The Last 6 of 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:12-21)

12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. [The most fundamental aspect of this command is to take care of one’s parents when they are no longer able to take care of themselves. The promise of long days is not about long life but about God’s continuing protection of his faithful people. Unfaithfulness will remove God’s protection.]

13 “You shall not murder. [The Hebrew word used here is specific to putting someone to death improperly for selfish reasons rather than with divine authorization. God’s people were delegated the authority to take human life either in his capital punishment laws or his direct call for holy war. In the New Covenant the state takes the roles of administration of justice and declaration of war; the church cannot do such things. The ban on murder has no modifying conditions, such as the taking of one’s own life or ending someone else’s for the purposes of mercy.]

14 “You shall not commit adultery. [This is about marital fidelity. Marriage is foundational to the creation order and to human society. Wives and husbands can hardly function as one flesh if they do not trust each other. Sexual relations are the virtual seal of a marriage covenant, and adultery violate the covenant as well as the emotional-psychological intimacy that connects a one flesh union. While this command does not explicitly condemn premarital sex, cohabitation without formal marriage, bestiality, or incest, all of which are dealt with in later laws, by implication it does condemn such practices. Polygamy, not explicitly outlawed in the Old Testament, is tolerated; however, monogamy is everywhere in Scripture assumed as the ideal, as a creation ordinance that is firmly reinforced by Jesus (Mat 19:5) and by Paul (Eph 5:31). The commandment also argues, implicitly, against divorce.]

15 “You shall not steal. [Personal possessions and legal ownership of things are permitted implicitly by this commandment, which assumes staling is possible, something that would technically not be possible in a completely communal society.]

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. [The court system, that represents the justice of God, depends upon the honesty of its people.]

17 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house [family and property]; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” [One is allowed to desire something, but this commandment is worded with objects for the verb “covet” with those objects being things that one should not desire because they already belong to someone else. What people wish for/desire has a major role to play in what kind of society they create.]

18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. [The presence of God is so threatening to less than entirely holy people that his presence in this world, even among his own people, must be limited so as not to overwhelm humans. In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit brings the person of God into the very spirit of every believer, but he arrives in a gentle, inviting manner, not a forcing, overpowering manner, except in the case of Paul!]