Valuing Others
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Jesus said
Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them—this is the Law and the Prophets.
That statement is the last sentence of a paragraph that is all about prayer. Asking God for things. Believing that God wants to give good gifts to His children. Then Jesus says that we (People who are followers of Jesus Christ) should do good things for others, just like we want them to do for us. Why? Because that’s the way God is.
Then he says that the LAW hangs on this.
We have spent 3 previous Sundays talking about the 10 commandments.
Introduction, Our relationship with God in the 1st three, our relationship with ourselves in the 4th commandments, and then today, our relationship to other people in the last 6.
I want to resist the urge to drill down too deep on each of these.
These commandments are to guide people who are in covenant relationship with God rightly relate to each other.
Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not give dishonest testimony against your neighbor.
Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
I want to look at the prohibitions teach you the values that are behind them.
Value your parents
Value your parents
Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and so that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Remember that the Covenant God made with Israel was all about living long in the Promised Land. This command is called the first command with a PROMISE
Since God will reveal Himself as Father, it makes sense that this command would be patterned after the need to give proper honor to God, and to show that by how we honor our parents.
Honor- give the proper weight. It would involve respect, and when you are living at home, obedience. This really is a heart issue, though. What is your attitude toward your parents.
Note that since this command was given to adult men, this is not just something we are to do while under our parents roof. Part of honoring them is often to see that they are taken care of in older days. Paul said that even lost people understood that we were to take care of our parents.
Honor extends to after they die too. Let me hasten to say it is good to honor your deceased parents, while at the same time not making idols or legends out of them.
Value life
Value life
Do not murder.
Remember that God set aside cities of refuge for folks that accidentally caused someone to die. And he also commanded wars, and capital punishment.
We should value life from the womb to the tomb.
Value your marriage covenant
Value your marriage covenant
Do not commit adultery.
Adultery is when a married person has sex with someone else that they are not married to.
As a part of the OT covenant, violation of this command was a capital offense. It is a big deal.
1 It violates the marriage relationship between the partners.
2. It violates God’s design for marriage and sex.
3. It threatens the fabric of community, and humans flourishing.
4. We learn in the NT that the marriage union is picture of Christ’s relationship to the church.
To be sure we have turned adultery into an art form. I just saw a headline from a female pop icon that said, “Why I left my husband (of 8 months) for a woman.” Let me say clearly, those of us who claim to be in covenant relationship with God have to value marriage. We cannot take our cues from the world, and we need to understand that if we hold high the banner of Covenant marriage, we will be viewed as weird and that needs to be OK.
Value ownership
Value ownership
Do not steal.
Elevates private ownership.
Elevates working for what you have.
Negates the idea of forced benevolence, redistribution of wealth, etc.
Bottom line: Taking what is not yours, instead of working for what you have, goes against the created order of work and ownership and it violates someone else’s right to keep what they earned.
Value honesty
Value honesty
Do not give dishonest testimony against your neighbor.
Obviously they immediate context is court proceedings and law, but this extends to all walks of life.
Even spreading things that you don’t know to be true, like gossip should be avoided?
Value Contentment
Value Contentment
Do not covet your neighbor’s wife or desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Wanting what someone else has is the fastest way to discontentment.
Phil 4.11-13
I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.
I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Coveting is precursor to stealing. It is the craving of what belongs to someone else.
Think about how all these prohibitions impact relationships.
Failure to honor your parents strains the relationship in obvious ways.
Murder- no regard for others.
Adultery- no regard for your spouse, the other party, and the ripple effect of other countless lives.
Stealing- says I value what you have more than I value you
Lying says- I don’t value you enough to represent the truth.
Coveting- In my heart, whether I ever act on it or not, I value what is yours more than you.
If belong to the Lord, I need to live out my life with others in such a way that shows that each other person has been created in the image of God and has value because of that.
Love your neighbor as yourself! You can’t do that until you have surrendered your will to God, repented of your sins, and placed your faith in Christ.