Old Testament

I must admit, somewhat ashamedly, that when I began this series several weeks ago, I thought I’d find that I had broken a few of the Ten Commandments, but overall, I felt I was doing pretty good.
Oh, how sadly I was mistaken! Again and again as I read what others had said about the Commandments, and then added Jesus’ own thoughts in the Sermon on the Mount, I found that I have been unable to fully keep even a single one of these commandments. Not even one.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21). Let’s start with a definition. Kevin DeYoung explains, “We covet when we want for ourselves what belongs to someone else…. Coveting longs for someone else’s stuff to be your stuff.”[1]

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16; Deut. 5:20) Put in more simple terms, this command warns us that we are not to lie. About anything; anywhere; anytime. But let’s deal with what the Bible means when it speaks of giving false witness. Most immediately this refers to testifying falsely in a…

Kevin DeYoung sets the stage for us when he says, “As he is apt to do, Jesus makes the one commandment we would have thought we were all going to feel pretty good about into one of the commandments we all feel pretty bad about.”