Читать книгу Three Simple Rules for Christian Living - Rueben P. Job - Страница 17

Read Exodus 20:1-17. What connections do you see between the Ten Commandments and the rule to do no harm?

Many of us learned the Ten Commandments years before we ever learned the rules for driving. Some of them we would never intentionally break—do not kill and do not steal. Others we break when it seems harmless to do so—remember the sabbath and do not covet, for example. One seems not to apply to us at all—do not make an idol. Most of us give little thought to the ethical principles behind them.

Why did the Israelites and their religious descendents, which include us, need the Ten Commandments? The simple answer is to keep us from hurting and killing each other. Although there are more complex answers than this one, answers explaining the history and self-understandings of the Hebrew people and their relationship to God, in this brief space, we'll consider a highly condensed answer. God, the Creator and Lover of creation, wants us to live in love, wholeness, and freedom. The specific example of God's love in the Exodus story is that God has delivered the people Israel from slavery in Egypt and has made covenant with them. The boundaries that protect and empower the Hebrew people, who were chosen to serve God and carry out God's dream for the beloved creation, are expressed in the Ten Commandments.