Commandment: The Law Of God, given first in the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, and completed or fulfilled by the teaching of Christ. I am the Lord God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 01. You shall have no other gods before Me To believe in one God, who alone is a true God, and to reject the belief in many gods as an error and falsehood. How do we sin against the belief in one God? A) By worshipping so called great men instead of God. (As the Romans worshipped their emperors. B) By worshipping any thing as God, be it creation of God or a work of men. (As some worship the sun, stars and nature in general. C) By allowing a doubt to enter our hearts concerning the existence of one God. (It is called skepticism. D) By teaching a doctrine of God different from the faith of our Fathers. (It is called heresy) E) By separating from the universal Church. (It is called schism) Does this commandment forbid us to venerate the Holy Virgin Mary, the angels and the saints? No. For we do not worship them as God. But we honor them as the worthiest members of God's family. Why do we pray to the saints? Because it is said, that God does the will of those who love Him. And the saints are the greatest lovers of God. By their intercession God helps us, as we know by experience. 02. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. We are commanded not to worship anything else as God and God alone? As has been said before: We are forbidden to worship any creation of God or of men as God For God is above all of His own and of men's creations. Why do we honor ikons? We honor ikons as the blessed representations of one living God and His angels, saints and martyrs, our friends and intercessors. When we pray before an ikon , to whom do we pray? To the living saint in heaven, shoes face is painted on the ikon, and through that saint to one God, the king of all the saints. When we kiss an ikon, what do we kiss? With our lips we kiss the picture of a saint, but with our minds and hearts we kiss that very saint as a living and holy person in the heavenly church. What kind of people reproach the Orthodox Christians because of their veneration of and prayers to the saints? The extreme protestants who have no experiences of the communion of saints, and who do not understand that Christ's chief work was to create of the faithful and regenerated men a family of God with most intimate relations and mutual intercourse of God's children in heaven and God's children on earth. What else might we sin against the belief in one God? when we make our god of our belly by immoderate eating and drinking (Philipp. 3:19), or of our money and possessions (Colos. 3:5), or of our own person, or of our state, nation, civilization. etc. 03. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Not to use the holy name of God in trifling matters and in profane conversations. What especially are we forbidden by this commandment of God? We are forbidden: To use bad and disgraceful language while speaking of God; To use God's name to confirm our stories of no importance, or even lies; To use slandering language, blasphemy and cursing; To break a vow given to God with an oath. How ought we to use the name of God? Rarely, except in worship, and always with great reverence. For it is the most holy name, by which demons are frightened, persons and things blessed, diseases cured and the lips pronouncing it sanctified. 04. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, For six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. To keep holy the Lord's Day, which is the day of rest. What does Sabbath mean in the original language" It means a rest day. For six days the Lord God created heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh day. Why do we keep Sunday as the day of rest? Because our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dear on Sunday, whereas on Saturday He was at work in Hell, preaching the Gospel to the departed and saving them. What was the Day of rest for Christ? The Sunday, on which He won the victory over the "last enemy", (death). On Good Friday He won the victory over our sins; On Saturday he won the victory over Satan's realm of Hell, and on Sunday He won, by His resurrection, the victory over death, Thus He gloriously finished the work of human salvation. And then only he was at rest. Therefore Sunday is His and our rest day. How shall we keep the Sunday as a holy day? By rejoicing over Christ's victory over death; by abstaining from our usual weekday's work; by praying at home and in the Church; by reading the Bible and other spiritual books; by reviewing our deeds and thoughts during the past six week days; by offering hospitalities and giving charities; by resting and inwardly praising God, the Holy Virgin, angels and saints. 05. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God has given you. To honour our father and our mother How ought we to honour our parents? We ought to respect them; to obey their counsels; to heed their experiences; to be thankful to tem and love them as they love us; to support them in their old age, and after their death to remember them in prayers and to do charities to their memory. Why should we honour our parents so much? First, for obvious reasons: through them God gave us life and being, and by their loving care and incalculable anxieties and sacrifices we were brought up and educated; Second because our parents as one body symbolize God and Father, as we symbolize God and Son. Thus our relations toward our parents are a symbol of our relations toward God, the Holy Trinity in Unity. Third, just as much as we honour or dishonour our parents, even so our children shall honour or dishonour us, as age long experiences of mankind prove. What is the penalty of disobeying this commandment of God? It is most severe. In the Old Testament God ordered that "He that revileth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death", (Exod. 21:17). And Ham's posterity was cursed by Noah, because Ham ridiculed his father's nakedness. Also Absalom met a dreadful death because of rebelling against his father King David (II Sam. 18:9) Is there in the Scriptures examples of how children were blessed because the obeyed their fathers? Yes many. But a wonderful example is offered to us by the sons and grandsons of Rechab, who obeyed their father's commandment not to drink wine and were therefore blessed by God (Jeremiah 3:5) Does the honouring of our parents help us in some other way? Yes. By honouring our parents, we are trained and prepared to honour all those in authority, weather spiritual or secular. 06. You shall not murder. We are forbidden to kill our neighbours out of envy, or hatred, or gain, or revenge. Why are we forbidden to kill our neighbours? God created man after His own image, and He gave him life. Consequently: by killing a man we are making an attempt against God's own image and against God's property. What we cannot give, we have no right to take. How are we to think of suicide? It is equal to murder. Our life is not ours but God's. How are we to think about killing in war? There are different kinds of war. In the Old Testament it is often spoken of a war as "God's war". By this is meant a war for justice as against flagrant injustice. In such a war it is justifiable to kill and meritorious to be killed. (Exod. 14"13- 14; Duct. 31:6-8; 11 Chronicles 20:15). Are there different kinds of murder in peace time? There are murderers of bodies and murderers of souls. The murderers of the souls are those who kill the human souls by corrupting them and separating them from God, being themselves corrupt and godless. Why are duels forbidden? Because those engaged in a duel disregard the Church and the state laws against duels. For an innocent person might be killed in a duel and the wrong one spared. How then are we to understand the Bible's approval of the duel between David and Goliath? It was not a duel because of a personal feud between David and Goliath, but a fight of the hosts of a true God against a host of God's enemies, the idol worshippers. David went against the champion of heathenism by God's inspiration and was victorious by God's power. It is a wonderful lesson to us of God's guidance and power, and it has no similiarity with usual duels of our times. Who is the oldest and greatest murderer of men in the world? The devil, of whom Christ said: "He is a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44). Were he not prevented by God, he would kill all human beings. Other murderers of men are the devil's tools and instruments. What are the devil's motives to wish the extermination of mankind? Hatred and envy. For he knows that men are destined in inherit the Kingdom of heaven which he foolishly lost. Therefore the devil is called the hater of man. What are God's motives to protect and preserve human lives? God's love for men. Therefore God is called the lover of man. 07. You shall not commit adultery. To have unlawful sexual intercourse such as : adultery, fornication, and other kinds of "vile affections", as St. Paul says, by which the natural use of the body is "changed into that which is against nature" (Rom.1:26). What was God's aim with this commandment? To preserve the sacredness, purity, happiness and purpose of a married life. What is the cause of violating this sacred commandment? First of all, the lures of Satan, who is the enemy of every purity and holiness, and who hates the multiplication of the human race and the increase of God's spiritual family, the church Second, the ignorance of men and women who lustfully look at each other's bodies instead of theirs, and knowing nothing of men and women as spiritual beings and God's children. This ignorance is due to bad education and to the emulation of depraved associates. With what other sin is adultery compared in the Bible? All through the Old Testament the worshipping of idols is called adultery, fornication or whoredom. And idol worshipping is considered the greatest sin against God. What are the fruits of adultery? Corruption of body and soul, self illusion, anger, ugly diseases, mental disturbances, nervousness, bad luck everywhere, sick and crippled children, despair, and finally insanity. 08. You shall not steal. We are forbidden to steal. The person that steals is called a thief. We are forbidden to be thieves. What is called a stealth? Taking secretly some property belonging to one's neighbor or community; Open robbery, by violence, of someone else's property; Cheating the poor and ignorant in buying or selling; Shirking one's duty in public offices and working less than required and paid for; Living on frauds, trickeries and falsifications. What does God expect us to do in a positive way as to this commandment? To respect everyone's property; to be honest and upright in all our dealings with men: to live on our own work, and to help our less fortunate neighbors; to be faithful and diligent in public offices and eventually to do even more than we expected to do. 09. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. We are forbidden to speak lies of our neighbours, weather privately, or in public, or in a law court. What lie is the most harmful? False witness at a law court against a man, where we swear by the name of God a lie to be the truth. What are the consequences of false witnessing? The material and moral damage to the person falsely accused, but still greater damage to the false witness. For by speaking lies he is darkening, poisoning and destroying his own soul. Is it possible that a false witness never will be detected and punished? No. The guarantor of that is God Himself Who said: "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known" (Matt. 10:26). What is a classic instance in the history of Christendom of a covered truth being revealed? When the watchmen over the tomb of Christ came to the chief priests and elders and told them the truthful story of Christ's resurrection, "they gave them large money saying; Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept" (Matt. 2:11-15. But this lie did not only succeed in concealing the fact of Christ's resurrection, but it covered the liars with eternal shame. Do the apostles warn the Christians to abstain from speaking falsehood? As the paramount champions of the Truth incarnate, the apostles are of course speaking very sternly against any falsehood. So St. James writes; "If any man among you is seen to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain" (James 1:26). Read also what St. Peter says (I Pet. 3:10). For Where do all lies and falsehoods stem? From Satan, whom the Lord Christ called "a liar and the father of lies." "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his won"(John 8:44). Therefore all men who speak lies, speak in behalf of Satan and not in behalf of God. 10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. To have selfish desires and unlawful cravings for anything that belongs to our neighbours. Why are the mere desires forbidden since they are not deeds? Because evil desires generate evil deeds. Our heart is a workshop of whatever we think, say or do. Our Lord Jesus said: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man" (Matt: 15, 19-29). Is there any sense in our evil desires concerning our neighbour's possessions? Not at all. By those desires we are thinking to make ourselves happy by making our neighbour unhappy. Therefore those desires are senseless. How can we check those evil desires? By controlling our desires, by purifying our hearts through prayer and fear of God. by confession of all our sinful desires to the priest, and by remembering death and the Terrible Judgment of God, when every one shall be rewarded "according to his deeds."