These Eleven Commandments!
A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men's Help Ministries

I am willing to bet you a rusty bent nail that you can't name all eleven commandments. You can't can you? Can you name eight? Five? Think about it for a second, just how many commandments can you name. We have a modern malady that is occurring in some, not all churches, but far too many. People are becoming less and less acquainted with the commandments that God handed out! Come to think of it I am willing to bet that several of you even, have already thought to correct me and say that there are only ten commandments! To those I only can say, my point stands made! Indeed God has given us eleven commandments, not ten! Moses went up to the mountain to be alone with God and receive from Him, His will for His people. You remember the story, Moses got back to the camp and found every one neck deep in sin. He broke the tablets and had to go back and plead with God for more!

The Word:
Exodus 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. [3]"You shall have no other gods before* me. God wants us to be always mindful that He is the God of the universe and we are an easily distractible creation. There is a saying, “whatever you talk about the most, that is what you worship.” What dominates your conversation Christian? Money, your job, fishing, the opposite sex?

Exodus 20:4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. What is an Idol? It is any physical object or action that you adore more than God. A car, a boat, watching sports, shopping, gossiping anything that you pour more of your life into than you do God is an idol. A ministry can even become an idol!

Exodus 20:7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Just how do you use the Lord's name in vain? The classic two word curse pops first into mind, but it doesn't stop there. It is applying God's name or invoking God's name in any situation that you don't mean it or are insincere. Simply closing a prayer that you do not mean can do just that. Invoking God's name or attaching it to anything is very powerful, remember He created the universe! Anytime you use His name you should have the utmost sincerity and genuiness, and reverence in your heart!

Exodus 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. Why does this one seem to get displaced in the modern society. I could dig up when in history that the particular day was changed from Saturday to Sunday on the calendar. You need to rest from your labor. Nonstop work or even just keeping busy around the house does not honor God. It is detrimental to your spiritual health and we won't even discuss what it does to your family. You cannot hear a “small still voice” if you are not quiet and still yourself. Take time to reflect on God, honor Him and rest. (in a secular sense you will be surprised to find what happens to your stress level too!)

Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Ok but what does that look like? Do I take them out to eat once a year or what? You honor your parents by being an upstanding child of God! If you seek diligently after God your whole life, that is the most effective way that you can honor your parents. No words you can say no act you can commit will speak more honor than service to God!

Exodus 20:13 "You shall not murder. That appears deceptively easy but it is not! God isn't just talking about the criminal act of premeditated murder. God is also referring to killing someone with hateful words. You are made in the image of God and you, in a fashion, have the power to speak things into existence. You can quickly kill a child by condemning it or calling it stupid. Adults are not exempt from having their spirit murdered in this fashion either!

Exodus 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery. Unlike our last president I do believe that any sexual contact is adultery. You can commit adultery with your mind and it is still just as much of a sin. If you even imagine a sexual act with someone who is not your spouse, or is someone else's, you have committed adultery. Your imagination is the place where sin is seeded, if you sin there and don't repent then you are more increasingly likely to commit a physical sin as well!

Exodus 20:15 "You shall not steal. Once again God did not stop at just taking someone's physical property. You can steal ideas, opportunities, ministries, praise. You name it and it can be stolen. Heck your identity can even be stolen in this day and age!

Exodus 20:16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. In other words DON'T LIE. I can almost promise that each of you (and I) lie almost every day. What did you tell the last person who asked you how you were doing? “Well that is just a little white lie, it doesn't count” I have heard that echoed in far to many Christian homes. It does count, even more than you think. God is so much more concerned with the little lies than the big whoppers! God knows that if you focus on and master the little ones, then the big whopping lies will simply not happen!

Exodus 20:17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." There was a saying in the last decade about a famous basketball star, it said “I want to be like Mike” That is just wrong, Mike was given those gifts let him be blessed and find your own that God has for you. If you are looking around you and chasing “things” you certainly are not growing closer to God! So you see someone with a hot car or a hotter husband, recognize that, that “whatever” is neat and get your focus back on God. If you are looking at God you can't even see the things around you, and they will all certainly fade in comparison to what you are looking at.

There, Christians, are the first ten. They were given to Moses as a covenant with God's children. Us, all being God's now, should be trained up in them and in their meaning. Many churches don't like to talk about them because they all to painfully point out that we all have some sin in our lives. As you can well imagine telling your parishioners that they have to deal with sin is not a popular item to broadcast from the pulpit. It is easier and much better received to tell someone how to accept their pre-paid salvation, or even more simply how Jesus died and rose again. There are a lifetimes worth of teachings that a preacher could go through without touching on the sin in our lives. The bottom line is, you are probably going to sin. The less you know about the “Eleven Commandments” and the less you know God, the more likely you are to fall into sin. I know that you are all aware that the first ten commandments were the first part of “the LAW” and that Jesus was sent to complete the LAW for us. If you or I were to try to focus ourselves and live by Jewish LAW we would have to memorize all six-hundred-plus laws that were handed out in the Old Testament. IF we were to ignore the saving grace of God then we would be judged according to the LAW as well and we would be condemned. But since Jesus came and died for us we have been set free from the bounds of the LAW. God knows our failings even better than we do. The Bible even tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) Does that mean you should quit and just keep on sinning because you have grace? No way Christian. Let me tell you about the “Eleventh Commandment.”

The Word:
John 13:34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Do you realize the implications of this Christian? Love one another? Even the people I don't like? Yes. Did you know that if you do just that, love each and every person, as Christ did, you will not commit ANY of the first ten? Whoa! That is a pretty tall order, but yet it is what God wants from us. God loved us so much that he knew Christ would die for our sin from the beginning of what we call time. If you can love those around you in the manner that Jesus loves you, you will NOT be filled with the desire to sin. It is short and sweet but very powerful. Take some time and really meditate on that scripture. Greed will vanish along with selfishness and pride all of those attributes, that are a rocket ride to sin, will go away when you gain a Christ like, servants heart. It is very hard to transition to make to go from service to sin. God wants you to take that deep into your spirit and hold it there. A new command…… LOVE….. like the one who died for you so long ago.

Pray with me: Father I am sorry for not knowing your commands, even more sorry for not keeping them. Forgive me God I turn from my sin and want to walk in your love. I need your teaching, Lord. I need you to show me how to love those I consider unlovable. I can't see myself loving them, Lord, most especially like you did, sending your Son to die for them. Teach me more of your love for me, show me every day so I may give that love back out as well. Father help me to keep the “Eleventh Commandment” so that the first ten will fall in line. As always I ask this in Jesus name. Amen!


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