For followers of Abrahamic faiths, the ten commandments are at the center of the longstanding religious and moral codes. Even those that are not adherents can probably successfully rattle off a few of the commandments, just from a passing experience with them through cultural means. But what are the commandments really about? In my opinion, and in an overly simplistic fashion, the ten commandments are about the establishment, maintenance and growth of respectful interpersonal relationships between one being and another.
There are two key interpersonal relationships that are being referred to in the commandments brought down from Moses. The first interpersonal relationship, as noted in what are traditionally counted as the first four (at least in the Old Testament used by many Christian denominations) is the relationship between me, the created, and God, my creator. Taking those first four commandments together reveal, I believe, an insistence for respect for something that is too easily taken for granted. God knew that out of sight commonly leads to out of mind and thus the first four commandments were set to rectify that very problem.
The first commandment is supported by the next three— “you shall have no other Gods but me” sets the primacy of the relationship that God intended to establish. S/he wants there to be no mistake that this is the only deity/human relationship that has any value, and it also sets up the very personal relationship that God desires. While the word “you” is both singular and plural, I think that there is a clear indication that God is looking for a one-to-one relationship, and not simply a many-to-one relationship.
The next three commandments go on to deepen the expected relationship, outlining it as a relationship based first and foremost on love between God and man. While the nature and wording of the second, third and fourth commandment—you shall not make for yourself any idol;you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; you shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy—make them seem strictly didactic they are, in essence, coming from a desire to keep the God/man relationship close and personal.
The second and third commandments go back to the “out of sight” conundrum. God had the good sense to realize that humans inherently put more trust in what they can actually see and feel—most of us feel tested when we are asked to put faith in something to which we are physically and tactically blind. The second commandment reminds us that physical being is not tied to superior meaning. A lesson that is also tied to a reminder that we are spiritual creatures have a physical experience while on earth. God reminds us that anything we make pales in comparison to whatever s/he is.
The third commandment deals with human ability to generalize and lessen the things which are outside of our common daily experience. God did not want to be placed into a bucket where s/he was lessened to something that bore no real meaning and thus was easy to be taken in vain. None of us would swear using the names of our closest family and friends. God simply wants to be in that company.
Finally, the fourth commandment is related to our inability to take time to “smell the roses”. God understood that his creation would be tempted by success and the need to control the uncontrollable. S/he knew that it would be easy for humans, in their ability to get distracted by the here and now, to forget to take a moment and breathe and be thankful for the world around them. God was putting into place a mechanism that would force us to reflect, to be thankful and to take the time to acknowledge those important aspects of our lives. God wants to be a part of that.
The last six commandments are even easier to put into context as it relates to building and growing respectful inter-human relationships. Whether the commandment refers to murder, parental respect, adultery, stealing, lying or covetousness, each commandment requires us to put others first and not engage in behavior that is disrespectful to the value of another human as one of God’s creation. If we can respect another person, and we should be able to do that regardless of our ability to agree with them, we cannot act against them in the way the commandments forbid. If I respect you truly, I cannot steal from you, or kill you, or desire to take your belongings.
Reading the commandments within this context helps bring a deeper understanding to what Jesus meant in the New Testament when he told his followers:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus wasn’t rewriting the commandments. He was organizing them into a more simply understandable model. If one loves God as Jesus asked, one couldn’t help but abide by the first four. And the same holds true for the last six—if one truly loves his neighbor then keeping the last six commandments should go hand in hand.
In this day and age when we feel the need to judge the actions, thoughts and opinions of others and determine whether they are “good Christians” or “bad people” I think it’s important to go back to the lessons brought down from Mt Sinai. We need to start every relationship with respect and love. We need to strive to strengthen personal and spiritual bonds and not find ways of weakening them. And we need to make sure that our attention is paid on how successfully we are at doing that before we start judging others’ inability to do the same.