Post by Josh on Feb 15, 2007 18:07:11 GMT -8
5/15/06:
Misunderstood Commandments
I’d like to address some common misunderstandings or misrepresentations of 5 of the 10 Commandments, in order to help us think more clearly about their implications is our lives:
Exodus 20:4-6 (New International Version)
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Some have taken this, mistakenly, as an injunction against all artistic representations of anything for any purpose. But the Israelites were often engaged in artistic enterprise, in some cases by God’s own specific direction. Their artistic expression even included representation of angels, as the following verse points out:
Exodus 36:8 (New International Version)
The Tabernacle
8 All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.
It’s clearly not all artistic representation of “things in heaven, on earth, under the earth, or in the waters” that is prohibited, but all artistic renderings which are intended to be worshipped.
God was Himself not represented directly through art because God the Father is emphatically unseen in the Bible. God is spirit, and although He may be ‘seen’ in elements of His creation, He Himself is not limited to tangible form.
The great exception to this idea about God is, of course, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus. Jesus, as God, took on flesh and bones (Incarnation) and therefore took on a form that can be represented in some way.
It has been somewhat of a controversial subject in the history of the Church whether Christ, or God the father in an abstract way, should be depicted in art.
My own conclusion, based on a comparison of the two texts above, would lead me to believe that pictorial representations of Jesus (or personifications of God- as long as it is understood that God the Father is, ultimately, unseen) are justifiable, as long as the images themselves are not intended to be DIRECT OBJECTS OF WORSHIP.
Icons of Jesus or the saints, in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox thought, have been an enduring subject of controversy. This is perhaps because of a human tendency to worship objects instead of an invisible, personal God. Still, technically speaking, both of these great Christian traditions have always officially maintained that icons are not to be objects of worship in and of themselves, but objects that direct the soul to the true worship of the reality they represent.
Exodus 20:7 (New International Version)
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
For some reason, in the popular consciousness, understandings of this verse have tended to exhibit a pretty narrow focus. To sum this commandment up as an injunction against using God’s name while cussing ( G___ damn, etc..) is to miss it’s broader context.
God, here, is concerned not just with the things we say carelessly when we’re angry, but especially with the things we say about Him with great premeditation as well. There is a human tendency, when trying to persuade others of something (whether it be something we want to prove about ourselves or the world), to invoke the name of God, so as to gain added credibility. “I swear to God” or “God told me to tell you” or “God’s not gonna get you” (to borrow a Brian country-music reference) all come to mind.
It’s not that we should never say these things, it’s just that we had better be sure that what we are saying is absolutely right, or we are in danger of misrepresenting God to someone else. It would often be better to leave God’s name out of many of the things we try to convince others of, based on the severity of associating Him with even a half-truth. We all already have enough trouble clarifying our understandings of God without others muddying the waters with careless appeals to God’s authority.
Exodus 20:12 (New International Version)
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
I won’t belabor this one. Suffice to say that we might wonder how to take this verse to heart if we have had fathers or mothers who are not ‘worthy of respect’. This command does not imply blind obedience to tyrannical parents—it asks that we bless whatever kind of parents we have with ‘honor’. To honor someone, as to love someone, does not require that we let others use us as a doormat. Like love, honor seeks to do what is best to/ for the other person. It would be to honor a parent to save them from their error through appropriate confrontation, (consider an abusive situation, for example). It would be honoring them because it would be loving them. Similar to ‘tough love’, we might call this ‘tough honor’.
Exodus 20:13 (New International Version)
13 "You shall not murder.
Unfortunately, some poor translations have rendered this verse, “Thou shall not kill”. I don’t have the space to discuss at length here the difference between killing and murder, except to provide basic definitions and then show through Scripture how the two are different.
Killing is the taking of life (human, animal, or otherwise, both purposeful or accidental ), whereas murder can either be defined as the purposeful killing of an innocent individual (innocent is, of course, a loaded, debated concept here) or as an unlawful killing (where lawful is also a loaded, debated concept).
I’ll let you embark on unpacking these statements, but it is enough here to point out that the Old Testament law does proscribe lawful killings, not considered murder. All one has to do is read ahead one chapter (Exodus 21) to see laws permitting legal killing, as civil punishment, and a few more chapters to see laws permitting killing in war. This does not mean that ALL killing by civil magistrates or armies is not murder, just that simply, in God’s law as in our own current legal system, there is a distinction between killing and murder.
Exodus 20:16 (New International Version)
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Some have construed this as a command against lying in general. Although the Bible does present a general predilection against lying, several narratives in the Bible do suggest that lying may be appropriate (or at least justifiable as a lesser evil) in some situations: Rahab’s lying to protect Joshua and Caleb, for example, which is somewhat similar to the modern day scenario which insists that it would be a moral act to lie to protect Jews during in the Holocaust, etc..)
It is not lying per se that is in view here, but misrepresenting the truth in order to harm your neighbor. The immediate context has a ‘courtroom feel’, which puts this verse squarely in it’s place in Jewish legal custom, but it does have a universal application by prohibiting lying with intent to hurt the innocent.
Hopefully, this discussion of somewhat common misunderstandings or misrepresentations of 5 of the 10 Commandments helps us think more clearly about these important moral precepts.
Misunderstood Commandments
I’d like to address some common misunderstandings or misrepresentations of 5 of the 10 Commandments, in order to help us think more clearly about their implications is our lives:
Exodus 20:4-6 (New International Version)
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Some have taken this, mistakenly, as an injunction against all artistic representations of anything for any purpose. But the Israelites were often engaged in artistic enterprise, in some cases by God’s own specific direction. Their artistic expression even included representation of angels, as the following verse points out:
Exodus 36:8 (New International Version)
The Tabernacle
8 All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.
It’s clearly not all artistic representation of “things in heaven, on earth, under the earth, or in the waters” that is prohibited, but all artistic renderings which are intended to be worshipped.
God was Himself not represented directly through art because God the Father is emphatically unseen in the Bible. God is spirit, and although He may be ‘seen’ in elements of His creation, He Himself is not limited to tangible form.
The great exception to this idea about God is, of course, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus. Jesus, as God, took on flesh and bones (Incarnation) and therefore took on a form that can be represented in some way.
It has been somewhat of a controversial subject in the history of the Church whether Christ, or God the father in an abstract way, should be depicted in art.
My own conclusion, based on a comparison of the two texts above, would lead me to believe that pictorial representations of Jesus (or personifications of God- as long as it is understood that God the Father is, ultimately, unseen) are justifiable, as long as the images themselves are not intended to be DIRECT OBJECTS OF WORSHIP.
Icons of Jesus or the saints, in both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox thought, have been an enduring subject of controversy. This is perhaps because of a human tendency to worship objects instead of an invisible, personal God. Still, technically speaking, both of these great Christian traditions have always officially maintained that icons are not to be objects of worship in and of themselves, but objects that direct the soul to the true worship of the reality they represent.
Exodus 20:7 (New International Version)
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
For some reason, in the popular consciousness, understandings of this verse have tended to exhibit a pretty narrow focus. To sum this commandment up as an injunction against using God’s name while cussing ( G___ damn, etc..) is to miss it’s broader context.
God, here, is concerned not just with the things we say carelessly when we’re angry, but especially with the things we say about Him with great premeditation as well. There is a human tendency, when trying to persuade others of something (whether it be something we want to prove about ourselves or the world), to invoke the name of God, so as to gain added credibility. “I swear to God” or “God told me to tell you” or “God’s not gonna get you” (to borrow a Brian country-music reference) all come to mind.
It’s not that we should never say these things, it’s just that we had better be sure that what we are saying is absolutely right, or we are in danger of misrepresenting God to someone else. It would often be better to leave God’s name out of many of the things we try to convince others of, based on the severity of associating Him with even a half-truth. We all already have enough trouble clarifying our understandings of God without others muddying the waters with careless appeals to God’s authority.
Exodus 20:12 (New International Version)
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
I won’t belabor this one. Suffice to say that we might wonder how to take this verse to heart if we have had fathers or mothers who are not ‘worthy of respect’. This command does not imply blind obedience to tyrannical parents—it asks that we bless whatever kind of parents we have with ‘honor’. To honor someone, as to love someone, does not require that we let others use us as a doormat. Like love, honor seeks to do what is best to/ for the other person. It would be to honor a parent to save them from their error through appropriate confrontation, (consider an abusive situation, for example). It would be honoring them because it would be loving them. Similar to ‘tough love’, we might call this ‘tough honor’.
Exodus 20:13 (New International Version)
13 "You shall not murder.
Unfortunately, some poor translations have rendered this verse, “Thou shall not kill”. I don’t have the space to discuss at length here the difference between killing and murder, except to provide basic definitions and then show through Scripture how the two are different.
Killing is the taking of life (human, animal, or otherwise, both purposeful or accidental ), whereas murder can either be defined as the purposeful killing of an innocent individual (innocent is, of course, a loaded, debated concept here) or as an unlawful killing (where lawful is also a loaded, debated concept).
I’ll let you embark on unpacking these statements, but it is enough here to point out that the Old Testament law does proscribe lawful killings, not considered murder. All one has to do is read ahead one chapter (Exodus 21) to see laws permitting legal killing, as civil punishment, and a few more chapters to see laws permitting killing in war. This does not mean that ALL killing by civil magistrates or armies is not murder, just that simply, in God’s law as in our own current legal system, there is a distinction between killing and murder.
Exodus 20:16 (New International Version)
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Some have construed this as a command against lying in general. Although the Bible does present a general predilection against lying, several narratives in the Bible do suggest that lying may be appropriate (or at least justifiable as a lesser evil) in some situations: Rahab’s lying to protect Joshua and Caleb, for example, which is somewhat similar to the modern day scenario which insists that it would be a moral act to lie to protect Jews during in the Holocaust, etc..)
It is not lying per se that is in view here, but misrepresenting the truth in order to harm your neighbor. The immediate context has a ‘courtroom feel’, which puts this verse squarely in it’s place in Jewish legal custom, but it does have a universal application by prohibiting lying with intent to hurt the innocent.
Hopefully, this discussion of somewhat common misunderstandings or misrepresentations of 5 of the 10 Commandments helps us think more clearly about these important moral precepts.