Exodus 20:12-16: a reflection

In the heart of the Ten Commandments come these: honor your father and mother; you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. After the commands about God himself come these commands about how we treat one another, protecting the people around us in the most basic goods: their dignity, their life, their marriage, their property, their good name.

Notice what these commands are guarding. Each one protects a neighbor: honoring parents guards the bonds of family; not murdering guards life; not committing adultery guards marriage and faithfulness; not stealing guards what belongs to another; not bearing false witness guards a person's reputation and the truth between people. God's law here is not arbitrary restriction; it is a fence of protection around the people we live among, securing for them what we would want secured for ourselves.

That reframes how we hold these commands. They are the shape of loving our neighbor, as Jesus said, the whole law hangs on loving God and loving neighbor, and these commands spell out what such love refuses to do: it will not take a life, betray a marriage, steal, or lie about someone. Where do you treat these as mere old prohibitions rather than the protection of real people around you? Let them shape a life that guards your neighbor's life, marriage, property, and good name as carefully as your own. To keep these commands is to love the people God has placed around you.