The Ten Commandments Explained: Why "Love" Isn't Mentioned

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, good afternoon to all you here in the studio. We're certainly glad to see so many of you come apart. For those of you in television, we'd like to again invite you to our Bible study. It's strictly informal, and we try to be non-denominational. We aren't trying to bring anybody out of one group into another. We just want to simply teach the Word. And again, we want to thank you for all your letters, your comments, and as I've said so often, we take no physical or fiscal compensation. The only compensation we get is the encouragement from others, how they've learned, for those who have come to know the Lord. Now, for those of you who have written so often, you've just recently tuned into our programs. We'd like to have you aware that everything all the way back to Genesis 1-1 is available on VCR tapes. We've taken 12 of these programs and put them on one six-hour tape, and all you have to do is call our 800 number or write to us, and my little wife sitting right here in front of me has been the one who is more or less taking care of the VCR orders. She's the one who gets them in the mail, and usually if you call on the 800 number, she's the one that will answer the phone. And so we just want you to know again that I do have a good helpmate in all this. We've been together now almost 40 years, and the Lord has just been so good to us. All right, now I guess I should also announce we have also got some of these now in print. The first printing went so fast that they're gone, so it may take a little bit for those of you who have ordered late, but we'll try to have another group ready of the lessons in print in little booklet form. And if you're interested in that, again, call us on the 800 or write to us. Now again, let's get right back into the book. After all, that's why we're here. Exodus chapter 20. Now when we left off in our last program, which of course for those of us in the studio was a month ago, and again we make no secret of the fact that we taped four of these programs on a Wednesday afternoon. For those of you in the Tulsa area within driving distance, if you can get away on a Wednesday afternoon once a month, again, just call us or the station and find out when we are taping, and we'd just love to have you come and be a part of the studio audience. So the last time we were together, we just got into Exodus chapter 20, verse 1, and I made comment that verse 1 starts out with the word God and God spake, which of course is Elohim, the almighty God, the all God of not just Israel, but of everything. And then it moves on down to verse 2, the Lord God, which of course is Jehovah God, who was intrinsically involved with the nation of Israel. So we have to realize that the law, as we saw also last time we were together in Romans chapter 3, it was specifically given to them who were under the law, but Paul says in the very same breath that all the world might be brought under its guilt. And so we have to recognize that the law was given to Israel, but the law is still, how should I say, it still has control over the whole human race. In fact, when you stop to think about it, whether they're pagans or whether they're absolute atheists or whatever, there is no society on earth or ever has been that can survive without at least having some sort of a fabric as the Ten Commandments lay out for the human race. So always keep that in mind, but the law in itself is given specifically to the nation of Israel. Now then, I've put the Ten Commandments just in brief form on the board, but for those of us here and for those of you in television that are reading with us in your Bible, let's read them in their entirety, and then I'm going to come back and comment on them as I have them on the board. Now verse 2 then begins, I am the Lord thy God. Now the thing I want you to catch, all five of the First Commandments will be connected with that statement, the Lord thy God. The last five, it's never mentioned. So be aware of that. All right, now verse 2, I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and here comes the direct command then, thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second commandment is in verse 4, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I am the Lord thy God. There it is again, with regard now to this commandment, I am the Lord thy God. Verse 5, I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Now we've got to stop a moment. A lot of people have asked me, well, what does this really mean? Well I think all you have to do is just look at some of the present day statements from our psychologists and psychiatrists with regard to how certain qualities within a family will carry on down generation to generation. What am I talking about? Abuse. You take the child who has lived under an abusive father. We now know that by far the greatest percentage of the time when that child becomes a father, what does he become? An abusive father. And we call it in agriculture, in livestock and poultry and so forth, we call it the pecking order. And you know when that first was coined years ago by ag college researchers when they were watching particularly chickens, and all of a sudden they realized that in every flock of chickens, whether it was small or large, they noticed that immediately they set up a pecking order. And I've watched it, and it's true in most livestock, I don't care whether it's cattle or whatever, they immediately, when you put a bunch of them together, will establish their pecking order. And the one down at the bottom will never try to compete with the one at the top. Well now you see, that's exactly what the human makeup does. He establishes a pecking order, and if you have an abusive father, an abusive husband, he in turn abuses his wife, who will she invariably turn on? The children. And then you've got the children who have been under that kind of abuse from their mother, they've got to have somebody to go on. And have you ever seen or have you read accounts of a child catching a butterfly and pulling its wings off? Why? Well he's got to have somebody to vent his feelings on, and he can't compete against those above him, so he takes something that's beneath him. Now this is exactly the way the whole human makeup operates until the very power of a sovereign God comes into that life. And see, this is why we have to constantly realize that society today is in the shape it's in, is because they've pushed God out of their thinking, and we've pushed God out of our schools, we've pushed God out of the home, and then we decry the things that are going on. Well that's all that's wrong. And so this is what God is warning, that it's going to be human nature that these traits are just going to take off down the line generation after generation. And again, you go into alcoholism. How many times won't you just see it generation after generation after generation? Well this is exactly what the Scripture is saying here 1,500 years before Christ. This isn't just a new discovery, although again modern day medical people may think it is, that all of a sudden they've realized these things. No, God told us this 1,500 years before Christ. All right, now then come down to verse 7, where we've got the third command now. Right, the third one, verse 7, Thou shalt not take the name, and here it comes again, of the Lord thy God. Now you see how the Lord thy God is attached to every one of these first five commandments. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless, who taketh his name in vain. Now we come to the fourth command, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. But now verse 9 is part of that commandment, just as well as verse 8. And as I was thinking on these things, and really, believe it or not, most of my preparation in this one has been while we were in the hayfield, and that's where I can do my best thinking anyway, is sitting on that tractor with nothing else to detract me, and it suddenly dawned on me that part of this command concerning the Sabbath is, six days, thou shalt what? And you know that's gotten to be a dirty word for most people anymore? People really don't want to work. I can remember back when I was in service, I had a young man from the East Coast who worked under me, and he actually thought that work of any kind was a dirty word. He honestly thought that you were not an intellectual unless you could get out of doing any kind of work. And I was thinking along the same lines, the people that are so strong in our midst, and I love them, who think that all of our problems are because we're not keeping the Sabbath, how many of those people would be willing to work six days? Not many anymore. You know, most people don't want to work more than five, and four would be better. But I just happen to think of this, you know, so many times we take a portion of the Scripture that we like, and we think fits, and we leave out what we don't like, but we have to keep it all. And so part of the commandment to keep the Sabbath says, six days you will work. The seventh one, you can rest, all right? And again, I'm tying this one in with the first five that are man's relationship to his God, because of the statement, now in verse 10, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Now I know there are some groups that take this commandment and put it with the final six as being part of man's relationship with man, but I prefer to keep it up here as I've got it on the board. The first five are man's relationship with God because of that connecting link, the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God. And then the other five are man's relationship with man because the Lord thy God is not included in any of those five. All right, now then let's go into the fifth one, continuing on rather, in verse 11, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that amiss, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Now we come to the fifth one, and I'm also going to keep this in with the first five, our relationship with God, because again of that statement that, verse 12 now, honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which thee, what does it say? The Lord thy God giveth thee. Now you see, those five are held together then by that connecting link, the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God. Now then, the last five, of course, are far simpler, and again, just stop as you think of these things. How long can a society, how long can a social fabric hold together if you absolutely ignore especially these last five? Well, it can't. It just cannot. In fact, we have missionary friends who have ministered to uncivilized tribes in areas of South America. Many of you remember years ago when the five missionaries were killed by the Alka Indians. Well, we've got friends who work in that same area, and they literally, they start with totally uncivilized people still running in the jungle with their bow and arrow, with nothing but a loincloth, and they befriend them, and they finally bring them out where they can communicate with them. But I know Dick has said more than once, it was so amazing that when they bring those uncivilized tribes out and communicate with them, they have a moral code, a moral code that many times would make America look pretty sick within their own tribe. And so, where do they get it? Well, you see, we'll see from Romans, if I've got time to look at it, Paul states in Romans that for those who did not have the written law, where did God put the law? In their hearts, see? The conscience, meanwhile, accusing or else excusing them. So, you see, even the uncivilized peoples of the world, in order to maintain even their little tribe, they have to have some sort of a law that is patterned after what God gave here to Moses. All right, now let's just read them quickly, then, beginning with verse 13, the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill. Now, you see, the Lord thy God is not stated in that one. Then the seventh one, verse 14, Thou shalt not commit adultery. The eighth one, Thou shalt not steal. Nine, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And then verse 17, Thou shalt not covet. Now, this one, Thou shalt not covet, I think I've surprised people a lot of times. Do you realize that in Romans chapter 7—now, let's see, I think we're ready to go to the New Testament for a little bit anyway, so I didn't intend to look at Romans just yet, but let's go to look at Romans 7, and this is the one commandment that put the apostle Paul in an awareness of all the others. Romans chapter 7, verse 7. Romans chapter 7, verse 7. Now, this is a difficult chapter, I know, and we're not going to comment on it today, but nevertheless, Paul is going through the awful turmoil of, I think, what all of us experience at one time or another. The things we should do and the things we want to do, what? We don't do. And the things that we shouldn't do, and we know we shouldn't do, we constantly do, and so this is his dilemma. But anyway, in verse 7 now of Romans 7, he says, What shall we say then? Is the law, the ten, the moral law, is it sin? Is there something wrong with it? Well, God forbid, don't even think such a thing. Nay, he said, I had not known sin. I wouldn't really understand what God's perfect demand was but by the law. For I had not known lust, that is, desire, except the law had said, now here it comes, Thou shalt not what? Covet. Now, when you really think about it, and that's what I try to get people to do, I mean, when you get up in the morning and you begin your day's work and you've got a little time to do some other thinking, I want you to mull these things over. Is it possible to break a single one of the other nine commandments without first coveting? Now, if you've never thought about it, you aren't going to answer. If you have thought about it, and many of you have been in my classes before, you have, you can't. Coveting is at the root of breaking every one of the commandments, and that's why Paul makes reference to it. Because you see, I suppose the one that people would wonder the most about, well, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. How can you maintain that a man who curses and swears and uses God's name in vain is coveting? Hey, if you know anything about psychology, it's easy. Why do people curse and swear? I'll tell you why, for the same reason the little kid who probably gets no attention at home is a cut-up in school. What does he want? Attention. What does the guy who curses and swears and uses foul language, what does he think he's getting? Attention. To himself. That's all it boils down to. He's coveting. See? He's coveting attention. And you can take it into any one of those areas, and it's always our coveting something that triggers our problem. All right. Now then, with regard to these ten, I'd like to go to Jesus' ministry, but come back with me a minute to Matthew 22, because if you'll notice, as we read those ten commandments, there was one word glaringly absent throughout all the ten commandments as God gave them to Moses on the tables of stone. There was one word glaringly absent. Who knows what it is? Love. You didn't see the word love in there, did you? No. Now, I know when you get to Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses tells the children of Israel, now know that the Lord is one God. Hear, O Israel. The Lord thy God is one God. And then what does the next verse say? And thou shalt love him with all thy heart. But now stop again and think. Can any one of you force someone else to love you? Have you ever thought of that? You can't force someone to love anybody. And see, God knew he couldn't. And so I think that's why the word love is not in any of these. He can't force someone to love him. But now, here again, I suppose our time is going to get away from me. But from the very onset of the creation of man, why did God create man in the first place? So that he could have someone that after he had extended his love to them, they would what? Love him back. That's the only reason we're here. God had angels. He had enough to populate all of the universe as far as that goes. But you see, he did not have someone who had that capability of returning his extended love. And so always keep them. We got time. We're going into Ephesians and see how that comes into the marriage relationship. But for now, Matthew 22, verse 35. Then one of them who was a lawyer, that is someone who was skilled in the law, asked him a question, and tempting him, saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Now, he thought he was putting Jesus on the spot, didn't he? But look how Jesus answers. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the promise. Now wait a minute. Was that last statement in the Ten Commandments? Did you read it in there back in Exodus 20, that thou shalt love thy neighbor? What has Jesus done? Well, you see, in what he said is the first to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, he's referring to the first five. And when we are aware of these first five commandments, of how God is approaching us from his point of view, what is it intrinsic for us to do? To love him, see? When we realize that he is the supreme God, when he is the one who will not give in to competition from idols and so forth, when he is the one who has created everything, when he is the one who has set up the home, and that's again why I put the father and the mother with the first five. The home is very part and parcel of God's whole plan for the ages. This is where everything is supposed to be taking place. And so he puts these two, I think, into perspective. This is the first one, that thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and then all of these, you see, have nothing to do particularly with our relationship with God, but with who? Fellow man, see? With our home, with our family, with our neighbors, and with our co-workers at work and everything else. That's where these come in. And so what is Jesus really telling this smart aleck? And that's what he was. I mean, he was a smart aleck who just thought, boy, I've got him this time. And he just simply lumps the two into two great areas of human relationships. Man with his God, and man with his fellow man. Now then, Paul comes back and, I think, just puts the frosting on the cake so beautifully. Now turn with me, if you will, to Romans chapter 13, I think it is. Romans 13. Now I know that I want to be known to anyone I've ever taught as the teacher who maintains you're not under law, but you're under what? You're under grace. But if you don't get anything else this afternoon or tonight, whenever you happen to be watching, I want you to also realize I'm not throwing the law out the window as of no use. It is basic. Of course it is. Even in the age of grace. Every one of us as a child of God are hopefully, and we're all going to fail, but hopefully by God's grace, how are we responding to these ten? Well, they're part and parcel of our very social fabric, isn't it? All right, now look what Paul says then in Romans 13, beginning with verse 8, O no man, and actually the word, I think, would have been better translated, defraud. Defraud no man anything, but to, now what is the word? Love one another, for he who loveth another hath, hath stents what? Fulfilled the law. Now, we better define. If I had the board empty, I think I'd put it on the board. My definition of the love that Paul is talking about, he's not talking about erotic love. He's not talking about Hollywood's idea of love. Paul here is talking about a love that seeks the other person's highest good. Now, you might want to write that in the flyleaf of your Bible or someplace. It's the best definition of love I've ever come across. It's not original with me. I heard it years and years ago from someone, and I've always liked it. The true definition of real love is seeking the other person's highest good. See, there's nothing involved in that, in hugging and kissing and a physical attraction, but it's just simply that seeking the other person's highest good. Now, you see, if our young people, in their courting, in their dating, if they would keep that uppermost in their mind, would we be in the moral shambles we're in today? No. Because, you see, if the young man dating that lovely little girl would have her highest good on his mind, would he try to bring her into an immoral state? No. You take the husband and his wife or a neighbor with his neighbor, see, as long as we are always attempting to do whatever we do to do the other person's highest good, then, Paul says we are what? We are fulfilling the whole law. I mean, it becomes so simple, but we have to understand that we can do none of this just simply on the basis of commanding. Because you see, we never really grow up. You tell a little kid, you can't go through that door, and as soon as you turn your back to him, what's he going to try and do? He's going to look behind it and now watch behind there that I can't go through it. But, see, we're no different. Just as soon as God says, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, what does the whole human nature say? Hey, I'm going to try it. Now, we always have to remember that from the very onset in the Garden of Eden, when old Satan approached Adam and Eve and got Adam through however you want to put it, got him to eat, and sin came on the scene, who now becomes God's greatest adversary? Well, Satan is. And so I think I mentioned one of my classes the other night. Again, I want you to stop and think that everything that God says it's best for us not to do, what does Satan say? Do it. See? Do it. Everything that God says it's best for us to do, Satan says, don't do it. Hey, the world isn't doing that. Why should you? And, I mean, it's almost amusing, and yet it is so true that everything God has told the human race that's for our own good, from the human side, we'll always find ourselves going the opposite direction. My, and you look at the heartache that's out there in the world today. Why? Because they have gone contrary to what God has set down as our best, see? He knows what's best, and there isn't a society on earth that can survive by totally going contrary to these Ten Commandments, because they're basic. They come from the Creator Himself, and He knew when He created mankind in the garden in the first place, that this is how man would have to interrelate with his fellow man as well as with God Himself. So again, I want you to remember, if nothing else, from this half hour, that when you have loved another, you have fulfilled the law. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.