WSC Q&A #79

Q: What is the Tenth Commandment?
A: The tenth commandment is, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.
Luke 12:15 And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

As we've seen consistently during our study of the 10 commandments, the commandments are not merely concerned with outward actions, but also the inward conditions of our hearts. If anyone has doubted that reality, then the 10th commandment should put those doubts to rest. Here we have a commandment that deals, not with external actions such as worshiping an idol, failing to keep the Sabbath, stealing, or murdering someone, but rather, here we have a commandment that deals completely with the inward condition of our hearts. Here is a commandment that deals fully with our thoughts, the lustings of our hearts, our own jealousy. Coveting is an action of the heart, and this command shows us that we are just as sinful on the inside as we are on the outside. 

Starr Meade writes:

When we know a person has murdered someone, we put that person in jail. When we know someone has stolen something, we put that person in jail as well. We all agree that murderers and thieves are lawbreakers. People often think they are law-keepers because they have never done anything that would send them to jail. They are not criminals so they must be good people. This is not how God sees it. God gave the law, "You shall not covet", for people who think they are good just because they have never gone to jail. All of us would have to admit that we have broken this law. All of us have been unhappy because we did not have something we wanted. We have felt jealous because of what someone else had or was allowed to do. God wants us to see that we all break this law. He wants us to know that even if this were the only law we had ever broken, we would be just as guilty as if we had broken every law there is.

Worth Reading

Psalm 138

Do you come to our gathered worship service expecting God to speak to you through his Word? We encourage you to prayerfully read through the passage that will be preached prior to the service to help you prepare.

How Should Christians Think About Corporate Apologies?

Helpful read in light of the post last week related to our denomination’s statement of repentance regarding racial sin. This statement of repentance will be included in our bulletin this week.

The Savior at the Well

Concluding paragraph of an important and timely article:

We have unique cultural challenges in our day--challenges that tempt us to be silent on the difficult truths of Scripture, challenges to fear man rather than God and challenges to allow sin to go unchecked. We all feel the temptation to want to make Christianity more palatable for the masses by taking away from our presentation of it whatever our culture deems offensive. There is something right about our need to be cautious about our own offensiveness. We should never want to be offensive by means of our personal tone or motives in presenting the Gospel to men and women; however, we must always recognize that the Gospel is necessarily offensive in that it--working together with the Law of God--exposes our sin and shows us that our only hope is in the message of the crucified and risen Christ. While we acknowledge that we are exactly like the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the prodigal son, Zacchaeus and the thief on the cross, we need not turn from telling others about the nature of sin and of the eternal danger that they continue to face in if they will not turn from it to the Savior who stands ready to forgive and cleanse His people by His grace. It is the most loving thing that we can do for our neighbors and fellow image bearers.

Trouble in Bakersfield

There you have it: A popular, longstanding, and effective member of a school board has had to stand down—not because he does not enjoy the confidence of the community, but simply because he does not accept the latest demands that every knee must bow to whatever the political taste of the moment has decided is non-negotiable.

Worth Reading

Psalm 13

Do you come to our gathered worship service expecting God to speak to you through his Word? We encourage you to prayerfully read through the passage that will be preached prior to the service to help you prepare.

Our denomination’s statement of repentance regarding racial sin

This seems even more important in light of recent events. Lord have mercy on us.

Is Black Lives Matter the New Civil Rights?

I began this way because I want you to know it’s right and good for us to be talking about ethnocentrism and racism in the church. Jesus still sees it, and Jesus still hates it. But our hope is that Jesus still cleanses it out of his church. And, despite our historic failures and present struggles, Jesus will make his house a house of prayer for all nations.

What Shootings and Racial Justice Mean for the Body of Christ

The path ahead will be difficult, but it will require the Body of Christ—the whole Body of Christ—to call one another to moral awareness and action. That starts with acknowledging that we have a problem. When the videos are no longer viral, our witness must still be Christian.

WSC Q&A #78

Q: What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?
A: The ninth commandment forbids whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own or our neighbor's good name.
Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

From Starr Meade: 

God only speaks what is true. God created us to be righteous and holy. He created us to speak and to love the truth as He does. Adam sinned by listening to Satan's lie rather than obeying God's truth. As a result, all of us are born as sinners who love falsehood more than truth. When God saves us and causes us to be born again, He changes us so that we want to live for God and please Him. He gives us a new love for the truth. Christians show that God has changed their hearts when they avoid falsehood and speak only what is true.

I think what is important here about this commandment is that knowing, speaking, and loving the truth is not simply about being "right". It's not simply about knowing and proclaiming facts. It's about loving what God loves. It's about reflecting God's character in our lives. When we indulge in lies, when we slander our neighbors, when we discredit our own good name, what we're really doing is declaring that we "love falsehood more than truth". And to love falsehood more than truth is to love a lie more than we love God. If we are truly desiring to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and if we are truly desiring to love our neighbor as ourselves, then we will love and declare the truth, again not so that we can simply be "right", but rather, because we want to love God, and love the things that God himself loves. 

Worth Reading

Psalm 119:153-160

Do you come to our gathered worship service expecting God to speak to you through his Word? We encourage you to prayerfully read through the passage that will be preached prior to the service to help you prepare.

FEAR NOT, THE UNIVERSE IS WILDLY OUT OF YOUR CONTROL

Things are wildly out of my control but they are not out of control. These things are set in place. Designed. Ordered. Governed. Even the airline database of cancelled flights. Feeling my smallness helped me to feel God’s vastness. My circumstances were in his control.

2016 PCA General Assembly: Moving Forward Together

Amy and I had the privilege of attending our denomination’s annual assembly last week in Alabama. Richard Phillips gives a balanced summary of some of the main actions of the assembly in this article.

EXPLORING EVANGELICALISM: THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

Bryan Chapell explains the defining characteristics of the PCA. This may be of particular interest to those who are new to Proclamation or our denomination.