Father’s Day has come and gone this year, but I learned something this past Father’s Day that I did not know. Take a look at the Ten Commandments below:
- You shall have no other gods before Me
- You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it
- You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God
- You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy
- Respect your father and mother
- You must not murder
- You must not commit adultery
- You must not steal
- You must not give false evidence against your neighbor
- You must not be envious of your neighbor’s goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
It is commonly known that the first four commands relate to man’s vertical relationship with God and the last six commands relate to man’s horizontal relationship with his fellow man. Of course, all commandments relate to obedience and to loving God, but nonetheless, a clear distinction can be observed in the commandments between loving God and loving man. I have heard that Billy Graham used to read five Psalm’s a day so he could better love God and one Proverb a day so he could better love man. There is a reason Psalm and Proverbs are in the middle of the Bible.
Likewise, there’s a reason the fifth commandment is in the middle of the Ten Commandments. The fifth commandment is the hinge or the pivot point where the commandments turn. It is in some ways a line of demarcation, but the commandments remain connected. For the next generation must be raised in the admonition of the Lord to love God and parents must likewise teach their sons and daughters how to treat their fellow man. Take parents or guardians who love the Lord out of the equation, and following the commandments become nearly impossible for a child’s natural bent is not toward following God.
Of course, the truth is following the commandments is impossible for any person of any age. I would agree that if you have obeyed the first commandment, you have obeyed all of the commandments. The problem is no one has been good enough to even obey the first commandment. The Bible says if you’ve broken one commandment, you’ve broken them all. The whole point of the Law was to point man toward his recognition for his need of a Savior. Only Christ fulfilled the whole Law thus only Christ can save.
But, God has given parents the spiritual responsibility of being the primary disciplemakers of their children. Children learn about holiness through the Ten Commandments and children learn that to love God is to obey him and to obey God is to love him.
From the next generation’s point of view, the key to unlocking the Ten Commandments may just be found in the simple instruction coming from those who have sovereignly been placed over them.