But I'm a good person!

Sorry, but God disagrees:

There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none who understands,
there is none who seeks after God.
They are all gone out of the way,
they are together become unprofitable;
there is none that does good, no, not one.

(Romans 3:10-12)

You've probably heard of the "Ten Commandments". They're the ten most important laws God established. How many of them do you think you've obeyed?

We'll start at the last and work backward.

  1. "Don't desire your neighbor's house, don't desire your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servants, or his ox or donkey, or anything else that is your neighbor's."

•This command deals with our thoughts. We are not to desire anything that belongs to someone else.

  1. "Don't give false testimony against your neighbor."

•This command prohibits telling a lie to get someone else in trouble.

  1. "Don't steal."

•This command forbids stealing. Knowingly taking something that belongs to someone else without his consent, even if it's a paper clip, constitutes theft in God's eyes.

  1. "Don't commit adultery."

•In Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said that if a man looks at a woman lustfully he has committed adultery with her in his heart. God's judgment is based not just on the external actions but the internal motivations.

  1. "Don't murder."

•In 1 John 3:15, God says that whoever hates his brother is a murderer.

  1. "Honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that the Lord your God gives you."

•This command has a promise attached to it. If you obey it you will live longer. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord . . ." "Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old." "A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scorner will not hear rebuke."

  1. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

•God made our bodies to function best if we work for six days and rest for one.

  1. "Don't take the Lord's name lightly."

•This prohibits using God's name as a curse word or an exclamation when experiencing pain. It also forbids breaking an oath or promise in which His name was used. (For example, "so help me God" is used in courtrooms.)

  1. "Don't make any idols."

•When this law was originally established, it was common for people to actually worship statues made to look like various gods. Sometimes a worshipper would go chop down a tree, burn half of it in his fire, and carve a statue out of the other half. Then he would bow down in front of it, pray to it, etc. Seems pretty dumb, doesn't it? Today, for our culture, this command forbids making a "mental idol"; that is, worshipping a god whose characteristics we have dreamed up in our own imagination--a god to suit ourselves. This happens more often than you might think. It is common for people to think of God as being entirely loving, without any side of justice. Or they may think of Him as being totally cruel. They have created "mental idols": the characteristics of the god they worship do not match the characteristics of the God described in the Bible.

  1. "Don't have any other gods before Me."

•In our priorities, God must always be first. Our families, jobs, finances, friends, and personal desires have to take second place to what He says.

So, How'd You Do?

So, how many of God's "Ten Commandments" have you broken? (I have probably broken all of them in spirit, if not in action.)

What does that make you? "A sinner," you say. Well, that's true, but let's be more specific. In the light of God's law, at heart I am a coveting, murderous, idolator. As such I deserve God's judgment.

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Last updated August 25, 2005