The 10 Commandments in the New Testament: Part 3

[Steve Myers] Can we find connections to the 10 Commandments in the New Testament? No doubt, we can. We’ve been talking about various places where we see the connections to the commandments in Exodus chapter 20, and in fact, the third commandment talks about the fact we should not take the Lord’s name in vain. Exodus 20:7 speaks of that.

We can also find a connection to that in the New Testament with the words of Christ. Matthew 5:33. He makes an interesting connection here as He was talking about the commandments and how they related to that day. He gives quite a few different examples throughout chapter 5. And one of the things He points out here is He says, “As you have heard that it was said of those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord’.” When we make a vow, we should follow through. He later on said, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ be ‘No’.”

Now, the interesting part is He connects this back to being true Christians, to not take the Lord’s name in vain. Not just only the fact that people curse and swear in that sense, but He also talks about following though and living as true representatives of God. He goes on and He says, “But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by earth.” And so He points to the fact that we shouldn’t curse, but we also should be living, breathing examples of our relationship with God – showing the fact we are Christians and our behavior doesn’t contradict who we claim to be. And by taking the Lord’s name in vain – if we say we’re Christians and we’re not acting like them – that is another way we could take His name in vain. And so He says do not do that.

Don’t curse, don’t swear, but be true living examples of what a Christian really is.

That’s BT Daily. We’ll see you next time.