Episode 817 Commandments or Descriptions
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 817 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Julie Tofilon: [00:00:08] I'm Julie Tafilon. I challenge you to invest in yourself and others develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, talent, and treasures, to live out your calling. Having the ability to communicate and build relationships is vital.
[00:00:26] And one inspirational way to develop that. Is to listen to this. Be inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer,
[00:00:38] Scott Maderer: [00:00:38] a pecking order thing. It does it become well. Yes, I'm a sinner, but my sin is less Sidney that your sin. That your sin is somehow worse than mine. You're more on the outs than I am. It doesn't become about judging others. It becomes about focusing on what we're doing.
[00:00:56] Come in. Thank you for joining us on the inspired [00:01:00] stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:23]and today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in yourself. I talk with you about Exodus chapter 20 verses one through 17. I share how the rules are often seen as limiting or identifying who is in and who is out, but that's not the only way to think about them. And I also talk about how the commandments aren't really rules.
[00:01:45] At least in my view, but rather descriptions of the type of loving people we should become. So Exodus chapter 20 verses one through 17 is one of the places where we're given what we normally [00:02:00] talk about as the 10 commandments. And there's actually a couple of different passages that reference this, but here's how Exodus chapter 20 verses one through 17 goes.
[00:02:10] Then God spoke all these words. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
[00:02:28] You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord, your God am a jealous God punishing children for the inequity of parents to the third, into the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation for those who love me and keep my commandments.
[00:02:46] You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord. Your God for the Lord will not acquit any who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy. Six days, show you labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath [00:03:00] to the Lord. Your God, you shall not do any work. You, your son or your daughter, your male, or your female slave your livestock or the alien resident in your towns for in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.
[00:03:13] But rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it honor your father and your mother so that your days, but belong in the land that the Lord, your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not be, or bear false witness against your neighbor.
[00:03:33] You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. So what's interesting is when we think about these sorts of passages and often these are the passages that people think of in the Bible.
[00:03:52] As providing these list of rules that we're supposed to follow. And there's lots of other ones too. We pick and choose. Oftentimes which [00:04:00] ones we want to see is really enforceable commandments and which ones we don't, for instance, this talks about putting the Sabbath day aside and not working on that day.
[00:04:10] And yet in modern society, that is a. Covenant that most of us actually ignore. We look at the rules and decide which rules we want to follow and which ones we don't. And in fact, we use these rules often to draw lines or create boundaries. No, the people that follow the rules that I think are the most important rules.
[00:04:32] Those people are on the end. Those are the people that are on the inside. They're doing the right thing and the people that are breaking some of the rules that perhaps I follow while they're centers and they're on the outside, we use rules to limit and to identify who's on the end. Who's on the out who belongs and who doesn't.
[00:04:56]We do it for our own good right. Boundaries and rules. [00:05:00] They feel uncomfortable, but surely they're a good thing, right? Like eating our vegetables. But the truth is all of this sort of thing. Do we see these rules that God is talking as if God is standing there and wagging his finger at us and really disappointed in is about to punish us for not eating our vegetables at night.
[00:05:20]Are we being restricted? Are we being blocked in some way? But I would say that there's actually another way of looking at this too. Instead of looking at these rules as punishment, instead of looking at these rules as boundary lines that identify who's on the end and who's on the out, these are boundaries created by a covenant by an agreement.
[00:05:45] And these are boundaries that really. Whether we follow them or not is not the point, but instead there are a description of the kind of person we should be. If we're a loving person, if we [00:06:00] really care about others, then we're not going to cover what our neighbor has. We're not going to break the covenants that we've set up between us and others by stealing or committing adultery or bearing false witness.
[00:06:12] We're not going to take others' lives because we're going to try to understand them and their position. We're going to honor our parents because the truth is they deserve that honor. Instead of thinking about these as thou shall or thou shall not think of it is. You are, the people are, you are not the people, you are those who do this are, don't do this.
[00:06:36]It's a way of identifying, not a way of limiting. And the truth is it's about being a process too. The truth is we don't necessarily perfectly follow these rules, but there are still grace around them as well. These are descriptions just as surely as they are boundaries. And when you look at it [00:07:00] that way, you begin to recognize that there isn't a pecking order to this.
[00:07:03] There isn't one set of rules in the Bible, and these are the rules we should all follow. And anyone else's outside of that limit these, aren't the rules that if, if you follow the ones that I identify with and you're on the end, and if you don't, then you're on the out. These are rules. Yes. But these are rules that identify what kind of person.
[00:07:27] We should become, these are rules that go beyond the day-to-day. These are rules that go beyond the moment to moment and they become a way of being, they allow us to become more loving. This is why I believe that we're told the greatest commandment is love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.
[00:07:50] And then love your neighbor as the same, because the truth is, if you do those things, if you have a loving relationship first, then all the [00:08:00] rules get easy, then not stealing, not committing adultery, honoring your parents and all of these other rules that are in the Bible become easy. It doesn't become a pecking order thing.
[00:08:11] It doesn't become well. Yes, I'm a center, but my sin is less. Sinny that your sin? That your sin is somehow worse than mine. You're more on the out than I am. It doesn't become about judging others. It becomes about focusing on what we're doing and how our relationship is with God, with others. And with ourselves, it becomes more driven by our self direction and the person we're becoming not by the judgment of others.
[00:08:45] Thanks for listening.
[00:08:47]Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what [00:09:00] you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there until next time, invest your time.
[00:09:33] Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .