Month: July 2019

Re:Verse passage – Exodus 20:16 (day three)

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

It’s not uncommon that other people in your life would become useful to you in the same way that chess pieces are useful to a Grandmaster surveying the board. But regarding someone as useful and regarding someone as valuable are not the same things. When you regard a person as useful, you will think nothing of placing on that person all the responsibility and culpability from which you want to escape. If on the other hand, you regard a person as valuable, you will know that he or she is the very one who can build the kind of life with you in which you help one another grow in character. You will destroy a person you regard as useful. A person you regard as valuable will save your life.

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:16 (day two)

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

Words matter. You may say that I am in the business of words. Each week I pore over texts that we will sing in the coming services. What do they say about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit? Are they calling us to action? Do I affirm the theology of these words. It is amazing how a turn of a phrase can compromise clear understanding of the Gospel. Words matter.

You may not pore over poetry, lyrics, or anthems like I do, but your source of verbal communication is the words you speak. You have the power to build up or tear down by what you say. To edify or rebuke. Bearing false witness speaks to us on how we use our words beyond telling the truth. We must not lie, that is not in dispute, but we must also find ways to affirm who Jesus is through the words we use. When talking to or about someone take a moment to reflect on how what you are about to say will resound in Jesus’ ears. Is it worth it? Generally, no.

Perhaps we should remember the old saying. “Preach the Gospel. When necessary, use words.”

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day seven)

“You shall not steal” is an economic commandment covering a wide assortment of monetary sins from stealthily taking something of value to excessive interest to inaccurate measurements to allowing your cattle to graze on another’s pasture etc. Each of these examples reveals a greed that preys on a neighbor to fatten our heart at their expense.

James 5 describes it this way: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (James 5:1-5)

May our hearts seek a holy way strengthened by the Spirit in the ways of our Lord leading us toward generosity instead of greed.

 

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day six)

“You shall not steal.”

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. -Paul, Philippians 4:19

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he concludes with thanking them for how they have helped during his time of need. He then makes the above promise, “My God will give to you in your need because you are rich in Christ Jesus!”

In God’s economy, according to the riches in glory in Christ Jesus, He gives to us so that through us He may give to others. We do not steal, simply because we have no lack, in fact we are rich! God has given to us, and we then give to others; we bless others. That’s the kind of community, or nation, God desired to build with the Hebrew people, and is now building in His church.

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day five)

“You shall not steal.”

Theft reveals a lack of faith in God and a lack of love for our neighbor.

If we do trust in God’s promise and capability to supply all our needs, then there could be no reason to steal. Theft by a believer in any fashion is a sin against God and His providence.

If stealing evidences an absence of love (trust) for God, it also demonstrates a disregard for loving our neighbor. Martin Luther says we break the eighth commandment whenever we take “advantage of our neighbor in any sort of dealing that results in loss to them”.

Jesus summed it up:  We must love the Lord with fierce determination. We must also love our neighbors with compassion and graciousness.

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day four)

“You shall not steal.”

Most people in this digital age are guilty of stealing music, movies, and other media. I confess that when Napster came out in the year 1999, I downloaded all of the music I wanted. It was made possible because of the Internet. Many in the world watch bootleg movies without paying a cent for them. The sin of stealing becomes less serious to the public if everyone cheats on a test or “shares” the music with a million other people.

How serious is this sin in your life? Do you really care what God thinks? This sin is what led me to true repentance when I was in college. “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24).” When I looked into the mirror of the Ten Commandments I began to see my sin as serious and feared the Lord enough to ask Him for help. I saw myself for what I truly was: a thief.

Jesus came to my rescue and made me a new creation. I got rid of all that I had stolen and purchased what I truly needed. The chains of selfishness that led me to steal and sin against God fell away. I became a slave to righteousness. Let the law bring you to Christ so you can be set free.

Byron Pitts
Director of Community Missions & Evangelism

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day three)

“You shall not steal.”

It’s not uncommon that people would cloud the meaning of this commandment, just a little. And a little is all it takes to produce a larcenous kind of life. It’s a short step from the belief that this commandment exists to protect your personal property, to the belief that you deserve to own as much as you can. By that reasoning, the more you acquire, the more security God owes you. But this commandment doesn’t protect your stuff from others. It is rather meant to protect others from you by forming your heart in such a way that you become a giver instead of a taker. The eighth commandment sets only two ways of life before you: If you’re not giving, you’re taking. Giving protects others; taking endangers them.

Re:Verse passage –Exodus 20:15 (day two) 

“You shall not steal.”

You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit. Do you know this phrase? If you do it likely that you have spent some time around toddlers recently. It is amazing that no matter what you give a child they immediately try and take what is given to the next child. If we are not content with where we have been placed in life, in status, in relationships the result can be to act out in a way to claim something that will alter our situation. We take possessions, we claim ideas, we cheat to get ahead when we are not content with where God has placed us. This is not a possession problem, it is a heart problem. The amount of things will not define us. Our relationship with the Lord will. Bloom where you are planted. Be content in all things.