God’s Ten Statements: Loving God, Loving Ourselves, Loving Others

God’s Ten Statements:  Loving God, Loving Ourselves, Loving Others

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

God’s Ten Statements are part of the Mosaic Covenant. Like all of God’s covenants, the Mosaic Covenant  is important because it pictures the ministry and sacrifice of Jesus and Israel’s role in bringing that message to the world.

What we have traditionally called The Ten Commandments should more appropriately be called God’s statements about the changes in our lives that will come when we are in relationship with Him.  The One New Man Bible comments, “These instructions were given in the future tense because all who commit to Him will change behavior and no longer do those things.”

From the One New Man Bible, Exodus 20:1-14:

“. . .You will have no other Gods before me. …. You will not make any graven image for yourself of any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or what is in the earth beneath, or what is in the water under the earth....You will not bow down yourself to them or serve them…You will not take the name of the Lord you God in vain…Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy….Honor your father and your mother….You will not murder.  You will not commit adultery.  You will not steal.  You will not bear false witness against your neighbor…You will not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.”

The first four statements deal with loving God; the last six concern human behavior and relationships. A key to understanding the development into the last six statements is Matthew 22:36-40 (NKJV):  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." 

Notice the progression:  we are to love God, love ourselves, and then we will be able to love others.  The last six statements show God’s people overcoming behaviors that result from a lack of self esteem.

Unkindness to others results from not knowing our identity in Jesus Christ.  Simply put, when we are wounded, we wound others.  Knowing our identity in the Lord brings healing.  God is Jehovah Rapha, our healer spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Romans 13:8-10 (NKJV) “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Learning to love ourselves enables us to fulfill the law.  When we are walking in relationship with God, we will come to Him, love ourselves and love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

True humility is not thinking poorly of ourselves.  It is seeing ourselves as God sees us. If we insist on being defined as less than God has defined us, we have actually made an idol of ourselves.  We have declared that we know more than the Lord who created us.

 Below are some favorite scriptures that help us to see ourselves as God sees us.

▪Job 33:4—“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

▪Psalm 8:3-5—“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.”

▪Psalm 139:13-14—“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. “

▪Jeremiah 29:11—“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

▪Zephaniah 3:17—“The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

▪Romans 8:38—“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 12:3 cautions us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.  Grammatically speaking, that means that we are to think of ourselves highly, just not more highly that we ought.  We are radically loved by God, but we are not God. 

Accepting who we are in Jesus Christ, we fulfill His covenant and we can pray the Lord’s Prayer as a recognition of His covenant promises:

Our Father, You are in heaven.  Your name is holy.

In Jesus Christ, Your kingdom has come.  Your will is being done in my life on earth as Your will is done in heaven.

You give me my daily bread. 

You forgive my trespasses just as I forgive those who have trespassed against me.

You do not lead me into temptation, but you rescue me from evil.

I declare that You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords, that

You are all powerful and all glorious forever  and ever.

Amen