As we begin, note two facts that should be obvious throughout this study. Fact one: relationship with God always begins with a basic understanding of God's position. Fact two: a basic understanding of God's position is always evidenced through our treatment of other people.
In the fact one statement, "God's position" refers to this basic understanding: relationship with God starts when a person comes to the penetrating awareness that God is God. No one can form a relationship with God without a basic awareness of the truth that God is God. The fact two statement emphasizes this basic truth: when a person understands God is God, he or she treats all people differently.
In fact one, yielding to God depends on understanding God's position. People who fail or refuse to understand God's position will not yield to Him. Another understanding is also essential. How people yield to God depends on understanding God's position.
Yielding to God begins with the understanding that God is God. If a person does not realize that God is God, he or she will not surrender his or her will to God's will. If that understanding does not exist, the person will yield to God's desires as long as God's desires "make sense to me." When God wants "me" to yield in ways that "do not make sense to me," the person draws the line. This does not suggest that godly people resign themselves to yielding blind obedience that bypasses understanding. It suggests that godly people continually grow from ignorance and toward understanding by accepting God's superiority--God is God.
God calls Christians to be people whose lives stand in contrast to those who reject God. God's people belong uniquely to God. Yet, they refuse to be hostile or antagonistic in their treatment of those who do not belong to God. Christians do not restrict honesty to Christian relationships. They do not, should not, and must not restrict kindness, mercy, forgiveness, truthfulness, and fairness only to Christian relationships. Just as was Jesus, they are people of character and integrity with both those who reject God and those who belong to God.
Because godly people yield to God as God, they treat people in ways they would never consider if they did not see God as God. Seeing God for who He is changes the way a person sees people. When one learns to look at God differently he or she looks at people differently. When the godly person looks at people differently, he or she treats people differently.
People who do not belong to God commonly regard the basic principles of Christian character and integrity as "unnatural, undesirable, and unproductive." Only when the Christian "sees" God in His rightful position will he or she yield to God's expectations. Christian character and integrity are the end result of yielding to God.
If a person cannot or does not see God for who He is, that person cannot or will not understand the actions and attitudes of the godly person who sees God for who He is.
Answering "why" people who belong to God are people of godly character and integrity begins in Genesis 12:3 in the statement " and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed." This is the earliest declaration of what Christians refer to as the great commission. It is God's clear statement that He is concerned about all people. God wanted all people to have opportunity to be His people. God wanted all people to reflect Him in their character and integrity.
One of the first truths concerning God that Genesis introduces a person to is this: God always has been concerned about all people. Human rebellion built a barrier between God and people. God's actions always were directed toward destroying that barrier.
Read the text. Note Israel's ten commandments are categorized into two sections. The first focuses on their response to God because they recognize God's position. The second focuses on their response to people because they recognize God's position.
Note the obvious when you read the ten commandments. The first emphasizes the way Israel should treat God. The second emphasizes the ways Israel should treat each other.
Section one: An Israelite's treatment of God.
He is the Lord God.
He released them from captivity in Egypt. He ended their slavery to the Egyptians.
They will not consider anything other people consider to be a god as a rival to God or equal to God. Only God delivered them from Egypt. Only God released them from slavery. In that release God demonstrated power superior to any form of power associated with anything others considered a god.
God is a jealous God. People who belong to Him belong exclusively to Him. He promised Abraham that Abraham's descendants would be His people (Genesis 17:1-7). He delivered these descendants of Abraham from Egypt. He delivered them from slavery. He was offering the covenant to them (Exodus 20:5). They were to be His possession--exclusively.
They would keep the Sabbath day holy (our Saturday, the last day of the week).
They would not do any work.
God worked for six days to produce the creation and rested on the seventh.
Section two: An Israelite's treatment of people.
He would honor them by caring for them (the focus of this command is care extended by an adult child to his parents).
Their understanding of God would determine how they treated others. God did for them what they could not do for themselves--deliver them from Egypt and slavery. God demonstrated His power and ability. God blessed them beyond imagination. If they respected God, they must also respect each other. God delivered the other Israelites from Egypt just as certainly as He delivered "me" from Egypt. "I" cannot show disrespect and ill treatment to someone God loves.
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 1