WSC Q&A #74

Q: What is required in the eighth commandment?
A: The eighth commandment requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others. 
Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 

"You shall not steal", as a command, reminds us that we are to legally acquire material possessions. The most common way for this, of course, is through hard work, which is both in accord with the laws of our land and the laws of God. However, motivation matters. Are we working hard to acquire material goods for our own benefit, comfort, enjoyment, or are we doing it with the interests of others in mind? If these commandments are ultimately about loving our neighbors as ourselves, then the eighth commandment has to also work on that level. The command to not steal is a prohibition that protects our neighbors. But, as the catechism and Phil. 2:4 points out, there is also something positive here. Not only are we to use legal means of acquiring wealth and possessions, we are to acquire wealth and possessions so as to protect the interests of our neighbors. In other words, the eighth commandment is not just about making sure we acquire wealth legally, it is about making sure we acquire wealth legally SO THAT we can actively improve and protect the interests of others. We can see, then, that within the prohibition of this commandment, there is a positive action taking place. We should be, by legally acquiring and furthering our wealth and outward estates, doing it for the betterment of our neighbors, and of course ultimately, to the glory of God. 

WSC Q&A #73

Q: Which is the eighth commandment?
A: The eighth commandment is, Thou shall not steal.
Ephesians 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 

Star Meade makes an excellent point in Teaching Hearts, Training Minds concerning the eighth commandment. She says that really, the first four commandments teach us about not stealing from God. That's very true, isn't it? What are we doing when we worship false gods, worship God in a way that is not pleasing to him but rather is pleasing to us, use his name without the reverence it is due, or neglect to keep his sabbath? We are really stealing from God the glory, honor, obedience, and reverence that he is due, and we are failing to the love the LORD our God with all our heart, strength, soul, and mind.

But now, the eighth commandment talks about stealing from our fellow mankind. Remember that these last six commandments are all about instructing us on how to love our neighbor as ourselves. One way we do that is by respecting them, and respecting the things that belong to them. When we steal, we are really saying to someone, "You are not as valuable as me, therefore you do not deserve the things you have. They should be mine because I deserve them." This attitude is not an attitude of love. It's not an attitude of viewing others as valuable (or more valuable) than ourselves. So over the next several weeks, as usual, we'll explore the eighth commandment and see what outward actions and inward thoughts are at play here, and how this commandment helps us to see how we can love others as we love ourselves, and ultimately bring God glory. 

 

WSC Q&A #72

Q: What does the seventh commandment forbid?
A: The seventh commandment forbids thinking, saying or doing anything impure.
Ephesians 5:3-4 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Once again, I find Starr Meade's family devotional on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, "Teaching Hearts, Training Minds", particularly helpful this week. She does an excellent job at reminding us of why the seventh commandment forbids what it forbids:

When people break this commandment and commit adultery, they never do it suddenly, with no warning. People break this commandment because they have been thinking about what it would be like to break it. What we do always comes from what we have been thinking. God requires us to be pure in our thinking. That means that the things we put into our minds need to be pure things. Read Philippians 4:8. This verse describes the kinds of things with which we should fill our minds. We should choose the music we listen to, the books we read, and the television shows we watch based on how well this verse describes them. When we first see or hear something that we know is not pure, we do not like it and we think that it is wrong. The more we watch or listen, though, the less it bothers us. Instead of using God's Word to decide these things, we let the shows we watch and the music we hear tell us what is right and what is wrong.

I believe this is a right, and very challenging point to make. Sin, and not just adultery, flourishes when we set our minds and hearts on what is impure. Our outward actions come from what is inside of us. If we desire to live holy, pure lives, we must feed our hearts, minds, and souls with "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely". 

WSC Q&A #71

Q: What is required in the seventh commandment?
A: The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor's chastity, in heart, in speech and behavior. 
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. 

Chastity is not a word we use very much today. In fact, the word probably has a lot of negative stereotypes attached to it. It may conjure up medieval images of maidens locked in towers by their fathers to keep them "pure", or perhaps stereotypes of Puritanical societies (based mostly upon Nathaniel Hawthorne's intentionally inaccurate depictions) where even discussing the subject of "sex" was considered impure and taboo. But the idea of chastity is not an idea that we as the people of God should shy away from. All of us, whether we are married, whether we are single, whether we are male or female, are called to be chaste. That is to say, we have a call to remain sexually pure, not only in our actions, but also in our hearts, thoughts, and speech. And not only are we to preserve our own chastity, we are to strive to preserve our neighbor's chastity as well. 

Sexual purity, again not merely the outward actions but also the inward thoughts and conditions of our hearts, is about preserving God's pattern for sexuality. God designed sexual acts to be part of the marriage covenant. He designed the physical, emotional, and spiritual bond of sex to point to and reflect the reality of God's covenant with his people. It reflects the reality that God is our God, and we are his people forever, and this covenant is an intimate, pure, and close relationship! The God of all creation draws intimately close to his people, and this is a "closed relationship". We have no other God, and he has no other people. When we take sex out of the boundaries that God himself has put on it, we pervert God's good gift and we pervert his design for this gift. 

This is why we are to pursue, to protect, to desire sexual purity in all aspects of our lives, and to preserve as far as we can the sexual purity of our neighbors. In doing so, we declare the goodness of God's gift and we declare the goodness of God's everlasting covenant between him and his people. We honor God and his design for his creation when we strive to live chaste lives. 

WSC Q&A #70

Q: Which is the seventh commandment?
A: The seventh commandment is, you shall not commit adultery
Matthew 5:27–28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Marriage is one of the most sacred institutions God has given mankind. When God created Adam and saw that he was alone, for the first time in his creation-work he said, "it is not good". This is because God created man in the image of God, and to bear the image of God means that we are relational, just as God is relational. We were created for fellowship and union with not only God, but also with each other. Marriage is one way in which the image of God is expressed in our relationships. 

Because of this, we need to have a broad understanding of what adultery is. It is not simply sexual unfaithfulness within the marriage relationship. It is anything  that perverts, twists, rips out of context anything that belongs to marriage alone. We'll talk more about this in the coming weeks as we look at what the commandment requires, and what it forbids.

This is another hard commandment, particularly as we realize that adultery goes far beyond simply having extra-marital affairs. But if we are united to Jesus Christ, then we know that the image of God is being renewed in us, and part of what that means is that the Holy Spirit is restoring us and making us more like Jesus every day. Because of this, these laws, these commandments, they no longer become a burden that condemns us, but rather, they are seen as God's good design. They are part of his love and care for us as he reveals what is best for us and how we can best enjoy his good gifts. They also become a joy and an encouragement as we seek to live lives of gratitude in the service of our great God, who has forgiven all of our transgressions-past, present, and future-for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ.