, reverence for God and respect for man made in God's image, as a lesson for God's people now to read and understand, giving holy principles governing dealings, communicated direct from heaven during wilderness journeyings.
God's law is binding upon every soul and is not done away when people refuse to obey it, remaining plain and decided, Thou shalt and Thou shalt not. Those who love God and keep them through Christ's merits, hanging helpless souls upon Christ, come into harmony with heaven and receive mercy, while those refusing the yoke, pulling away the shoulder and stopping ears to His word, work with the evil one. The verse is part of God's enduring law to be studied and obeyed as a condition of salvation, and Christ's death proves the law could not be abolished. Treating the Decalogue as dead letter hides justice and the distinction between good and evil, for its requirements are holy law. The verse belongs to the law that reveals God's character and founds His government, but having it on stone does not profit unless truth enters the heart and enlightens the mind. Disobedience shows disregard for requirements, and sin begins in the heart where even small transgression is measured by God's righteousness. The verse belongs to the Ten that express God's character, and obedience is required not merely to display His authority but to enable becoming one with Him in character and forming like characters, His mercy toward lovers and keepers working that oneness.
Love Joined to Obedience
Loving God is joined with obedience to his requirements, and willing complete obedience proves that love rather than partial or convenient compliance, in contrast to the punishment of those who hate him, with assurance of a place in the kingdom of glory and standing faithfully before him in the final review. God requires willing sacrifice and accepts no partial obedience and no divided interest, and his commandments are not matters of convenience, so to use the Sabbath occasionally for secular business violates the law as surely as outright rejection. He accepts no partial obedience, no divided interest, and no compromise to secure petty temporal interests, but requires full obedience, giving six days for work and the usual business of life while claiming the one day he blessed and sanctified as a day of rest from labor and worship of the Maker.
Love for God is expressed through obedience to his holy law, the heart's inclinations are right when restrained by his precepts, and keeping them restores the moral image by keeping souls in touch with the Creator, requiring obedience to the first four and the last six with all business done according to the commandments, for the commandments are life. Mercy is given to those who love God where love means undivided affection, and the first four commandments require worshipers of the true God to sacrifice every idol and let nothing share supreme delight in him, allowing no separation of the affections, for loving the Lord with all heart, soul and strength is the first and great commandment. The verse belongs to first-table duties toward God defining duty to the Maker to love and obey with heart, mind, soul and strength, part of the Decalogue as God's moral code engraved on two stone tablets whose foundational principles cover duty to God and neighbor.
Loving God under the first four means supreme undivided affection where whatever divides the affections and takes away supreme love assumes an idol's form that must be sacrificed and put away to advance, since idols separate from God and hinder progress, drawing his chosen separated people away from worldly pleasures and friendship and requiring trust in God alone and pressing on in obedience. Loving God means serving with all heart, soul, mind and strength with fervent intense love cherishing nothing in rivalry, putting everything secondary to his glory with the Father cherished as first, the joy and prosperity and light and sufficiency of life and portion forever, making his sacred principles the rule of daily life and being willing to suffer any inconvenience rather than break one commandment, for obedience pleases him more than mere profession and without love profession is hypocrisy. That first-table reference shows Massachusetts law authorized magistrates to punish outward violations of these religious commandments, while Roger Williams denied their jurisdiction over religious matters, and keeping the first four makes people one with Christ who gave his life to redeem humanity from sin and make them free in him.
The first four show duty to the Maker and supreme love and loyalty expressed in faithfulness leading to love for neighbor, while the last six set out obligations to fellow humans, and the promise is applied through faithful obedience that does not neglect duties to others, so professed keepers must not use God's time and resources for needless display rather than serving others, which fails to love neighbor as self. Love means loving God supremely and neighbor as self, summed in the two great principles on which all the law and the prophets hang, requiring implicit obedience to every one of the ten precepts and not to nine-tenths, for they are like links of a chain where violation of one makes a breaker while willing obedience to all makes true keepers, demanding continuous unswerving wholehearted obedience. Loving God supremely in the first four goes with loving neighbor as self in the last six, the two springing from one root and inseparable, so the first cannot be kept while the second is broken nor the second while the first is broken, and keeping the first goes with being true to God and leads to being true to neighbor, ruling out living for self without regard for others' happiness.
The Decalog of ten moral precepts contains humanity's whole duty with the first four defining duty to God and the last six duty to others, the whole resting on love for God and love for others, and mercy is given to those who love God and keep all ten, requiring self-examination, righting wrongs, restitution in deed and cleansing of defilement, bringing reward even in this life including clear conscience and peace, fitting saints to serve God in heaven and see his face, from which there can be no sinless swerving. Keeping the first four toward God leads to keeping the last six toward fellow men, manifesting tender pitying love to all for whom Christ died and consecrating the soul as a missionary laborer together with God, a co-worker carrying out his will toward others not only to those who think and believe the same, as illustrated by the parable of the good Samaritan. The first four are not of far greater importance than the last six nor does keeping the last six exalt them above the first, for neglecting the last six fails in practical godliness and relations and duties of life, while keeping them requires good works and deeds of mercy and benevolence with character known by fruits.
Loving God cannot be separated from loving neighbor, so attachment to riches withholding help from the needy fails both duties, including the duty to make special efforts to repair as far as possible the lasting harm caused by slavery even for those who did not personally enforce it. Supreme love for riches and earthly possessions makes full love impossible and shuts the eyes to wants, so a treasure-set heart fails the first four requiring whole heart, soul and mind and also fails the last six hanging on neighbor love. The ten sum to loving the Lord with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self, which gives eternal life, and they are principles of righteousness to be the rule of action which Satan leads the world to counter.
Loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self is keeping the commandments, all to be observed without turning aside with none spared as nonessential, to keep them is to fear God and serve with all heart and soul, obedience meaning life and prolonged days and disobedience death, and parents must teach them diligently when sitting, walking, lying down and rising. Keeping means more than agreeing or teaching theory, requiring pure principles cherished and obeyed from the heart with purity, supreme love and conscientious surrender of every habit, practice and sin closing the door to Jesus, demonstrated by living them out with care for others and leading them to Christ, since neglecting them is sin and can discourage others. Mercy belongs to those keeping from the heart because they love its pure principles, cherishing them with transforming power through surrender letting Christ's light search every dark corner, without which truth loses vitalizing power, sin strengthens, life is a lie, and there is no strength or efficiency as an agent for God.
Keeping requires coming to Jesus in humility and contrition whose blood cleanses glossed-over iniquity and calling sin by its right name under plain principles of heaven carrying weight that every soul must bow under, while departing from them while claiming to do heaven's will stands on ruin's brink. Loving God and keeping all his commandments gives experimental knowledge of him, for the ten engraved by Jehovah reveal his eternal unchangeable character, and only as heart and mind harmonize with God can requirements be understood and progress in learning be made. Keeping belongs to love as active principle through willing obedience to all, with first four loving supremely and last six loving neighbor as self, and love is shown and proved by keeping while failure shows his love does not dwell within despite profession, with no circumstance excusing even the least injustice and with spurious sanctification exposed when it evades what God requires and sets up self-made self-righteousness.
The verse belongs to the commandments the lawyer knew he had not kept, showing failure to live up to requirements, convicted as keeping neither first four nor last six. The ten in short form express duty to love supremely and neighbor as self, with Israel commanded to have a blue ribbon border with the law's words as reminder, and works contrary to law break them even when covered by outward devotion and sanctity. Following right principle means faithfully doing all ten in contrast to false ideas of principle, and obedience to these divine commands is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, appropriating all embraced in the atonement on Calvary, with power to become sons of God full of grace and truth for those receiving Christ.
Blessing Across Generations
God gives mercy, favor, happiness and prosperity to those who love him and keep his commandments, and that love is shown by making those sacred principles the rule of daily life and by willingness to suffer any inconvenience rather than break one commandment. Obedience pleases him more than mere professions of loyalty or words of praise, and without the exercise of love the highest profession is mere hypocrisy. Keeping every jot and tittle is essential to personal happiness and to the happiness of all connected, and obedience is the only safety for individuals and for nations, because the whole world will be judged by this law which demands perfect obedience and purity even in the most secret thoughts, desires and dispositions.
Obedience brings blessings, while disobedience brings danger and unhappiness, for the commands are not arbitrary. Obedience to the law brings safety and true greatness, for the law is God's character and the standard of obedience. Obedience to God's law is necessary for health, truth and happiness, and the path of obedience leads to heaven, for the Ten are not abolished. Obedience was tied to Israel's prosperity, for the law was proclaimed by God at Sinai and not devised by a human mind or enacted by Moses. God sent prosperity or adversity according to whether his law kept in the ark was obeyed or transgressed.
Keeping God's commandments brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God, for true obedience is faith working by love purifying the soul and giving God whole service rather than mere assent or ceremonial worship. Those who obey and remain connected to God receive his blessing, for his laws are wise, just and good as from a loving Father, to be obeyed wholeheartedly and applied equally by those in authority and those under them. Obedience brings peace and prosperity and forms a people whose character and conduct show the world its beauty and moral power, while disobedience brings harmful consequences and may call forth judgment to restrain evil. Blessings follow obedience and curses follow disregard, as when Joshua repeated the law with Moses' statutes and precepts. Obedience brings blessing while disobedience brings judgment, as shown by the flood as the consequence of refusing heaven's commands.
Disobedience has a definite annexed penalty and punishment surely follows transgression, proved by plain recorded cases. The Sinai law continues the pattern of the law given in Eden with its stated penalty, where the temptation, fall and punishment of Adam and Eve warn against disobedience and show that the wages of sin is death and that retributive justice never fails. The words spoken from Sinai are conditions of life, where obeying restores free access to the tree of life forfeited by disobedience, and transgression made Christ's death necessary to reconcile fallen humanity. Obedience to the principles of duty to God and to one another is good and gives life, and keeping them would have made further specific directions unnecessary. Because men were prone to forget and transgress, God guarded the ten with simplified definite directions in judgments and statutes written by Moses so none need err, while transgression of the law spoken in unapproachable majesty shows open contempt of the Lawgiver and brings death, and penalties annexed for continual disobedience whereby the rebel should not live were inflicted to restrain others by fear that the obedient may live.
The commandments are an expression of mercy whose prohibitions protect the obedient from evils caused by transgression and secure happiness. Received in Christ the law works purity of character and lasting joy, and its unchanging principles of righteousness reveal God's goodness. God's laws are not arbitrary demands, for even a prohibition carries or implies a promise and obedience brings blessing. His laws are meant to draw his people closer to him and lead them from evil to good, though he does not force them. The promise shows what God is like, slow to anger and full of loving forbearance, tender pity and infinite compassion. It is just like his character to bear long with perverse and disobedient people who abuse his mercies and misrepresent him yet let them live, reaching thousands who love and keep, against the false charge that he gave a law no one can keep and misrepresents him as unwise and ungood.
Long-suffering with disobedience keeps his promise of mercy to thousands who love and keep, even while people abuse mercies and bear false witness in wicked statements. God deals patiently and tenderly giving opportunity to repent, but forbearance does not excuse persistent disobedience, and when people continue to reject his law judgment follows. He patiently bears seeing his holy commandments insulted, but the wicked will be punished for defying their just claims. Knowingly breaking a commandment undermines trust in his promises, for love and obedience belong together, while seeking to overcome and submitting the will gives the privilege of relying on his loving-kindness. The Ten are promises assured to those who obey, connecting love with keeping and presenting obedience as condition of salvation and eternal life.
Mercy and future eternal reward are given to those who love and keep, counted as the first four and the last six, where keeping means unselfish fidelity and pure devotion in using entrusted talents to his glory with reward in proportion to faithful zeal. The careless, indolent and selfish who seek exaltation above God's honor do not keep and cannot be rewarded as the devoted, for every life is accurately recorded and each is rewarded according as works have been. God means exactly what he says as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love and keep, and repays haters to their face to destroy them without slackness. Obedience including keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and refusing any interpretation making disobedience trifling brings blessing, prosperity, clear spiritual perception, light, grace and enjoyment of infinite love, while walking contrary to plain requirements turns light to darkness. For Christ's sake God looks upon as righteous only those respecting his commandments, and those obeying through faith having returned to loyalty are assured they are sons and daughters, members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
Those who love and keep in wholehearted obedience are written as commandment-keepers wearing the God-given seal, made plainly distinct from breakers, and will receive eternal life, for the promised obedience reaches to eternity. Mercy belongs to those loving supremely and keeping, where loving with whole heart, mind and strength and loving neighbor as self performs the law's principles in the first four toward God and last six toward neighbor, and this love and service in connection with the human family is the test making saints fit to serve in heaven and see his face. Obedience is evidence of genuine knowledge of God, shown in love for those for whom Christ died, and those obeying these two principles of love to God and love to others are promised eternal life. The demands of love and obedience remain the same in the gospel without lowered standard of character, as terms of eternal life. God pledges to be guardian of those who love and keep, and they must worship no other god. He will care for and fulfill his word to those remaining obedient amid coercion, including the coming test over his law and pressure from unions.
God gave the ten to be observed on earth as in a lower school to qualify for the higher grade in heaven. Keeping fashions character in divine likeness exemplifying Christ on earth as pure, holy and undefiled with Christ formed within, makes partakers of divine nature escaping corruption through lust, and gives unbelievers true revelation of God's character showing what members of the Lord's family in heaven are to be. Only those whose garments of character are freed from every spot and wrinkle and cleansed from defilement will as redeemed enter through gates into the city and eat of the tree of life for healing of nations. Forgiveness does not deliver penitent believers hanging helpless souls upon him from consequence, for consequence is transmitted by precept and example to children and children's children to the third and fourth generation proportionate to perversion, as when users of liquor and tobacco feel results of indulgence. Men and women transmit character for good or evil to children and children's children, and words and actions mold them for this life and the life to come with all receiving according to works.
When children are not diligently instructed to keep the way, the enemy occupies thoughts, God is forgotten, the deceiver controls the heart, and Satan stamps his image and principles upon hearts not taught to obey, so by parental evildoing curses are prepared for future generations. Parents who withhold what God requires teach children to disregard him, and that example may continue through descendants, while mercy is promised to those loving and keeping. Each must resist inherited and personal wrong habits and imitate the divine Pattern, for character tendencies pass from parents to children. Repeated violations bring inherited suffering and human decline across generations. Parents must teach diligently at all times and help children obey from principle rather than compulsion, for the commandments plainly state what is required and forbidden. The law is to be read and understood with words displayed where seen to impress hearts and minds, and kept in plain sight in every home after God's patient preparation of Israel. Universal obedience by parents and children would stop theft, robbery, murder and filling of jails, for to love God and keep is the whole duty of man taught when rising, sitting, going out and coming in.
Obedience to God's laws preserves from results of transgression and brings health, happiness, peace and joy, for the ten are a protective hedge, and familiarity with his word enables the character required. The divine law includes laws governing physical nature and the body of the same divine origin and character, inscribed throughout the body and written into human nature. The laws of nature governing the physical organism are laws of God just as truly and fully divine as the precepts, the foundation for teaching physiology and hygiene. Keeping those laws brings the body into harmony with design and supports health, and God pledges to preserve organs in health when laws implanted in nature are obeyed, for health requires harmony with his law. Breaking that law is sin just as violating bodily laws is sin, because neither can be broken without breaking God's law. Violating physical laws carelessly or willfully is sin against the Creator, for the Decalogue is as truly divine as bodily laws.
God gives warning before punishing and in love and pity makes law and penalties clear for highest good, yet violating natural law through harmful appetites and passions also violates God's law, which health reform brings to light. Violating God's law including natural laws brings suffering and disease, while health reform makes violation plain and calls to obedience. Transgressors lightly regarding the ten will be punished at the Lord's coming but not without a warning message, for indulging depraved appetites and lustful passions violates God's law, and health reform as light showing sinfulness of breaking laws established in man is one branch fitting a people for his coming, connected with the third angel's message as hand to body. Obedience to principles of that law connects with obedience to natural law, where violating natural law through appetite and passion also violates God's law and brings suffering and disease, proclaimed as warning and guidance for harmony with natural law.
Continually breaking nature's laws is breaking God's law, and obedience to principles would have prevented the widespread curse of disease. God did not create the race feeble, and suffering and premature death are not his appointed lot or Providence but result of wrong habits violating laws made to govern life. Had men always obeyed the ten carrying out principles of those precepts in life, the curse of disease now flooding the world would not exist. Though people insulted God through harmful habits his love remains extended, giving light that obedience to natural law is necessary for perfect life. Obedience to the ten as principles of righteousness safeguarding against wrong habits, together with obedience to physical laws, brings blessing to soul and body. Violating health laws is also breaking God's law just as breaking the ten is. Practices destroying physical, mental or spiritual energies are sin, while obedience to divine precepts connects with health restored or preserved. The ten as moral law place obligation first to God then to self and neighbor, where the second table comprehended in love for neighbor as self presupposes self-love involving self-protection. To injure constitution or health is sinful because God is as truly Author of physical as of moral law, so violating life and health transgresses and sins against God as truly as breaking the ten, and transgressors find the way hard.
Loving appetite and taste more than God is incompatible with loving with whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and violating bodily laws is as much breach of God's law as breaking one of the ten. God shows mercy to thousands loving and keeping by pardoning those who repent, become Christlike, clear the track, remove stumbling blocks from wife and children, redeem the past and make full restitution as far as in power including just support and mercy in family duty. Those refusing to repent and make restitution remain under controversy, face judgments not long delayed, have names blotted from the book of life, and will never see the kingdom.
Christ Gospel and Salvation
Christ knew the glory and full reach of the precepts and unfolded their far-reaching claims in his teaching and in the sermon on the mount, restoring them from being seen as a cold code and from human traditions, and they remain the holy, just, and good standard of righteousness while heaven and earth endure. He revealed the true character of the law spoken at Sinai, stripping away the traditions and petty rules that had obscured it and defining its principles for practical life, so the commandments must be understood in truth and purity and not reduced to technicalities. Christ kept every commandment in human nature with perfect obedience, passing over the same ground where Adam fell and being tempted in all points yet without sin, proving that obedience is possible and vindicating God's justice in requiring it and his right to pardon transgression. He is the living representative of perfect obedience to the eternal word proclaimed by his own voice on Sinai as Creator, and had he failed on one point Satan would have been victorious, while Satan's earlier effort to find a flaw in the law to argue for its change failed, deceived thousands of angels, and ended in his expulsion without the law being changed in one jot. The law given in great love to order conduct and restrict man to what increases real happiness is perpetual and unchangeable as his character, and through his merits the overcomer can keep it and abide in his love as he abode in his Father's love. Righteousness is living the law as Christ lived it, for he lived it in humanity and brings power to overcome sin so that weakened sinners may share the divine nature and live in obedience, God not altering his law to accommodate failure but giving his Son in love. The ten holy precepts are the laws of his kingdom by which all are tried, no one being his own having been bought with a price, and Christ bore the penalty of sin to secure a period of probation in which opportunity is given to prove faithful in unselfish use of entrusted talents and gain everlasting life. Obedience does not earn salvation but is the fruit of faith and the test of abiding in Christ, when thoughts, purposes, and actions come into harmony with the standard that defines righteousness, and the law means the life of Christ must be revealed in human life. Faith in Christ enables seeking obedience, his perfection is imputed to cover the transgression of the repentant obedient soul, and the letter of the law showing how to walk to please God and the spirit pointing to him as the atoning sacrifice stand in perfect harmony between law and gospel. True obedience is faith working by love purifying the soul, giving God whole service rather than mere assent or ceremonial worship, with love to God supremely leading to love and compassion for others, and keeping brings reward even in this life in a clear conscience and peace with God. The law speaks condemnation to those who are not doers and has no power to save the transgressor, but the promised mercy comes through Christ as the world's Sin-bearer, Mediator, and Sin-pardoner for all who come confessing sins and accepting him as Saviour, giving power to become sons of God and receive grace for grace. That mercy does not cancel the law which he gave at Sinai and whose claims he did not lessen, for through his sacrifice God atones for transgression and enables believers to obey, so justice and grace stand together. The moral code serves as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ, and the rule of life broken by Adam, afterward proclaimed from Sinai and written by God's finger to be kept prominently before the world, means his life must be revealed in human life. Obedience to the divine commands, the first four and the last six faithfully done as right principle against false ideas of principle, is eating his flesh and drinking his blood, appropriating all embraced in the atonement made on Calvary, and those who receive him have him standing by their side with power to become sons of God full of grace and truth. God's character revealed in the ten moral precepts is also seen in the life and attributes of Christ who represents God and makes the Father known, so keeping Christ in view preserves true knowledge of that character as revealed in the commandments. Truth, holiness, and perfection of character are attainable to everyone who strives, and this is the foundation of the new covenant of the gospel, for the same law from the beginning spoken from Sinai and taught without change remains forever the great standard by which all shall be judged when judgment sits and books are opened. The law of Jehovah is the tree and the gospel the fragrant blossoms and fruit it bears, and Jesus as Head of humanity fulfilled all righteousness to show man can do the same work and meet every specification, furnishing through grace so none need miss heaven and making the path to fulfillment of all righteousness easier in keeping, thus magnifying and honoring the law. The Lord's law is perfect converting the soul, and this genuine conversion in loving God supremely under the first four and neighbor as self under the last six is man's entire duty and the gospel condition of eternal life for every member of the human family, unchangeable and eternal, where failure to love God supremely brings failure to love neighbor and neglect of either brings conviction weighing the life in the balances of the sanctuary and leaving the transgressor self-condemned. The ten are given for instruction in righteousness as a transcript of character, and to obey them is life with no excuse for transgression, for Christ came to represent the Father and exemplify keeping them, while those claiming to be God's children yet misrepresenting him by disorderly self-will set up their own will as standard, oppose his will, and transgress. The divine authority spoken from Sinai requires obedience rather than a self-made standard of righteousness, and its requirements are not evaded by claiming sanctification, for the law calls for spiritual perfection which cannot be achieved alone but is provided through Christ and union with him. Claimed sanctification that gives no heed to those words and evades what God requires is spurious, setting up self-righteousness instead of the obedience the Lawgiver requires from those who would receive mercy, whereas the moral law teaches and enforces true sanctification in a conversion preached and lived so self does not seek supremacy. The law spoken at Sinai is the moral standard by which sin and defects of character are exposed, its claims binding so that genuine conversion brings repentance for breaking it and a life of obedience grounded in love for God and faith in atoning blood. It is the standard proclaimed by Christ from Sinai to be clearly upheld as people are shown their transgression. The commandments of Exodus 20:1-17 barricade believers in warfare not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places, and doing them gives life in them.
Idolatry Sabbath and Change
Exodus 20:6 stands inside the command against making and worshiping idols and images, as part of the first two commandments that guard against idolatry because idolatry leads to sin, rebellion, and unchecked evil, joining the warning that iniquity is visited on haters with the promise of mercy to thousands who love God and keep His commandments. The second precept teaches that God alone is to be worshiped and served, forbidding worshiping Him through images and forbidding the honoring of creatures or objects made by human hands. False worship is spiritual adultery, for idolatry dishonors God, corrupts and debases the mind, and leads to sin, while true worship must rest on living faith rather than imagination. Anything that absorbs the mind as an object of undue thought and admiration can become a god placed before the Lord, and God distinguishes true heart-service from idolatry.
The second commandment forbids giving pictures or anything else the love and trust that belong to God, and forbids irreverence from the heart, requiring that keeping reach the heart and not remain outward profession. Accumulating pictures one after another in the home, spending much money on photographs, multiplying faces, and illustrating books largely with grossly false representations of angels, Christ, and all spiritual and heavenly things is becoming idolaters and a species of idolatry that displeases God. The means thus consumed should be used in missionary effort rather than in producing pictures which are not essential, and reform must be decided because these things of apparently little consequence attract the mind and eye and absorb attention at the very time when attention should be given to God. Making and accumulating pictures becomes idolatry when it draws attention away from God and uses resources that should support missionary work, and loving God and keeping His commandments means refusing to displease Him and giving Him undivided attention. This rebukes those in positions of sacred responsibility in the temple courts who weave selfishness into sacred things and use common fire in place of the sacred fire of God's own kindling, and the verse must be studied in this day of test and trial so the Holy Spirit can convict hearts.
The prohibition of image worship does not forbid every use of pictures or images, since God used pictures and symbols to teach prophets, so the commandment does not require destroying every likeness or picture and its application must not be pushed to extremes or imposed on other people's consciences. The ten commandments come sounding down along the line to the present time, holy, just, good and perfect, standing as God's pledged word to all who dwell on earth and of greatest importance to be read and understood. They are to be printed on cards and hung up in prominent places in houses where eyes will fall upon them so hearts and minds are impressed for good with more powerful influence than pictures on walls. Money spent on photographs that fill walls and what-nots with multitudinous idols should by self-denial and self-sacrifice be used instead to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and buy pamphlets and books for those who cannot buy them to enlighten souls in darkness and error.
The second commandment forbidding image worship was expunged by Rome from the law of God to complete the introduction of the adoration of images and relics into Christian worship as a substitute for the worship of idols to promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by converts from heathenism. That system of idolatry was finally established by decree of a general council, the Second Council of Nice in A.D. 787, and the tenth commandment was divided to preserve the number ten. This expunging is the papacy thinking to change times and laws. The prohibition of image worship was removed with the tenth divided to preserve the traditional number.
Exodus 20:4-6 is the second commandment which the papacy dropped while claiming it is unnecessary because included in the first and that the law is given exactly as God designed it to be understood. It is not taught as obligatory in Catholic catechisms, on the claim that its whole significance is contained in the first commandment, and for this omission no intention to change the law is admitted. Trampling upon this commandment with the rest of God's commandments is sin, for sin is the transgression of the law, and by such trampling the Roman church proves its right to the prophetic title mystery of lawlessness. The first and second commandments forbid image worship with mercy shown to thousands who love God and obey Him. Keeping God's law as given there on the one hand, and violating it on the other, makes the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast and his image, whose special characteristic is the breaking of God's commandments. The papacy attempted to change this law by dropping the second commandment forbidding image worship on the claim it is unnecessary and included in the first, and by changing the fourth commandment to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. Understandingly keeping the law as thus changed gives supreme honor to the power by which the change was made and is a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.
The passage forbids bowing down to an image, and keeping the commandments means refusing to bow even when it costs life. In the Netherlands under Charles V and Philip II, refusing to bow to an image, as well as reading the Bible, hearing or preaching it or even speaking about it, praying to God in secret, and singing a psalm, was punishable by death by the stake. Men who abjured their errors were condemned to die by the sword and women to be buried alive and the steadfast sometimes suffered the same, and thousands perished for this obedience. The Sabbath commandment is part of the commandments given at Sinai, where love for God and obedience to His commandments are joined and mercy is set against the consequences for haters. Its blessing and holiness rest on God's work of creation and His rest on the seventh day, as memorial that He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and was refreshed and sanctified the seventh day.
The law especially emphasizes the fourth commandment and the sacred obligation of the creation Sabbath, and obedience to all God's requirements including the Sabbath matters, for God's promises are for those who love and obey Him. That law proclaimed to Israel after deliverance from Egypt is God's will, preserved through history and perpetually binding as moral and unchanging, therefore including the seventh-day Sabbath. The fourth commandment identifies God as the Creator of the heavens and earth, and keeping it makes clear who the true and living God is. The first four commandments concern duty to God and the last six duty to other people, and breaking any of them leaves a person out of favor with God. Keeping is joined to honoring the seventh day as the memorial of creation in instruction described as important and to be carefully observed, calling His people to obey His Word. The commandments given at Sinai are the highest source of education and are to be obeyed, and the Sabbath commandment is a sign that God sanctifies His people and its observance is part of the covenant and obedience to His law.
Setting aside one of these commandments and putting in its place a day that bears no sanctity usurps an authority that belongs to God alone and infringes His divine prerogatives. Obeying a human Sunday law that conflicts with them compels transgression of the laws of Jehovah and bears not the stamp of divine approval, for human enactments that conflict with the laws of God do not bear divine approval. All of them must be kept as the commandments God gave in Exodus 20 as Ruler of the world, and persistent violation will be dealt with by Jehovah. The Sunday sabbath is a child of the papacy set forth to be observed as the Lord's Sabbath. The Sabbath is the great test question of loyalty to His great moral standard, the foundation of the faith of prophets and apostles, not left for man to trim down to suit ideas or convenience. Subjects of His kingdom must represent the character of their Sovereign by bringing themselves into subjection to His law rather than bringing His law into subjection to themselves, with precious promises to those who keep His Sabbath from polluting it. Infinite wisdom and power and love are engaged in behalf of the obedient, the heavenly host register their names as among the loyal and true, and it is always safe to be on the Lord's side by committing every temporal and eternal interest into the hands of Him who reigns over all in heaven and on earth.
Love to God is proved by obedience to the whole law, centered in reverence for the Sabbath sanctified and blessed at creation as an everlasting sign between God and His people that He sanctifies them. Reverence for the Sabbath engraved on the first table of stone keeps the first three commandments of duty to God and carries with it the last six commandments of duty to fellow men, for the Sabbath is the covenant sign and golden clasp that unites man to God in supreme obedience and reverence and unites man to his fellow man. Accepting and keeping the Sabbath means obeying the rest of the commandments as well, and no one can truly keep the Sabbath while disregarding another precept of the law. God means exactly what He says in promising mercy, as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, and He repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them without slackness. Obedience to His Word and commandments, including keeping His Sabbath the seventh day and refusing any interpretation that makes disobedience a trifling matter, brings blessing, prosperity, clear spiritual perception, light, grace, and enjoyment of His infinite love, while walking contrary to His plain requirements turns light to darkness.
The Sabbath must be taught in a decided manner, and those who see the light on the Sabbath must take their stand to keep God's holy day and stand firm that they will not violate the law of God even when efforts are brought to compel them to transgress. The commandments are immutable, unchangeable, and eternal, and the reason Christ died is because the law could not be changed, while the Spirit awakens conscience and understanding by bringing the commandments to remembrance. The truth of the commandments must be presented quietly, wisely, and gradually as hearers can bear it, doing genuine missionary work and refraining from what would arouse prejudice, close minds, or bring on the final issue of the Sabbath question before the time. Faithfulness includes refusal to worship images and faithfulness to the true Sabbath even under persecution, as shown by the Waldenses' commitment to God's commandments despite persecution. The commandments were proclaimed from Sinai by Christ Himself, so to profess belief in Christ while violating His law is transgression and sin.
Mercy is shown to those who love Christ by keeping His commandments, with the Sabbath question as the great test for this time, and this demand for obedience belongs to the third angel's message and must be proclaimed with power in a way that impresses people, with a certain sound, not in a tame and voiceless and indefinite manner. The commandments Christ proclaimed are to be lifted up as a central test and presented clearly, because churches that profess Christ can still violate God's law. Showing that sin with a certain sound is the special work of the third angel's message, for sin has made human condition preternatural so restoration requires supernatural wisdom, and revealing Christ in spirit and action communicates the peculiar gift of the knowledge of God. The same divine voice that proclaimed the law at Sinai now declares that priests and rulers are transgressing that law. The mercy promised includes the Sabbath, the commandments must be believed just as written and done as the Lord directed, and no one can be saved while refusing to keep the Sabbath. God's will is revealed in His Word to those who search the Scriptures with earnest prayer for opened understanding and a mind willing to receive light, and those who do His commandments have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.
Practice in Daily Life
Exodus 20 as a whole should be studied by everyone who professes to keep God's commandments, for its proclamation from Sinai will stand as a witness against the world in the judgment and its principles will decide every destiny, and keeping it in truth and righteousness means obeying every command and respecting the laws instituted in Eden. The commandments specified in Exodus 20 are suitable to be read frequently on the Sabbath, having first been given in Eden and then repeated when the Lord came down on Sinai with Father and Son present together on the holy mount. The verse is part of the law God Himself spoke at Sinai as positive instruction, vindicating and magnifying that law, and it belongs to the holy law spoken in majesty and glory whose importance is measured by Christ's summary of love for God and neighbor. Keeping therefore matters because God extends mercy to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments, so His instruction about the commandments must be understood and obeyed and taken seriously through to Exodus 31 in belief and obedience, and the holy law spoken at Sinai is to be kept through love for God and neighbor as evidence of true religion and a life shaped by God's love.
The verse belongs to the Ten whose sacredness and binding claims are to be upheld as connecting obedience with promised blessing, and to the law given at Sinai whose sacredness and claims are to be revealed where persistent refusal brings judgments intended in mercy to awaken transgressors to sin and peril. The Ten are to be printed in plain letters in a prominent place because hardly anyone knows what the Bible says about the Sabbath, and God's law is to be vindicated by obedience of heart and mind and by strong argument, for if obeyed the wickedness now seen would never have existed. They were given at Sinai as sacred enduring law, binding including the Sabbath command, to be taught to children so they can obey God, and children are taught to respect what they plainly command and forbid through obedience. Exodus 20:1-17 presents the Ten as the foundation of faith calling for reverence and obedience, where obedience sanctifies and just, pure, true conduct expresses individual responsibility before God.
God's law requires more than outward observance, for the principles of all ten are to be honored daily and written on the heart, outward Sabbath-keeping alone does not save, and willing obedience is a first principle of spiritual renewal. Commandment-keeping marks a willing relationship with the Father, for at Sinai God proclaimed His law to reveal its sacredness and His authority and to inspire confidence in Him. That law spoken at Sinai provides the standard for forming character and states what obedience and loyalty require, its duties summed in love for God and neighbor, and as ten precepts pointing out duty it leaves people responsible whether they accept or reject the light shown them. In the Ten the will of God is expressed and obeying is the way to know true doctrine, for they are the laws of His kingdom to be obeyed because He rules as head over all, and as a father's respected laws bring order and happiness while disregard brings confusion, so obedience brings order under God's government.
The commandments identify the true God and set out duty, the first four concerning duty to God and the last six duty to fellow men, so that breaking any leaves a person out of favor, with the fourth identifying God as Creator of heaven and earth. The first four are not of far greater importance than the last six nor the last six above the first, for neglect of the last six fails in practical godliness and relations of life while keeping them requires good works, mercy, benevolence, and character known by fruits. Supreme love for riches makes full love impossible and shuts the eyes to need, so a treasure-set heart fails the first four requiring whole heart, soul and mind and also fails the last six hanging on neighbor love. The Decalogue calls for more than outward conduct, for defiled hearts fail to keep it and lack zeal for good works, and keeping belongs to love as an active principle of willing obedience to all requirements with the first four setting out duty to the Creator. Obeying the first four leads to obeying the last six in tender pitying love and missionary service toward others, for the law's principles are love for God and neighbor.
The law of Ten is the hedge planted around God's vineyard, His church as peculiar treasure, distinguishing Israel from all other nations, and as protective hedge obedience preserves from results of transgression and brings health, happiness, peace and joy, with familiarity with His word enabling required character. The ten holy precepts contain principles of heavenly origin to govern every particular that can never be changed to meet fallen man, valuable because from the Author of pure principles as transcript of His character, the only safe guide, foundation, rule, and standard of judgment to be held by It is written without turning aside, so that maintaining principle means preserving heavenly not earthborn self-originated policy, any doctrine without them is unsafe, and whoever does not make them life's foundation works on the enemy's side. The plain principles proclaimed from Sinai expose sin and call to obey rather than claim authority for contrary action, and their truth and authority require every person to acknowledge God's words in humility, confession and repentance, for disobedience while claiming to do His will stands on ruin's brink.
The law spoken from Sinai lays binding claims to love and perfect service to Creator and duty to men, requiring mental and moral powers with affections centered on God in whom hopes of eternal life center, appreciating His claims and obeying understandingly the conditions for eternal riches and immortal expanding mind, with laws plain, distinct, public and certain. It is to be obeyed as a matter of life, and its requirements are to be understood and obeyed as His voice. Healthful mental action depends on physical health, so temperance and harmony with natural law and laws of being are necessary to keep intellect clear to discern and rightly do the law whatever the consequence, since intemperance caused the first parents' fall by transgression and lessened vigor through perverted habits and ignorance leaves men unable to serve and makes them transgressors of the ten. God's holy commandments cannot live in hearts careless about cleanliness and order, for Israel was commanded to wash clothes before hearing the law as reverence, and profession is empty when habits and surroundings are filthy and disorderly.
God's character is expressed in the Ten, His law perfect converting the soul, and He is to be known as revealed in marvelous works and law distinct from wisdom, intellect and power of which He is Author, so knowing Him in His law is the science of goodness, truth and righteousness and every expression of character therein must be obeyed. The far-reaching principles require obedience and perfect conformity of heart, mind and soul to expressed will, revealing grace, mercy and love, missed when attention is fixed on earthly concerns. Obedience in spirit and letter shows loyalty and covenant relationship, calling to supreme love for God and neighbor love, and the Ten are God's clear standard for discerning truth and guiding conduct. They carry Thus saith the Lord force above human customs, traditions, maxims and teachings handed down through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, which must never be made all-essential over them nor allowed to void God's command, and Christ upheld them as truth in purity distinct from human maxims.
Respect for the unchanged authority of the Ten means refusing drunkenness that brings misery and destroys reason, for freedom in Christ is freedom to obey not freedom from law. Their principles must govern business dealings, for ignoring them by injustice misrepresents God's character, and the great holy merciful God never joins dishonest practice nor vindicates injustice, His cause free from taint gaining nothing by robbing God's family of individuality or rights, with all oppression and wickedness abhorrent to Him. Mercy and character are misrepresented by dishonest or unjust conduct, and those dealing unjustly misrepresent Him. They are to be practiced in every line of work especially by the responsible, so God's cause is not marked by human imperfection and God dishonored, lest stumbling blocks ruin precious souls. Keeping them means keen equity in judgment, watching, praying and working with eye single to God's glory before heaven, representing Christ in every transaction with tender, pure, true, compassionate heart, clean hands, Christ's maxims, supreme love for God and neighbor love, never using His cause to excuse oppression nor letting business crowd out love.
The direction given at deliverance from Egypt calls for highest regard and living by it, keeping from looseness and carelessness regarding chastity, so that all living by these Sinai laws may be safely trusted, especially physicians in medical work who must guard against liberties, transgression and carelessness. The Ten set one standard for every position and age with all accountable to serve faithfully, to be practiced so conduct does not dishonor God or cause stumbling, giving rules for dealings as wise, just and good from a loving Father whose blessing comes to the obedient connected with Him, to be obeyed wholeheartedly alike by authority and subjects. Dishonest dealing and sharp scheming worldly-policy plans break all ten, first four and last six, and greatly dishonor God, while no circumstance excuses least injustice to brother or neighbor and no advantage for His cause may come by oppression or denying just rights. Business principles must govern religious practice as well, for claiming wrongdoing advances His cause does not make it acceptable. The extortion, robbery, unfair transactions and unholy traffic by priests and rulers in the outer courts transgressed that Sinai law proclaimed by Christ's own clear ringing voice later heard in the Jerusalem temple.
Obedience requires self-examination, righting wrongs, restitution in deed not word only, cleansing defilement, and thorough heart-searching, for God sees every corner. Keeping means taking responsibility for debts helped to create and sharing to pay them rather than leaving burden on others carrying the work in more favorable surroundings, for sharing debt burden is in harmony with the commandments. Their lessons of whole-being love for God and neighbor love are essential for physicians to learn from Christ the great Physician, and those loving and keeping live by them as the physician's standard, rejecting condemned traditions and practices. The divine commandments are binding and must not be set aside, for disregard leads to further disobedience destroying safety, family protection, peace and order, allowing open violations unrebuked hinders heaven's blessing, and making the law void is a grave national offense.
The law lies at the foundation of all right laws, so framers of national laws should understand what is written in Exodus 20:1-17, and the capital at the nation's heart should have full rays of present truth through decided proclamation of the testing truths of the third angel's message. Its principles are those of God's government, everlasting and inexorable as His character, to be kept before people because society's safety and reform depend on clear fundamental truth, and all enlightened civil law restraining wrong under penalty is founded on Jehovah's Sinai law requiring respect for society's good, as the inebriate shows to whom divine and human law are meaningless with benumbed senses unable to comprehend Sinai, seeking to lower the standard to his debasement instead of rising to meet it. It is the foundation of government in heaven and earth and basis of enlightened laws, so keeping means rejecting drunkenness and tobacco, obedience would prevent misery, poverty, crime and physical harm, while ministers teaching against or violating it lead youth to disregard.
Loyalty keeps God's law despite opposition and contempt, and keeping all ten marks His people distinct from worshipers of the beast, bringing dragon hostility which lowering the standard would end, while the faithful hold the trampled precept sacred and defiers trample it despite warnings. The Ten are linked with the testimony inseparably, and restoration is especially opposed because it brings the Sabbath back into view for which rejecters are accountable. Obedience to the Sinai commandments is urged as part of proclaiming present truth under the standard bearing the commandments of God and faith of Jesus. They are moral standards violated by falsehood, theft and unchastity, yet some learning the right way become zealous to obey. Those avoiding duty to escape reproach may violate them, rejecting light and conforming to the world rather than enduring reproach, and having light on simple eating and dressing in obedience to moral and physical law then turning to shun the cross and avoid reproach blunts conscience and leads to violating instead of loving and keeping.
Those loving and keeping live as a separated purified people viewing world and religion differently from pleasure-loving professors who shun the cross and violate the fourth. Love joined to keeping applies to eating and dress, so turning from known moral and physical duties to avoid hardship or ridicule can lead to violating. Those loving, serving and keeping must be allowed to follow conviction on unsettled diet questions like eating butter, with no force on conscience and no disunion over differences, though firm as rock to Sinai principles. Keeping forbids for pride and ambition taking an advance step in Freemasonry, for that gives up truth, bonds to worldly honor and ruins the soul, requiring cutting loose to stand as converted free man, since the Ten given to every man take priority over worldly honor. The ten holy precepts are God's requirements and standard instead of fashion, wearing His yoke meaning obedient duty, while Satan's nonconforming yokes are heavy and Christ in every age breaks worldly bonds to free from them.
The commandments must not be disregarded, for wholehearted belief follows rather than choosing one's own path, and leaders and followers in disregard stand guilty and under curse. They are the Father's will given in Eden amid joy and spoken audibly from Sinai, where sin is transgression, character must harmonize, mere Lord, Lord profession bears evil fruit, mighty works with iniquity meet rejection, hearing and doing builds on rock against fall while hearing without doing builds on sand to great fall, and non-doing professors corrupt many from obedience. As royal holy law expressing character and judgment standard, immutable and perfect, to be taught by parents rising, sitting, going and coming as Christ in the cloud directed Moses, universal obedience by parents and children would stop theft, robbery, murder and filling of jails, for whole duty is to love God and keep His commandments. They call for practical godliness and true manhood, reform, restored reverence, sanctification, manifest foundation of faith, enforcement of every precept, awakened responsibility in just, pure, true action, and are to be character's foundation with Christ's words chosen over sophistry.
The ten holy precepts are laws of Christ's kingdom and rule of trial, for none is his own having been bought with price, God jealous of His law tests obedience and unselfish use of talents, and though sin's penalty is death Christ bore it to secure probation in which to prove value to Him who gave His Son for everlasting life. The verse rebukes those in sacred temple responsibility who weave selfishness into sacred things and offer common fire for sacred fire, showing loving and keeping means refusing to displease God with undivided attention, to be studied in test and trial for Spirit conviction, since even small attractions absorbing due attention break love and obedience. The second commandment forbids irreverence and reaches the heart beyond profession, bearing on speech which reveals heart condition. God speaks in direct Thou shalt and Thou shalt not, and parents are to copy saying No decidedly without temper, refusing children license to handle and throw everything, teaching from earliest years against uneducated will, for neatness, cleanliness and order with bad habits quenched at first, because heaven has order and God requires disciplined orderly families.
The Ten are His household law to be strictly obeyed without sinless swerving, requiring parents and children to harmonize habits with His plans in faith and works with pervading holiness, children honoring parents rather than following desire without counsel, parents keeping the Lord's way with Christlike example purged of commonness in decent order, bringing angels and holy joy, while lax refractory principles dishonor God. The two tables are broken when passion, self-will, unwise speech and acts replace God's way, dishonoring Him and harming truth and souls. His law is the moral standard to be obeyed with promised mercy within it, and disregarding it and exalting a rival sabbath opposes it and brings displeasure. The Sinai law as Christ's teaching through Moses, including the Sabbath, is to be taught with Jesus' personal teachings, Old and New Testaments illuminating each other as inseparable whole.
The Ten are words of the living God with full force above human customs through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, which when made all-essential and more binding held back followers and kept disciples from advancing and efficient work. The great Holy One is jealous and His Sinai holy law is part of Himself, so He will have only holy men to carry truth and only strict loving observers honor Him by teaching it, not entrusting flock to minds weakened by cherished errors like perfectionism and spiritualism that reproached truth, even if now feeling free and competent for the last message. Its claims are binding including the fourth on which new believers saw light, where immoral violation gives enemies occasion to reproach, discourages learners, and brings aggravated guilt and fearful retribution without humble repentance. Its principles reach far beyond brief precepts with added instructions to explain and apply them, proclaimed with power and glory to impress sacredness, importance and permanence. It is the unchangeable standard of right-doing for the judgment, connected with the Sabbath, and its precepts given to govern mankind are to be respected and obeyed even at cost in personal purity protecting home from vice.
In great love God gave the Sinai precepts to order conduct and restrict to what increases real happiness now and for fellows, perpetual as His character with no smallest claim abolished, and obedience is possible for Christ in humanity passed where Adam stumbled with perfect obedience proving man can keep through His merits as overcomer. Keeping is abiding in Christ's love as He abode in the Father's, ennobling and sanctifying heart and mind in daily life and giving moral fitness through Christ for heaven and angels, so doers and teachers are called great while breakers and teachers of breaking are called least with no place in the kingdom, the letter specifying walk to please God and the spirit pointing to Christ's atonement for fulfilling requirements in harmony of law and gospel, where transgressors face surely die yet repentant penitents turning to the Saviour shall as surely be saved as Christ died. The Ten express character and give rules for all including children in dealings, with blessing attending obedient connection and no sinless departure.
Those loving and keeping with law written in heart take it as sole authority, live by every word with good conscience, conform to every good land law, yet when rulers conflict even least with God's command must disobey men rather than deviate, deciding only whether to obey God or man, so keeping forbids engaging in perplexing war where truth and officers cannot both be obeyed without continual conscience violation, under the higher Sinai law engraved by God's finger supreme in wisdom and authority bringing subjection as spirit and life and founding all righteous laws. The Decalogue demands more than outward conduct with binding claims where transgression is sin, for defiled hearts fail and genuine obedience needs changed heart and firm principle not passing feeling. God gave Israel His law as statement of claims to obey, honor and remember the Creator, to be loved and kept from love as required obedience, but Israel would not obey and forgot, so ceremonies were added to stir obligation which obedient love would not have needed, and the same law continues for professed peculiar treasure, where obedience as specified would make special awakening testimonies to duty and danger unnecessary. Love for the Supreme Ruler is revealed by keeping with required perfect self-purification as He is pure with every provision against sin, the commandments not left unknown but repeated by God Himself from Sinai enshrouded in cloud distinctly and solemnly before thunderings, lightnings, trumpet and smoking mountain.
In love and pity God warns before punishing, making law and penalties clear for highest good, and health reform light shows violating natural law by appetite and passion violates His law, with warning message sent before punishment at the Lord's coming, reform as a branch fitting a people for coming as closely joined to the third angel's message as hand to body, published distinctly like a city on a hill understandable to all intelligent beings who alone are responsible, and obedience would have prevented widespread disease though insulting Him by harming body and mind still meets extended love and light to obedience. Loving and keeping includes showing mercy, for the commandments are misrepresented by professing loyalty while neglecting spirit, neighbor love and practical compassion to needy sufferers, showing God does not reign supreme and failing His heart claim.
God promises to show mercy to thousands of those who love Him and keep His commandments, joining love and obedience as one inseparable condition. That mercy stands in contrast to visiting the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, giving life to the obedient and death to the disobedient, and it reaches to thousands of generations far outreaching judgment limited to the third and fourth. The promise belongs to the moral law spoken by God Himself at Sinai amid awful majesty and glory, which expresses His own holy, just, good, eternal and unchangeable character and remains the binding standard of righteousness and judgment for all people until the close of time. Loving God means supreme, undivided affection proved by willing, complete obedience to all ten, with the first four defining duty to the Maker and the last six duty to fellow humans summed in loving God supremely and neighbor as self. That obedience does not earn salvation but is the fruit of faith, for Christ kept every commandment in humanity, revealed its far-reaching claims, and as Mediator and Pardoner gives power to share the divine nature and live it, so mercy does not cancel the law.
Promise and Its Contrast
The promise is that mercy is shown to thousands of those who love God and keep His commandments, with love and obedience joined together as one condition for receiving it. Loving Him is joined with obedience to His requirements, so that those who keep His commandments have assurance of a place in the kingdom of glory, and the commandment belongs to His law which expresses His character and sets out His requirements for all mankind. That mercy stands in direct contrast to visiting the iniquity of those who hate Him to the third and fourth generation, setting mercy toward the faithful alongside warning of judgment and punishment upon persistent wrongdoing. The warning belongs within the commandment against making and worshiping idols, with love and obedience set against the consequences described for haters, and the Sabbath commandment as part of the commandments given at Sinai whose blessing and holiness rest on creation and rest on the seventh day.
The mercy reaches to thousands of generations and across generations to those who love Him and keep His commandments, far outreaching consequences that are limited to the third and fourth generation. The preceding verse gives the conditions for this promise, with continuing mercy connected to loving Him and keeping His commandments, and the heart's inclinations made right when restrained by His precepts while haters face the consequences of iniquity. Its setting in the law given at Sinai connects divine blessing with obedience, yet disregarding that law and allowing open violations to go unrebuked hinders the blessing of heaven upon the people. God means exactly what He says in promising mercy, as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, and who repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them without slackness. That mercy belongs to those who love God supremely and keep all ten, both the first four toward God and the last six toward neighbor, with love for God shown in love for the people for whom Christ died and with obedience as evidence of genuine knowledge of God unto eternal life.
The promised mercy means life to the obedient, while disobedience means death, for the holy precepts were spoken from Sinai with God's own voice and written with His finger upon tables of stone, standing alone in distinct and awful significance of supreme importance as a transcript of His character. Obedience brings a bountiful harvest in that mercy extends to children and grandchildren through the third and fourth generations, a principle that remains in force, and God loves and honors obedience as He did when He gave the law at Sinai. He manifests great mercy and unlimited love toward people who serve Him through obedience to His law, and the promise underscores the blessing attached to loving obedience against the plain warning of the commandment against images as a warning against idolatry. Faithfulness to Him is met with a far-reaching promise of mercy that implies worship of the true God, within the law's binding claims as His standard of action requiring obedience, and though He bears long with transgression His authority and the just claims of His binding law will finally be acknowledged. From Sinai He declares that He is a jealous God, requiring willing sacrifice and accepting no partial obedience, no divided interest, and no making of His commandments a matter of convenience, so that to use the Sabbath occasionally for secular business is as ruthless a violation as to reject it entirely.
Sinai Giving and Setting
The verse belongs to the instruction given to Moses in the mount, standing with Exodus 19-24, which is to be studied and presented now as much as it was needed by Israel in the days of Moses. Its laws were written in a book to guard against injustice and to guide dealings with one another. The Teacher who gave it on Sinai is Christ, who afterward spoke in human flesh.
It was spoken by God himself at Sinai and Horeb with his own voice to Israel, as Ruler of the world making known majesty and authority. The utterance came in awful grandeur, majesty, power and glory amid trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, cloud, tempest, thick darkness, smoke as of a furnace, fire as devouring fire, earthquake and trembling mountain. The power and glory with which it was given reveal its importance, impressing the people with the sacredness of the law and the importance of obeying it and inspiring confidence in him. It is part of the faith once delivered to the saints by Christ the Redeemer speaking from Sinai. God delivered Israel from Egypt so they could keep this law, which had been given in Eden.
Its place in that proclamation shows the sacred importance of God's law and the importance of obeying it. The solemn display of divine power and majesty also reveals God as a God of love. The law containing the verse expresses God's goodness and holiness by making known what the Creator expects from his creatures.
At the proclamation the people were overwhelmed with terror, stood afar off, trembled as they recognized their transgression, and entreated Moses to speak with them lest they die. They did not understand that Christ was their appointed mediator, without whose mediation they would have been consumed. They also had little understanding of pardon through Christ, the promised Messiah whom their offerings typified.
The law was engraved by God's own finger on tables of stone because men were prone to forget and could not be trusted to keep it in memory. It was written to remove all possibility of mingling heathen traditions with its holy precepts or confounding its requirements with human ordinances, practices or customs. Its far-reaching principles were amplified in the judgments and Mosaic laws written by Moses from the mouth of God while with him in the mount, giving minute directions about duty to God, to one another and to the stranger so none need err. Had its principles been practiced there would have been no need for those additional directions, no need for its proclamation from Sinai or engraving on stone, no seduction into idolatry, no bondage in Egypt, and no necessity for the ordinance of circumcision.
The law already existed and was not new at Sinai. It was first given in Eden, given to Adam after the fall, taught to Adam and Eve and passed down through faithful generations, preserved in the ark by Noah, and observed by Abraham. It was lost sight of during Israel's years of bondage, when many mixed its precepts with heathen customs and confused it with idolatry, and was proclaimed again after deliverance from Egypt and the dividing of the Red Sea. God came down upon Sinai enshrouded in glory and surrounded by angels and spoke the law with an audible voice in the hearing of all the people, trusting its teaching to no one else, not even angels, to leave them without excuse.
Israel was taken into covenant with the Lord as a peculiar treasure and holy nation to be united with a holy God, called to make known the principles of his government in heaven and earth to every nation, kindred and tongue. The ten were by no means given exclusively to Israel to be confined to them, but the Hebrews were made depositaries of the law to be handed down, and their history was written for admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Its commandments were the terms of Israel's solemn covenant, binding them to obey all that God commanded.
Israel prepared to hear it with washing of clothes, showing that cleanliness and order were required and impressing God's purity and his care for physical as well as moral well-being. While Moses received the commandments the people should have meditated on them and taught them to their children, and failure showed unfaithfulness to the relationship in which God could fulfill his covenant. The sacred ark contained the law but was not itself God, and possessing it did not secure prosperity apart from obedience, for God sent prosperity or adversity according to whether his law was obeyed or transgressed. Obedience to the commandments was tied to Israel's prosperity. The ark containing the tablets was later hidden because of sins.
The verse was spoken by God himself and written by his own hand, of divine and not human composition, distinct from the rest of the Bible in which God-given truths are expressed in the words of men, presenting a union of the divine and the human. Father and Son were present together on Sinai's holy mount. Written revelation began in the time of Moses after twenty-five hundred years of human history with no written revelation, when those taught of God handed down knowledge orally from father to son, and Moses as historian of creation and the law embodied inspired revelations in an inspired book at the start of a work continuing sixteen hundred years to John the recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.
The law was proclaimed by Christ himself at Sinai as Creator, veiled in the cloudy pillar, who made the law and knew every part and principle. It was proclaimed on Sinai by Christ's own voice, and the same clear ringing voice was later heard in the temple at Jerusalem during Israel's wilderness journeyings as direct communication from heaven. Its place in that law shows the importance of God's commandments for all ages and its changeless, eternal binding claims are to be set forth clearly before large congregations and rulers and subjects, bringing hearers as it were to the foot of Sinai, awakening duty and converting the soul.
Israel violated the commandments only a few weeks after hearing them in solemn covenant promise, demanding other gods and making the golden calf when Aaron proclaimed a feast, despite God's continued presence and care. That making and worshiping directly violated the commandments against other gods and idols recently expressly given and therefore known. The people broke the law in sight of Sinai and later in Canaan until scattering by enemies, yet mercy remained open with calls, warnings, prophets and finally his Son.
God gave Israel the commandments with spiritual and temporal advantages as a protection setting them apart from surrounding nations, on condition for fulfillment of promises. Obedience was meant to be their life and to make them an example of true righteousness and a model demonstrating the benefits of heaven's principles, including health, prosperity, honor and exaltation. Blessings were to follow obedience and curses disregard, as repeated by Joshua with Moses' statutes and precepts. Israel's later laxness and violation brought God's displeasure and punishment after great deliverances and privileges, culminating in rejection of Jesus, the greatest gift given them.
Nature of Enduring Law
Exodus 20:6 belongs to the law that reveals God's will and the principles of His government, the standard by which people are judged where obedience to its perfect and righteous principles determines a sentence of life or death. That law proclaimed at Sinai exposes whether people have served God faithfully, condemning those who set aside its precepts and lead others to transgress. Its precepts are revealed plainly to all as the expression of His righteousness and the rule of judgment, showing faithfulness or transgression.
The verse belongs to God's law which expresses His character, is a transcript of His character, holy, just and good, eternal, unchangeable and perpetual as God Himself. It is the binding moral standard of righteousness in heaven and earth and the standard of character and judgment, given at Sinai in solemn grandeur when God spoke its precepts and engraved them with His own finger on stone. Given in Eden and given again at Sinai to be made known to every nation, it reveals the eternal, unchangeable character to all inhabitants of earth, and laying hold of it brings safety, true greatness, healthy spiritual experience, and experimental knowledge of Him as heart and mind harmonize with God to understand divine requirements. The ten are God's great moral standard and foundation of prophets and apostles, the ten precepts and moral law proclaimed by God at Sinai, His law for His household on earth, His constitution and government requiring loyalty so that breaking them is rebellion. They are not left for man to trim to ideas or convenience, but subjects must bring themselves into subjection to the law rather than bring it into subjection to themselves, with the first four concerning duty to God and the last six duty to others summed in love for God and neighbor. Knowingly setting the will against its binding commands is transgression, and God means exactly what He says in promising mercy while repaying haters, blessing obedience including the seventh-day Sabbath and refusing any interpretation making disobedience trifling.
The law of ten commandments is separate from laws regulating sacrifices and offerings which ceased at Christ's death when type met antitype, while the ten did not die with Him and remain binding under the gospel in spirit as well as letter. Satan, failing to hinder salvation fulfilled when Jesus was crucified and rose the third day, seeks to make even crucifixion and resurrection serve his advantage by leading professing believers first to believe sacrificial laws ended and then to believe the ten also died. This moral law expresses God's enduring claims, binds all people in every age unchanged through time and eternity, with related precepts explaining and guarding the Ten as living faith rather than dead formalism, not ceremonial types that ended. The Ten remain binding and enduring for all mankind after Christ, as Paul kept them in letter and spirit, so widespread transgression does not lessen guilt. Obedience is necessary for health, truth, happiness and heaven, and treating them as no longer binding excuses theft, perjury and other wrongdoing under Christianity and removes moral responsibility giving license to sin, since its requirements are not arbitrary or severe.
The law proclaimed at Sinai is obligatory for all people until the close of time, keeping it is not optional or dependent on convenience. God requires willing sacrifice with no partial obedience or divided interest acceptable, and these words remain binding though spoken long ago to Abraham's descendants, with mercy contrasting judgment on haters. God does not lower or alter it to accommodate weakness and sin since Christ died because it could not be changed, but in love gave His Son who lived the law in humanity to bring power to overcome sin and share divine nature in obedience, the same demands of love and obedience remaining terms of eternal life and standard of character not lowered in the gospel. The commandments are a righteous moral code finite people cannot improve, so no commandment can be discarded and tampering is rebellion against His authority, true religion yielding the will in reverent obedience. Satan in heaven sought a flaw to argue for change, deceived thousands of angels, was cast out unchanged in one jot, yet the law was not changed in one jot or tittle; God is wise and unchangeable, and those flattering themselves they can find a safer rule than God gave are deceived by the same delusions that led angels to join Lucifer in questioning authority and justice, while Christ will not countermand His statutes and breakers teaching others to break follow another leader not Jesus who kept His Father's commandments as pattern.
God's rule for conduct is plainly defined so no one need mistake it, and the commandments plainly set out what people must and must not do, to be respected by children through obedience. Sin is transgression of this law, and knowingly setting the will against it, turning from known truth, or professing faith without doing it brings guilt, darkness and sure punishment with no excuse. Knowingly transgressing after learning of Christ's sacrifice is grave sin, and to know truth then turn denying Christ and refusing obedience to first four toward God and last six toward man including the Sabbath places one under the prince of darkness. Profession of lip without obedience bears evil fruit, for not everyone saying Lord, Lord enters heaven but he that does the Father's will; hearing and doing builds on rock while hearing without doing builds on sand to great fall, and mighty workers of iniquity will be told I never knew you. The law is God's authoritative standard from creation, remaining binding so that at Christ's coming every person faces its judgment including those who taught it was no longer binding. It is the same law from the beginning taught by Christ with no change whose far-reaching principles remain the standard when judgment sits and books are opened, foundation of the new covenant where truth, holiness and perfection are attainable, the law the tree and gospel its blossoms and fruit, Jesus as Head fulfilling all righteousness to show man can meet every specification through grace so none need miss heaven and keeping makes the path easier, magnifying the law.
The ten commandments written by Jehovah's finger on two stone tables are kept in the ark in the heavenly most holy place, where Jesus entered in 1844 after shutting the holy place door. Enemies of present truth try to reverse this by opening the holy door Jesus shut and closing the most holy door Jesus opened. The verse is one of the ten precepts spoken by Jehovah amid trumpet, thunder, lightning and glory as the mirror revealing man's condition and rule showing sin's offensiveness. Spoken from Sinai's summit in trumpet tones, thunder, lightning, cloud, tempest, thick darkness and devouring fire when Israel was taken into covenant as peculiar treasure and holy nation to be united with a holy God, its utterances overwhelmed Israel with terror so they stood afar off entreating Moses to speak lest they die, revealing guilt before a pure holy God. It is part of the Ten represented alongside Christ's declaration that He did not come to destroy the law or prophets.
The verse belongs to the law spoken from Sinai whose principles are to be held firmly, to be kept before old and young till the close of time. God Himself came down on Sinai to speak with a voice making the mountain tremble to its base, and the lesson of mercy taught to Israel abiding there was not to be lost till the close of time, youth amid nature and everlasting hills learning lessons for education, character formation, and continual deepening interest as constant students. It is to be set forth clearly before congregations and rulers as at Sinai's foot to awaken duty and convert souls, changeless and eternal as Jehovah's throne with binding claims, its solemn repetition impressing many, making sinners tremble, awakening duty, proving perfect in converting the soul, showing all work in harmony either with the Lord or the great rebel. It is to be taught to children from principle not compulsion, plainly stating what God requires and forbids, recapitulated as Moses recapitulated it and connected with importance of obedience, without letting differences over diet become barrier between brethren. The commandments' lessons record sacred principles of morality, justice, reverence for God and respect for man made in God's image, as a lesson for God's people now to read and understand, giving holy principles governing dealings, communicated direct from heaven during wilderness journeyings.
God's law is binding upon every soul and is not done away when people refuse to obey it, remaining plain and decided, Thou shalt and Thou shalt not. Those who love God and keep them through Christ's merits, hanging helpless souls upon Christ, come into harmony with heaven and receive mercy, while those refusing the yoke, pulling away the shoulder and stopping ears to His word, work with the evil one. The verse is part of God's enduring law to be studied and obeyed as a condition of salvation, and Christ's death proves the law could not be abolished. Treating the Decalogue as dead letter hides justice and the distinction between good and evil, for its requirements are holy law. The verse belongs to the law that reveals God's character and founds His government, but having it on stone does not profit unless truth enters the heart and enlightens the mind. Disobedience shows disregard for requirements, and sin begins in the heart where even small transgression is measured by God's righteousness. The verse belongs to the Ten that express God's character, and obedience is required not merely to display His authority but to enable becoming one with Him in character and forming like characters, His mercy toward lovers and keepers working that oneness.
Love Joined to Obedience
Loving God is joined with obedience to his requirements, and willing complete obedience proves that love rather than partial or convenient compliance, in contrast to the punishment of those who hate him, with assurance of a place in the kingdom of glory and standing faithfully before him in the final review. God requires willing sacrifice and accepts no partial obedience and no divided interest, and his commandments are not matters of convenience, so to use the Sabbath occasionally for secular business violates the law as surely as outright rejection. He accepts no partial obedience, no divided interest, and no compromise to secure petty temporal interests, but requires full obedience, giving six days for work and the usual business of life while claiming the one day he blessed and sanctified as a day of rest from labor and worship of the Maker.
Love for God is expressed through obedience to his holy law, the heart's inclinations are right when restrained by his precepts, and keeping them restores the moral image by keeping souls in touch with the Creator, requiring obedience to the first four and the last six with all business done according to the commandments, for the commandments are life. Mercy is given to those who love God where love means undivided affection, and the first four commandments require worshipers of the true God to sacrifice every idol and let nothing share supreme delight in him, allowing no separation of the affections, for loving the Lord with all heart, soul and strength is the first and great commandment. The verse belongs to first-table duties toward God defining duty to the Maker to love and obey with heart, mind, soul and strength, part of the Decalogue as God's moral code engraved on two stone tablets whose foundational principles cover duty to God and neighbor.
Loving God under the first four means supreme undivided affection where whatever divides the affections and takes away supreme love assumes an idol's form that must be sacrificed and put away to advance, since idols separate from God and hinder progress, drawing his chosen separated people away from worldly pleasures and friendship and requiring trust in God alone and pressing on in obedience. Loving God means serving with all heart, soul, mind and strength with fervent intense love cherishing nothing in rivalry, putting everything secondary to his glory with the Father cherished as first, the joy and prosperity and light and sufficiency of life and portion forever, making his sacred principles the rule of daily life and being willing to suffer any inconvenience rather than break one commandment, for obedience pleases him more than mere profession and without love profession is hypocrisy. That first-table reference shows Massachusetts law authorized magistrates to punish outward violations of these religious commandments, while Roger Williams denied their jurisdiction over religious matters, and keeping the first four makes people one with Christ who gave his life to redeem humanity from sin and make them free in him.
The first four show duty to the Maker and supreme love and loyalty expressed in faithfulness leading to love for neighbor, while the last six set out obligations to fellow humans, and the promise is applied through faithful obedience that does not neglect duties to others, so professed keepers must not use God's time and resources for needless display rather than serving others, which fails to love neighbor as self. Love means loving God supremely and neighbor as self, summed in the two great principles on which all the law and the prophets hang, requiring implicit obedience to every one of the ten precepts and not to nine-tenths, for they are like links of a chain where violation of one makes a breaker while willing obedience to all makes true keepers, demanding continuous unswerving wholehearted obedience. Loving God supremely in the first four goes with loving neighbor as self in the last six, the two springing from one root and inseparable, so the first cannot be kept while the second is broken nor the second while the first is broken, and keeping the first goes with being true to God and leads to being true to neighbor, ruling out living for self without regard for others' happiness.
The Decalog of ten moral precepts contains humanity's whole duty with the first four defining duty to God and the last six duty to others, the whole resting on love for God and love for others, and mercy is given to those who love God and keep all ten, requiring self-examination, righting wrongs, restitution in deed and cleansing of defilement, bringing reward even in this life including clear conscience and peace, fitting saints to serve God in heaven and see his face, from which there can be no sinless swerving. Keeping the first four toward God leads to keeping the last six toward fellow men, manifesting tender pitying love to all for whom Christ died and consecrating the soul as a missionary laborer together with God, a co-worker carrying out his will toward others not only to those who think and believe the same, as illustrated by the parable of the good Samaritan. The first four are not of far greater importance than the last six nor does keeping the last six exalt them above the first, for neglecting the last six fails in practical godliness and relations and duties of life, while keeping them requires good works and deeds of mercy and benevolence with character known by fruits.
Loving God cannot be separated from loving neighbor, so attachment to riches withholding help from the needy fails both duties, including the duty to make special efforts to repair as far as possible the lasting harm caused by slavery even for those who did not personally enforce it. Supreme love for riches and earthly possessions makes full love impossible and shuts the eyes to wants, so a treasure-set heart fails the first four requiring whole heart, soul and mind and also fails the last six hanging on neighbor love. The ten sum to loving the Lord with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self, which gives eternal life, and they are principles of righteousness to be the rule of action which Satan leads the world to counter.
Loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving neighbor as self is keeping the commandments, all to be observed without turning aside with none spared as nonessential, to keep them is to fear God and serve with all heart and soul, obedience meaning life and prolonged days and disobedience death, and parents must teach them diligently when sitting, walking, lying down and rising. Keeping means more than agreeing or teaching theory, requiring pure principles cherished and obeyed from the heart with purity, supreme love and conscientious surrender of every habit, practice and sin closing the door to Jesus, demonstrated by living them out with care for others and leading them to Christ, since neglecting them is sin and can discourage others. Mercy belongs to those keeping from the heart because they love its pure principles, cherishing them with transforming power through surrender letting Christ's light search every dark corner, without which truth loses vitalizing power, sin strengthens, life is a lie, and there is no strength or efficiency as an agent for God.
Keeping requires coming to Jesus in humility and contrition whose blood cleanses glossed-over iniquity and calling sin by its right name under plain principles of heaven carrying weight that every soul must bow under, while departing from them while claiming to do heaven's will stands on ruin's brink. Loving God and keeping all his commandments gives experimental knowledge of him, for the ten engraved by Jehovah reveal his eternal unchangeable character, and only as heart and mind harmonize with God can requirements be understood and progress in learning be made. Keeping belongs to love as active principle through willing obedience to all, with first four loving supremely and last six loving neighbor as self, and love is shown and proved by keeping while failure shows his love does not dwell within despite profession, with no circumstance excusing even the least injustice and with spurious sanctification exposed when it evades what God requires and sets up self-made self-righteousness.
The verse belongs to the commandments the lawyer knew he had not kept, showing failure to live up to requirements, convicted as keeping neither first four nor last six. The ten in short form express duty to love supremely and neighbor as self, with Israel commanded to have a blue ribbon border with the law's words as reminder, and works contrary to law break them even when covered by outward devotion and sanctity. Following right principle means faithfully doing all ten in contrast to false ideas of principle, and obedience to these divine commands is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, appropriating all embraced in the atonement on Calvary, with power to become sons of God full of grace and truth for those receiving Christ.
Blessing Across Generations
God gives mercy, favor, happiness and prosperity to those who love him and keep his commandments, and that love is shown by making those sacred principles the rule of daily life and by willingness to suffer any inconvenience rather than break one commandment. Obedience pleases him more than mere professions of loyalty or words of praise, and without the exercise of love the highest profession is mere hypocrisy. Keeping every jot and tittle is essential to personal happiness and to the happiness of all connected, and obedience is the only safety for individuals and for nations, because the whole world will be judged by this law which demands perfect obedience and purity even in the most secret thoughts, desires and dispositions.
Obedience brings blessings, while disobedience brings danger and unhappiness, for the commands are not arbitrary. Obedience to the law brings safety and true greatness, for the law is God's character and the standard of obedience. Obedience to God's law is necessary for health, truth and happiness, and the path of obedience leads to heaven, for the Ten are not abolished. Obedience was tied to Israel's prosperity, for the law was proclaimed by God at Sinai and not devised by a human mind or enacted by Moses. God sent prosperity or adversity according to whether his law kept in the ark was obeyed or transgressed.
Keeping God's commandments brings reward even in this life, including a clear conscience and peace with God, for true obedience is faith working by love purifying the soul and giving God whole service rather than mere assent or ceremonial worship. Those who obey and remain connected to God receive his blessing, for his laws are wise, just and good as from a loving Father, to be obeyed wholeheartedly and applied equally by those in authority and those under them. Obedience brings peace and prosperity and forms a people whose character and conduct show the world its beauty and moral power, while disobedience brings harmful consequences and may call forth judgment to restrain evil. Blessings follow obedience and curses follow disregard, as when Joshua repeated the law with Moses' statutes and precepts. Obedience brings blessing while disobedience brings judgment, as shown by the flood as the consequence of refusing heaven's commands.
Disobedience has a definite annexed penalty and punishment surely follows transgression, proved by plain recorded cases. The Sinai law continues the pattern of the law given in Eden with its stated penalty, where the temptation, fall and punishment of Adam and Eve warn against disobedience and show that the wages of sin is death and that retributive justice never fails. The words spoken from Sinai are conditions of life, where obeying restores free access to the tree of life forfeited by disobedience, and transgression made Christ's death necessary to reconcile fallen humanity. Obedience to the principles of duty to God and to one another is good and gives life, and keeping them would have made further specific directions unnecessary. Because men were prone to forget and transgress, God guarded the ten with simplified definite directions in judgments and statutes written by Moses so none need err, while transgression of the law spoken in unapproachable majesty shows open contempt of the Lawgiver and brings death, and penalties annexed for continual disobedience whereby the rebel should not live were inflicted to restrain others by fear that the obedient may live.
The commandments are an expression of mercy whose prohibitions protect the obedient from evils caused by transgression and secure happiness. Received in Christ the law works purity of character and lasting joy, and its unchanging principles of righteousness reveal God's goodness. God's laws are not arbitrary demands, for even a prohibition carries or implies a promise and obedience brings blessing. His laws are meant to draw his people closer to him and lead them from evil to good, though he does not force them. The promise shows what God is like, slow to anger and full of loving forbearance, tender pity and infinite compassion. It is just like his character to bear long with perverse and disobedient people who abuse his mercies and misrepresent him yet let them live, reaching thousands who love and keep, against the false charge that he gave a law no one can keep and misrepresents him as unwise and ungood.
Long-suffering with disobedience keeps his promise of mercy to thousands who love and keep, even while people abuse mercies and bear false witness in wicked statements. God deals patiently and tenderly giving opportunity to repent, but forbearance does not excuse persistent disobedience, and when people continue to reject his law judgment follows. He patiently bears seeing his holy commandments insulted, but the wicked will be punished for defying their just claims. Knowingly breaking a commandment undermines trust in his promises, for love and obedience belong together, while seeking to overcome and submitting the will gives the privilege of relying on his loving-kindness. The Ten are promises assured to those who obey, connecting love with keeping and presenting obedience as condition of salvation and eternal life.
Mercy and future eternal reward are given to those who love and keep, counted as the first four and the last six, where keeping means unselfish fidelity and pure devotion in using entrusted talents to his glory with reward in proportion to faithful zeal. The careless, indolent and selfish who seek exaltation above God's honor do not keep and cannot be rewarded as the devoted, for every life is accurately recorded and each is rewarded according as works have been. God means exactly what he says as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love and keep, and repays haters to their face to destroy them without slackness. Obedience including keeping the seventh-day Sabbath and refusing any interpretation making disobedience trifling brings blessing, prosperity, clear spiritual perception, light, grace and enjoyment of infinite love, while walking contrary to plain requirements turns light to darkness. For Christ's sake God looks upon as righteous only those respecting his commandments, and those obeying through faith having returned to loyalty are assured they are sons and daughters, members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King.
Those who love and keep in wholehearted obedience are written as commandment-keepers wearing the God-given seal, made plainly distinct from breakers, and will receive eternal life, for the promised obedience reaches to eternity. Mercy belongs to those loving supremely and keeping, where loving with whole heart, mind and strength and loving neighbor as self performs the law's principles in the first four toward God and last six toward neighbor, and this love and service in connection with the human family is the test making saints fit to serve in heaven and see his face. Obedience is evidence of genuine knowledge of God, shown in love for those for whom Christ died, and those obeying these two principles of love to God and love to others are promised eternal life. The demands of love and obedience remain the same in the gospel without lowered standard of character, as terms of eternal life. God pledges to be guardian of those who love and keep, and they must worship no other god. He will care for and fulfill his word to those remaining obedient amid coercion, including the coming test over his law and pressure from unions.
God gave the ten to be observed on earth as in a lower school to qualify for the higher grade in heaven. Keeping fashions character in divine likeness exemplifying Christ on earth as pure, holy and undefiled with Christ formed within, makes partakers of divine nature escaping corruption through lust, and gives unbelievers true revelation of God's character showing what members of the Lord's family in heaven are to be. Only those whose garments of character are freed from every spot and wrinkle and cleansed from defilement will as redeemed enter through gates into the city and eat of the tree of life for healing of nations. Forgiveness does not deliver penitent believers hanging helpless souls upon him from consequence, for consequence is transmitted by precept and example to children and children's children to the third and fourth generation proportionate to perversion, as when users of liquor and tobacco feel results of indulgence. Men and women transmit character for good or evil to children and children's children, and words and actions mold them for this life and the life to come with all receiving according to works.
When children are not diligently instructed to keep the way, the enemy occupies thoughts, God is forgotten, the deceiver controls the heart, and Satan stamps his image and principles upon hearts not taught to obey, so by parental evildoing curses are prepared for future generations. Parents who withhold what God requires teach children to disregard him, and that example may continue through descendants, while mercy is promised to those loving and keeping. Each must resist inherited and personal wrong habits and imitate the divine Pattern, for character tendencies pass from parents to children. Repeated violations bring inherited suffering and human decline across generations. Parents must teach diligently at all times and help children obey from principle rather than compulsion, for the commandments plainly state what is required and forbidden. The law is to be read and understood with words displayed where seen to impress hearts and minds, and kept in plain sight in every home after God's patient preparation of Israel. Universal obedience by parents and children would stop theft, robbery, murder and filling of jails, for to love God and keep is the whole duty of man taught when rising, sitting, going out and coming in.
Obedience to God's laws preserves from results of transgression and brings health, happiness, peace and joy, for the ten are a protective hedge, and familiarity with his word enables the character required. The divine law includes laws governing physical nature and the body of the same divine origin and character, inscribed throughout the body and written into human nature. The laws of nature governing the physical organism are laws of God just as truly and fully divine as the precepts, the foundation for teaching physiology and hygiene. Keeping those laws brings the body into harmony with design and supports health, and God pledges to preserve organs in health when laws implanted in nature are obeyed, for health requires harmony with his law. Breaking that law is sin just as violating bodily laws is sin, because neither can be broken without breaking God's law. Violating physical laws carelessly or willfully is sin against the Creator, for the Decalogue is as truly divine as bodily laws.
God gives warning before punishing and in love and pity makes law and penalties clear for highest good, yet violating natural law through harmful appetites and passions also violates God's law, which health reform brings to light. Violating God's law including natural laws brings suffering and disease, while health reform makes violation plain and calls to obedience. Transgressors lightly regarding the ten will be punished at the Lord's coming but not without a warning message, for indulging depraved appetites and lustful passions violates God's law, and health reform as light showing sinfulness of breaking laws established in man is one branch fitting a people for his coming, connected with the third angel's message as hand to body. Obedience to principles of that law connects with obedience to natural law, where violating natural law through appetite and passion also violates God's law and brings suffering and disease, proclaimed as warning and guidance for harmony with natural law.
Continually breaking nature's laws is breaking God's law, and obedience to principles would have prevented the widespread curse of disease. God did not create the race feeble, and suffering and premature death are not his appointed lot or Providence but result of wrong habits violating laws made to govern life. Had men always obeyed the ten carrying out principles of those precepts in life, the curse of disease now flooding the world would not exist. Though people insulted God through harmful habits his love remains extended, giving light that obedience to natural law is necessary for perfect life. Obedience to the ten as principles of righteousness safeguarding against wrong habits, together with obedience to physical laws, brings blessing to soul and body. Violating health laws is also breaking God's law just as breaking the ten is. Practices destroying physical, mental or spiritual energies are sin, while obedience to divine precepts connects with health restored or preserved. The ten as moral law place obligation first to God then to self and neighbor, where the second table comprehended in love for neighbor as self presupposes self-love involving self-protection. To injure constitution or health is sinful because God is as truly Author of physical as of moral law, so violating life and health transgresses and sins against God as truly as breaking the ten, and transgressors find the way hard.
Loving appetite and taste more than God is incompatible with loving with whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and violating bodily laws is as much breach of God's law as breaking one of the ten. God shows mercy to thousands loving and keeping by pardoning those who repent, become Christlike, clear the track, remove stumbling blocks from wife and children, redeem the past and make full restitution as far as in power including just support and mercy in family duty. Those refusing to repent and make restitution remain under controversy, face judgments not long delayed, have names blotted from the book of life, and will never see the kingdom.
Christ Gospel and Salvation
Christ knew the glory and full reach of the precepts and unfolded their far-reaching claims in his teaching and in the sermon on the mount, restoring them from being seen as a cold code and from human traditions, and they remain the holy, just, and good standard of righteousness while heaven and earth endure. He revealed the true character of the law spoken at Sinai, stripping away the traditions and petty rules that had obscured it and defining its principles for practical life, so the commandments must be understood in truth and purity and not reduced to technicalities.
Christ kept every commandment in human nature with perfect obedience, passing over the same ground where Adam fell and being tempted in all points yet without sin, proving that obedience is possible and vindicating God's justice in requiring it and his right to pardon transgression. He is the living representative of perfect obedience to the eternal word proclaimed by his own voice on Sinai as Creator, and had he failed on one point Satan would have been victorious, while Satan's earlier effort to find a flaw in the law to argue for its change failed, deceived thousands of angels, and ended in his expulsion without the law being changed in one jot. The law given in great love to order conduct and restrict man to what increases real happiness is perpetual and unchangeable as his character, and through his merits the overcomer can keep it and abide in his love as he abode in his Father's love.
Righteousness is living the law as Christ lived it, for he lived it in humanity and brings power to overcome sin so that weakened sinners may share the divine nature and live in obedience, God not altering his law to accommodate failure but giving his Son in love. The ten holy precepts are the laws of his kingdom by which all are tried, no one being his own having been bought with a price, and Christ bore the penalty of sin to secure a period of probation in which opportunity is given to prove faithful in unselfish use of entrusted talents and gain everlasting life. Obedience does not earn salvation but is the fruit of faith and the test of abiding in Christ, when thoughts, purposes, and actions come into harmony with the standard that defines righteousness, and the law means the life of Christ must be revealed in human life. Faith in Christ enables seeking obedience, his perfection is imputed to cover the transgression of the repentant obedient soul, and the letter of the law showing how to walk to please God and the spirit pointing to him as the atoning sacrifice stand in perfect harmony between law and gospel.
True obedience is faith working by love purifying the soul, giving God whole service rather than mere assent or ceremonial worship, with love to God supremely leading to love and compassion for others, and keeping brings reward even in this life in a clear conscience and peace with God. The law speaks condemnation to those who are not doers and has no power to save the transgressor, but the promised mercy comes through Christ as the world's Sin-bearer, Mediator, and Sin-pardoner for all who come confessing sins and accepting him as Saviour, giving power to become sons of God and receive grace for grace. That mercy does not cancel the law which he gave at Sinai and whose claims he did not lessen, for through his sacrifice God atones for transgression and enables believers to obey, so justice and grace stand together.
The moral code serves as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ, and the rule of life broken by Adam, afterward proclaimed from Sinai and written by God's finger to be kept prominently before the world, means his life must be revealed in human life. Obedience to the divine commands, the first four and the last six faithfully done as right principle against false ideas of principle, is eating his flesh and drinking his blood, appropriating all embraced in the atonement made on Calvary, and those who receive him have him standing by their side with power to become sons of God full of grace and truth. God's character revealed in the ten moral precepts is also seen in the life and attributes of Christ who represents God and makes the Father known, so keeping Christ in view preserves true knowledge of that character as revealed in the commandments.
Truth, holiness, and perfection of character are attainable to everyone who strives, and this is the foundation of the new covenant of the gospel, for the same law from the beginning spoken from Sinai and taught without change remains forever the great standard by which all shall be judged when judgment sits and books are opened. The law of Jehovah is the tree and the gospel the fragrant blossoms and fruit it bears, and Jesus as Head of humanity fulfilled all righteousness to show man can do the same work and meet every specification, furnishing through grace so none need miss heaven and making the path to fulfillment of all righteousness easier in keeping, thus magnifying and honoring the law. The Lord's law is perfect converting the soul, and this genuine conversion in loving God supremely under the first four and neighbor as self under the last six is man's entire duty and the gospel condition of eternal life for every member of the human family, unchangeable and eternal, where failure to love God supremely brings failure to love neighbor and neglect of either brings conviction weighing the life in the balances of the sanctuary and leaving the transgressor self-condemned.
The ten are given for instruction in righteousness as a transcript of character, and to obey them is life with no excuse for transgression, for Christ came to represent the Father and exemplify keeping them, while those claiming to be God's children yet misrepresenting him by disorderly self-will set up their own will as standard, oppose his will, and transgress. The divine authority spoken from Sinai requires obedience rather than a self-made standard of righteousness, and its requirements are not evaded by claiming sanctification, for the law calls for spiritual perfection which cannot be achieved alone but is provided through Christ and union with him. Claimed sanctification that gives no heed to those words and evades what God requires is spurious, setting up self-righteousness instead of the obedience the Lawgiver requires from those who would receive mercy, whereas the moral law teaches and enforces true sanctification in a conversion preached and lived so self does not seek supremacy.
The law spoken at Sinai is the moral standard by which sin and defects of character are exposed, its claims binding so that genuine conversion brings repentance for breaking it and a life of obedience grounded in love for God and faith in atoning blood. It is the standard proclaimed by Christ from Sinai to be clearly upheld as people are shown their transgression. The commandments of Exodus 20:1-17 barricade believers in warfare not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places, and doing them gives life in them.
Idolatry Sabbath and Change
Exodus 20:6 stands inside the command against making and worshiping idols and images, as part of the first two commandments that guard against idolatry because idolatry leads to sin, rebellion, and unchecked evil, joining the warning that iniquity is visited on haters with the promise of mercy to thousands who love God and keep His commandments. The second precept teaches that God alone is to be worshiped and served, forbidding worshiping Him through images and forbidding the honoring of creatures or objects made by human hands. False worship is spiritual adultery, for idolatry dishonors God, corrupts and debases the mind, and leads to sin, while true worship must rest on living faith rather than imagination. Anything that absorbs the mind as an object of undue thought and admiration can become a god placed before the Lord, and God distinguishes true heart-service from idolatry.
The second commandment forbids giving pictures or anything else the love and trust that belong to God, and forbids irreverence from the heart, requiring that keeping reach the heart and not remain outward profession. Accumulating pictures one after another in the home, spending much money on photographs, multiplying faces, and illustrating books largely with grossly false representations of angels, Christ, and all spiritual and heavenly things is becoming idolaters and a species of idolatry that displeases God. The means thus consumed should be used in missionary effort rather than in producing pictures which are not essential, and reform must be decided because these things of apparently little consequence attract the mind and eye and absorb attention at the very time when attention should be given to God. Making and accumulating pictures becomes idolatry when it draws attention away from God and uses resources that should support missionary work, and loving God and keeping His commandments means refusing to displease Him and giving Him undivided attention. This rebukes those in positions of sacred responsibility in the temple courts who weave selfishness into sacred things and use common fire in place of the sacred fire of God's own kindling, and the verse must be studied in this day of test and trial so the Holy Spirit can convict hearts.
The prohibition of image worship does not forbid every use of pictures or images, since God used pictures and symbols to teach prophets, so the commandment does not require destroying every likeness or picture and its application must not be pushed to extremes or imposed on other people's consciences. The ten commandments come sounding down along the line to the present time, holy, just, good and perfect, standing as God's pledged word to all who dwell on earth and of greatest importance to be read and understood. They are to be printed on cards and hung up in prominent places in houses where eyes will fall upon them so hearts and minds are impressed for good with more powerful influence than pictures on walls. Money spent on photographs that fill walls and what-nots with multitudinous idols should by self-denial and self-sacrifice be used instead to feed the poor, clothe the naked, and buy pamphlets and books for those who cannot buy them to enlighten souls in darkness and error.
The second commandment forbidding image worship was expunged by Rome from the law of God to complete the introduction of the adoration of images and relics into Christian worship as a substitute for the worship of idols to promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by converts from heathenism. That system of idolatry was finally established by decree of a general council, the Second Council of Nice in A.D. 787, and the tenth commandment was divided to preserve the number ten. This expunging is the papacy thinking to change times and laws. The prohibition of image worship was removed with the tenth divided to preserve the traditional number.
Exodus 20:4-6 is the second commandment which the papacy dropped while claiming it is unnecessary because included in the first and that the law is given exactly as God designed it to be understood. It is not taught as obligatory in Catholic catechisms, on the claim that its whole significance is contained in the first commandment, and for this omission no intention to change the law is admitted. Trampling upon this commandment with the rest of God's commandments is sin, for sin is the transgression of the law, and by such trampling the Roman church proves its right to the prophetic title mystery of lawlessness. The first and second commandments forbid image worship with mercy shown to thousands who love God and obey Him. Keeping God's law as given there on the one hand, and violating it on the other, makes the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast and his image, whose special characteristic is the breaking of God's commandments. The papacy attempted to change this law by dropping the second commandment forbidding image worship on the claim it is unnecessary and included in the first, and by changing the fourth commandment to authorize observance of the first day instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. Understandingly keeping the law as thus changed gives supreme honor to the power by which the change was made and is a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.
The passage forbids bowing down to an image, and keeping the commandments means refusing to bow even when it costs life. In the Netherlands under Charles V and Philip II, refusing to bow to an image, as well as reading the Bible, hearing or preaching it or even speaking about it, praying to God in secret, and singing a psalm, was punishable by death by the stake. Men who abjured their errors were condemned to die by the sword and women to be buried alive and the steadfast sometimes suffered the same, and thousands perished for this obedience. The Sabbath commandment is part of the commandments given at Sinai, where love for God and obedience to His commandments are joined and mercy is set against the consequences for haters. Its blessing and holiness rest on God's work of creation and His rest on the seventh day, as memorial that He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who made the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and was refreshed and sanctified the seventh day.
The law especially emphasizes the fourth commandment and the sacred obligation of the creation Sabbath, and obedience to all God's requirements including the Sabbath matters, for God's promises are for those who love and obey Him. That law proclaimed to Israel after deliverance from Egypt is God's will, preserved through history and perpetually binding as moral and unchanging, therefore including the seventh-day Sabbath. The fourth commandment identifies God as the Creator of the heavens and earth, and keeping it makes clear who the true and living God is. The first four commandments concern duty to God and the last six duty to other people, and breaking any of them leaves a person out of favor with God. Keeping is joined to honoring the seventh day as the memorial of creation in instruction described as important and to be carefully observed, calling His people to obey His Word. The commandments given at Sinai are the highest source of education and are to be obeyed, and the Sabbath commandment is a sign that God sanctifies His people and its observance is part of the covenant and obedience to His law.
Setting aside one of these commandments and putting in its place a day that bears no sanctity usurps an authority that belongs to God alone and infringes His divine prerogatives. Obeying a human Sunday law that conflicts with them compels transgression of the laws of Jehovah and bears not the stamp of divine approval, for human enactments that conflict with the laws of God do not bear divine approval. All of them must be kept as the commandments God gave in Exodus 20 as Ruler of the world, and persistent violation will be dealt with by Jehovah. The Sunday sabbath is a child of the papacy set forth to be observed as the Lord's Sabbath. The Sabbath is the great test question of loyalty to His great moral standard, the foundation of the faith of prophets and apostles, not left for man to trim down to suit ideas or convenience. Subjects of His kingdom must represent the character of their Sovereign by bringing themselves into subjection to His law rather than bringing His law into subjection to themselves, with precious promises to those who keep His Sabbath from polluting it. Infinite wisdom and power and love are engaged in behalf of the obedient, the heavenly host register their names as among the loyal and true, and it is always safe to be on the Lord's side by committing every temporal and eternal interest into the hands of Him who reigns over all in heaven and on earth.
Love to God is proved by obedience to the whole law, centered in reverence for the Sabbath sanctified and blessed at creation as an everlasting sign between God and His people that He sanctifies them. Reverence for the Sabbath engraved on the first table of stone keeps the first three commandments of duty to God and carries with it the last six commandments of duty to fellow men, for the Sabbath is the covenant sign and golden clasp that unites man to God in supreme obedience and reverence and unites man to his fellow man. Accepting and keeping the Sabbath means obeying the rest of the commandments as well, and no one can truly keep the Sabbath while disregarding another precept of the law. God means exactly what He says in promising mercy, as the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments, and He repays those who hate Him to their face to destroy them without slackness. Obedience to His Word and commandments, including keeping His Sabbath the seventh day and refusing any interpretation that makes disobedience a trifling matter, brings blessing, prosperity, clear spiritual perception, light, grace, and enjoyment of His infinite love, while walking contrary to His plain requirements turns light to darkness.
The Sabbath must be taught in a decided manner, and those who see the light on the Sabbath must take their stand to keep God's holy day and stand firm that they will not violate the law of God even when efforts are brought to compel them to transgress. The commandments are immutable, unchangeable, and eternal, and the reason Christ died is because the law could not be changed, while the Spirit awakens conscience and understanding by bringing the commandments to remembrance. The truth of the commandments must be presented quietly, wisely, and gradually as hearers can bear it, doing genuine missionary work and refraining from what would arouse prejudice, close minds, or bring on the final issue of the Sabbath question before the time. Faithfulness includes refusal to worship images and faithfulness to the true Sabbath even under persecution, as shown by the Waldenses' commitment to God's commandments despite persecution. The commandments were proclaimed from Sinai by Christ Himself, so to profess belief in Christ while violating His law is transgression and sin.
Mercy is shown to those who love Christ by keeping His commandments, with the Sabbath question as the great test for this time, and this demand for obedience belongs to the third angel's message and must be proclaimed with power in a way that impresses people, with a certain sound, not in a tame and voiceless and indefinite manner. The commandments Christ proclaimed are to be lifted up as a central test and presented clearly, because churches that profess Christ can still violate God's law. Showing that sin with a certain sound is the special work of the third angel's message, for sin has made human condition preternatural so restoration requires supernatural wisdom, and revealing Christ in spirit and action communicates the peculiar gift of the knowledge of God. The same divine voice that proclaimed the law at Sinai now declares that priests and rulers are transgressing that law. The mercy promised includes the Sabbath, the commandments must be believed just as written and done as the Lord directed, and no one can be saved while refusing to keep the Sabbath. God's will is revealed in His Word to those who search the Scriptures with earnest prayer for opened understanding and a mind willing to receive light, and those who do His commandments have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.
Practice in Daily Life
Exodus 20 as a whole should be studied by everyone who professes to keep God's commandments, for its proclamation from Sinai will stand as a witness against the world in the judgment and its principles will decide every destiny, and keeping it in truth and righteousness means obeying every command and respecting the laws instituted in Eden. The commandments specified in Exodus 20 are suitable to be read frequently on the Sabbath, having first been given in Eden and then repeated when the Lord came down on Sinai with Father and Son present together on the holy mount. The verse is part of the law God Himself spoke at Sinai as positive instruction, vindicating and magnifying that law, and it belongs to the holy law spoken in majesty and glory whose importance is measured by Christ's summary of love for God and neighbor. Keeping therefore matters because God extends mercy to thousands who love Him and keep His commandments, so His instruction about the commandments must be understood and obeyed and taken seriously through to Exodus 31 in belief and obedience, and the holy law spoken at Sinai is to be kept through love for God and neighbor as evidence of true religion and a life shaped by God's love.
The verse belongs to the Ten whose sacredness and binding claims are to be upheld as connecting obedience with promised blessing, and to the law given at Sinai whose sacredness and claims are to be revealed where persistent refusal brings judgments intended in mercy to awaken transgressors to sin and peril. The Ten are to be printed in plain letters in a prominent place because hardly anyone knows what the Bible says about the Sabbath, and God's law is to be vindicated by obedience of heart and mind and by strong argument, for if obeyed the wickedness now seen would never have existed. They were given at Sinai as sacred enduring law, binding including the Sabbath command, to be taught to children so they can obey God, and children are taught to respect what they plainly command and forbid through obedience. Exodus 20:1-17 presents the Ten as the foundation of faith calling for reverence and obedience, where obedience sanctifies and just, pure, true conduct expresses individual responsibility before God.
God's law requires more than outward observance, for the principles of all ten are to be honored daily and written on the heart, outward Sabbath-keeping alone does not save, and willing obedience is a first principle of spiritual renewal. Commandment-keeping marks a willing relationship with the Father, for at Sinai God proclaimed His law to reveal its sacredness and His authority and to inspire confidence in Him. That law spoken at Sinai provides the standard for forming character and states what obedience and loyalty require, its duties summed in love for God and neighbor, and as ten precepts pointing out duty it leaves people responsible whether they accept or reject the light shown them. In the Ten the will of God is expressed and obeying is the way to know true doctrine, for they are the laws of His kingdom to be obeyed because He rules as head over all, and as a father's respected laws bring order and happiness while disregard brings confusion, so obedience brings order under God's government.
The commandments identify the true God and set out duty, the first four concerning duty to God and the last six duty to fellow men, so that breaking any leaves a person out of favor, with the fourth identifying God as Creator of heaven and earth. The first four are not of far greater importance than the last six nor the last six above the first, for neglect of the last six fails in practical godliness and relations of life while keeping them requires good works, mercy, benevolence, and character known by fruits. Supreme love for riches makes full love impossible and shuts the eyes to need, so a treasure-set heart fails the first four requiring whole heart, soul and mind and also fails the last six hanging on neighbor love. The Decalogue calls for more than outward conduct, for defiled hearts fail to keep it and lack zeal for good works, and keeping belongs to love as an active principle of willing obedience to all requirements with the first four setting out duty to the Creator. Obeying the first four leads to obeying the last six in tender pitying love and missionary service toward others, for the law's principles are love for God and neighbor.
The law of Ten is the hedge planted around God's vineyard, His church as peculiar treasure, distinguishing Israel from all other nations, and as protective hedge obedience preserves from results of transgression and brings health, happiness, peace and joy, with familiarity with His word enabling required character. The ten holy precepts contain principles of heavenly origin to govern every particular that can never be changed to meet fallen man, valuable because from the Author of pure principles as transcript of His character, the only safe guide, foundation, rule, and standard of judgment to be held by It is written without turning aside, so that maintaining principle means preserving heavenly not earthborn self-originated policy, any doctrine without them is unsafe, and whoever does not make them life's foundation works on the enemy's side. The plain principles proclaimed from Sinai expose sin and call to obey rather than claim authority for contrary action, and their truth and authority require every person to acknowledge God's words in humility, confession and repentance, for disobedience while claiming to do His will stands on ruin's brink.
The law spoken from Sinai lays binding claims to love and perfect service to Creator and duty to men, requiring mental and moral powers with affections centered on God in whom hopes of eternal life center, appreciating His claims and obeying understandingly the conditions for eternal riches and immortal expanding mind, with laws plain, distinct, public and certain. It is to be obeyed as a matter of life, and its requirements are to be understood and obeyed as His voice. Healthful mental action depends on physical health, so temperance and harmony with natural law and laws of being are necessary to keep intellect clear to discern and rightly do the law whatever the consequence, since intemperance caused the first parents' fall by transgression and lessened vigor through perverted habits and ignorance leaves men unable to serve and makes them transgressors of the ten. God's holy commandments cannot live in hearts careless about cleanliness and order, for Israel was commanded to wash clothes before hearing the law as reverence, and profession is empty when habits and surroundings are filthy and disorderly.
God's character is expressed in the Ten, His law perfect converting the soul, and He is to be known as revealed in marvelous works and law distinct from wisdom, intellect and power of which He is Author, so knowing Him in His law is the science of goodness, truth and righteousness and every expression of character therein must be obeyed. The far-reaching principles require obedience and perfect conformity of heart, mind and soul to expressed will, revealing grace, mercy and love, missed when attention is fixed on earthly concerns. Obedience in spirit and letter shows loyalty and covenant relationship, calling to supreme love for God and neighbor love, and the Ten are God's clear standard for discerning truth and guiding conduct. They carry Thus saith the Lord force above human customs, traditions, maxims and teachings handed down through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, which must never be made all-essential over them nor allowed to void God's command, and Christ upheld them as truth in purity distinct from human maxims.
Respect for the unchanged authority of the Ten means refusing drunkenness that brings misery and destroys reason, for freedom in Christ is freedom to obey not freedom from law. Their principles must govern business dealings, for ignoring them by injustice misrepresents God's character, and the great holy merciful God never joins dishonest practice nor vindicates injustice, His cause free from taint gaining nothing by robbing God's family of individuality or rights, with all oppression and wickedness abhorrent to Him. Mercy and character are misrepresented by dishonest or unjust conduct, and those dealing unjustly misrepresent Him. They are to be practiced in every line of work especially by the responsible, so God's cause is not marked by human imperfection and God dishonored, lest stumbling blocks ruin precious souls. Keeping them means keen equity in judgment, watching, praying and working with eye single to God's glory before heaven, representing Christ in every transaction with tender, pure, true, compassionate heart, clean hands, Christ's maxims, supreme love for God and neighbor love, never using His cause to excuse oppression nor letting business crowd out love.
The direction given at deliverance from Egypt calls for highest regard and living by it, keeping from looseness and carelessness regarding chastity, so that all living by these Sinai laws may be safely trusted, especially physicians in medical work who must guard against liberties, transgression and carelessness. The Ten set one standard for every position and age with all accountable to serve faithfully, to be practiced so conduct does not dishonor God or cause stumbling, giving rules for dealings as wise, just and good from a loving Father whose blessing comes to the obedient connected with Him, to be obeyed wholeheartedly alike by authority and subjects. Dishonest dealing and sharp scheming worldly-policy plans break all ten, first four and last six, and greatly dishonor God, while no circumstance excuses least injustice to brother or neighbor and no advantage for His cause may come by oppression or denying just rights. Business principles must govern religious practice as well, for claiming wrongdoing advances His cause does not make it acceptable. The extortion, robbery, unfair transactions and unholy traffic by priests and rulers in the outer courts transgressed that Sinai law proclaimed by Christ's own clear ringing voice later heard in the Jerusalem temple.
Obedience requires self-examination, righting wrongs, restitution in deed not word only, cleansing defilement, and thorough heart-searching, for God sees every corner. Keeping means taking responsibility for debts helped to create and sharing to pay them rather than leaving burden on others carrying the work in more favorable surroundings, for sharing debt burden is in harmony with the commandments. Their lessons of whole-being love for God and neighbor love are essential for physicians to learn from Christ the great Physician, and those loving and keeping live by them as the physician's standard, rejecting condemned traditions and practices. The divine commandments are binding and must not be set aside, for disregard leads to further disobedience destroying safety, family protection, peace and order, allowing open violations unrebuked hinders heaven's blessing, and making the law void is a grave national offense.
The law lies at the foundation of all right laws, so framers of national laws should understand what is written in Exodus 20:1-17, and the capital at the nation's heart should have full rays of present truth through decided proclamation of the testing truths of the third angel's message. Its principles are those of God's government, everlasting and inexorable as His character, to be kept before people because society's safety and reform depend on clear fundamental truth, and all enlightened civil law restraining wrong under penalty is founded on Jehovah's Sinai law requiring respect for society's good, as the inebriate shows to whom divine and human law are meaningless with benumbed senses unable to comprehend Sinai, seeking to lower the standard to his debasement instead of rising to meet it. It is the foundation of government in heaven and earth and basis of enlightened laws, so keeping means rejecting drunkenness and tobacco, obedience would prevent misery, poverty, crime and physical harm, while ministers teaching against or violating it lead youth to disregard.
Loyalty keeps God's law despite opposition and contempt, and keeping all ten marks His people distinct from worshipers of the beast, bringing dragon hostility which lowering the standard would end, while the faithful hold the trampled precept sacred and defiers trample it despite warnings. The Ten are linked with the testimony inseparably, and restoration is especially opposed because it brings the Sabbath back into view for which rejecters are accountable. Obedience to the Sinai commandments is urged as part of proclaiming present truth under the standard bearing the commandments of God and faith of Jesus. They are moral standards violated by falsehood, theft and unchastity, yet some learning the right way become zealous to obey. Those avoiding duty to escape reproach may violate them, rejecting light and conforming to the world rather than enduring reproach, and having light on simple eating and dressing in obedience to moral and physical law then turning to shun the cross and avoid reproach blunts conscience and leads to violating instead of loving and keeping.
Those loving and keeping live as a separated purified people viewing world and religion differently from pleasure-loving professors who shun the cross and violate the fourth. Love joined to keeping applies to eating and dress, so turning from known moral and physical duties to avoid hardship or ridicule can lead to violating. Those loving, serving and keeping must be allowed to follow conviction on unsettled diet questions like eating butter, with no force on conscience and no disunion over differences, though firm as rock to Sinai principles. Keeping forbids for pride and ambition taking an advance step in Freemasonry, for that gives up truth, bonds to worldly honor and ruins the soul, requiring cutting loose to stand as converted free man, since the Ten given to every man take priority over worldly honor. The ten holy precepts are God's requirements and standard instead of fashion, wearing His yoke meaning obedient duty, while Satan's nonconforming yokes are heavy and Christ in every age breaks worldly bonds to free from them.
The commandments must not be disregarded, for wholehearted belief follows rather than choosing one's own path, and leaders and followers in disregard stand guilty and under curse. They are the Father's will given in Eden amid joy and spoken audibly from Sinai, where sin is transgression, character must harmonize, mere Lord, Lord profession bears evil fruit, mighty works with iniquity meet rejection, hearing and doing builds on rock against fall while hearing without doing builds on sand to great fall, and non-doing professors corrupt many from obedience. As royal holy law expressing character and judgment standard, immutable and perfect, to be taught by parents rising, sitting, going and coming as Christ in the cloud directed Moses, universal obedience by parents and children would stop theft, robbery, murder and filling of jails, for whole duty is to love God and keep His commandments. They call for practical godliness and true manhood, reform, restored reverence, sanctification, manifest foundation of faith, enforcement of every precept, awakened responsibility in just, pure, true action, and are to be character's foundation with Christ's words chosen over sophistry.
The ten holy precepts are laws of Christ's kingdom and rule of trial, for none is his own having been bought with price, God jealous of His law tests obedience and unselfish use of talents, and though sin's penalty is death Christ bore it to secure probation in which to prove value to Him who gave His Son for everlasting life. The verse rebukes those in sacred temple responsibility who weave selfishness into sacred things and offer common fire for sacred fire, showing loving and keeping means refusing to displease God with undivided attention, to be studied in test and trial for Spirit conviction, since even small attractions absorbing due attention break love and obedience. The second commandment forbids irreverence and reaches the heart beyond profession, bearing on speech which reveals heart condition. God speaks in direct Thou shalt and Thou shalt not, and parents are to copy saying No decidedly without temper, refusing children license to handle and throw everything, teaching from earliest years against uneducated will, for neatness, cleanliness and order with bad habits quenched at first, because heaven has order and God requires disciplined orderly families.
The Ten are His household law to be strictly obeyed without sinless swerving, requiring parents and children to harmonize habits with His plans in faith and works with pervading holiness, children honoring parents rather than following desire without counsel, parents keeping the Lord's way with Christlike example purged of commonness in decent order, bringing angels and holy joy, while lax refractory principles dishonor God. The two tables are broken when passion, self-will, unwise speech and acts replace God's way, dishonoring Him and harming truth and souls. His law is the moral standard to be obeyed with promised mercy within it, and disregarding it and exalting a rival sabbath opposes it and brings displeasure. The Sinai law as Christ's teaching through Moses, including the Sabbath, is to be taught with Jesus' personal teachings, Old and New Testaments illuminating each other as inseparable whole.
The Ten are words of the living God with full force above human customs through rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, which when made all-essential and more binding held back followers and kept disciples from advancing and efficient work. The great Holy One is jealous and His Sinai holy law is part of Himself, so He will have only holy men to carry truth and only strict loving observers honor Him by teaching it, not entrusting flock to minds weakened by cherished errors like perfectionism and spiritualism that reproached truth, even if now feeling free and competent for the last message. Its claims are binding including the fourth on which new believers saw light, where immoral violation gives enemies occasion to reproach, discourages learners, and brings aggravated guilt and fearful retribution without humble repentance. Its principles reach far beyond brief precepts with added instructions to explain and apply them, proclaimed with power and glory to impress sacredness, importance and permanence. It is the unchangeable standard of right-doing for the judgment, connected with the Sabbath, and its precepts given to govern mankind are to be respected and obeyed even at cost in personal purity protecting home from vice.
In great love God gave the Sinai precepts to order conduct and restrict to what increases real happiness now and for fellows, perpetual as His character with no smallest claim abolished, and obedience is possible for Christ in humanity passed where Adam stumbled with perfect obedience proving man can keep through His merits as overcomer. Keeping is abiding in Christ's love as He abode in the Father's, ennobling and sanctifying heart and mind in daily life and giving moral fitness through Christ for heaven and angels, so doers and teachers are called great while breakers and teachers of breaking are called least with no place in the kingdom, the letter specifying walk to please God and the spirit pointing to Christ's atonement for fulfilling requirements in harmony of law and gospel, where transgressors face surely die yet repentant penitents turning to the Saviour shall as surely be saved as Christ died. The Ten express character and give rules for all including children in dealings, with blessing attending obedient connection and no sinless departure.
Those loving and keeping with law written in heart take it as sole authority, live by every word with good conscience, conform to every good land law, yet when rulers conflict even least with God's command must disobey men rather than deviate, deciding only whether to obey God or man, so keeping forbids engaging in perplexing war where truth and officers cannot both be obeyed without continual conscience violation, under the higher Sinai law engraved by God's finger supreme in wisdom and authority bringing subjection as spirit and life and founding all righteous laws. The Decalogue demands more than outward conduct with binding claims where transgression is sin, for defiled hearts fail and genuine obedience needs changed heart and firm principle not passing feeling. God gave Israel His law as statement of claims to obey, honor and remember the Creator, to be loved and kept from love as required obedience, but Israel would not obey and forgot, so ceremonies were added to stir obligation which obedient love would not have needed, and the same law continues for professed peculiar treasure, where obedience as specified would make special awakening testimonies to duty and danger unnecessary. Love for the Supreme Ruler is revealed by keeping with required perfect self-purification as He is pure with every provision against sin, the commandments not left unknown but repeated by God Himself from Sinai enshrouded in cloud distinctly and solemnly before thunderings, lightnings, trumpet and smoking mountain.
In love and pity God warns before punishing, making law and penalties clear for highest good, and health reform light shows violating natural law by appetite and passion violates His law, with warning message sent before punishment at the Lord's coming, reform as a branch fitting a people for coming as closely joined to the third angel's message as hand to body, published distinctly like a city on a hill understandable to all intelligent beings who alone are responsible, and obedience would have prevented widespread disease though insulting Him by harming body and mind still meets extended love and light to obedience. Loving and keeping includes showing mercy, for the commandments are misrepresented by professing loyalty while neglecting spirit, neighbor love and practical compassion to needy sufferers, showing God does not reign supreme and failing His heart claim.