Pastor Kyung Jun Lee of Seoul Dawn church, who came to SBC as a speaker for our revival few years ago, told us about Ten Commandments for church life. He said this is modified from the Ten Commandments of the Bible, and I remember that when I heard it, I had the ‘Ah Ha’ moment since it was so true and applicable.
A month ago, as I organized my office, I found a memo I made at that time. It is so relevant and helpful, that I want to share it with you. I recorded each caption at that time, and the explanation is added later by me.
You shall have no other gods before me - Through church life, we need to continuously experience God: The ultimate purpose for church life is to experience God. Therefore, whatever we do, we need to get to know God more and better through it. That should be our goal and our drive.
You shall not make for yourself an idol - Leave your desire and anxiety to God: If I place anything in my mind where there should be God that is an idol. These days two things which consume modern men and women are greed and anxiety. Church should be a training ground for us to put down greed and anxiety which sneak into our lives to take the place of God in us. As the practice of repressing greed and anxiety becomes our habit, our lives will be renewed and abundant.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God - Be careful with your words: The area where we most often make mistakes is our words. It is also our words which can cause pain in our brothers and sisters in Christ. With our tongue and due to its improper use, we bring shame to the name of the Lord outside of church such as exaggeration, thoughtless jive, inconsiderate words, promises which you do not intent to keep, etc. When we mature enough to control our tongue, our church life will enjoy peace.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy - Sunday should be spent for rest and recharge: As we give one tenth to God, we acknowledge that our worldly possessions belong to God. When we give one day a week to God, we acknowledge that our lives belong to God. We live diligently in the world for six days of the week and on Sunday we spend the day for worship and ministry work which pleases God and give our souls a rest. It provides new energy for our lives.
Honor your father and mother - Be respectable and polite: After God talked about the first four items above related to the relationship with God, He talked about six elements about neighbors and the first of those is to respect our parents. He saw that respecting parents is the basis of human relationships. Just like that, inside church, we all should practice to respect elders and love younger ones since this is the basis of human relationship.
The Apostle Paul urged us to exhort an older man as if he were our father and treat younger men and women as brothers and sisters. (1 Timothy 5:1-2). This week, it would be great to show kindness and render a helping hand toward others in church even though they do not belong to your house church. Next week, I will continue with the remaining five items of the Ten Commandments.
- Pastor Rein