And not because they were written on stone, either. 

The Ten Commandments flummox lots of people. Some are even outraged. How dare God be so demanding, so restrictive, so downright mean! The Ten Commandments provoke commentary about many issues which completely overshadow recent fear that displaying them establishes a state religion.

 Most people see the Ten Commandments as a checklist for human perfection. In fact, when asked to talk about the Ten Commandments, many people explain them the way a mother might tell a child how to earn gold stars by completing chores on a list. God must wonder where our heads are, because he gave the Ten Commandments to show us how to achieve world peace.

 Yup. World peace. How many national and international meetings have assembled for the purpose of figuring out world peace? Forget peace for the whole world. How many have assembled to focus exclusively on peace in the Middle East? There have been a lot, and after each one, the dignitaries sign on the dotted line and the paparazzi photograph all the smiling faces. Yet the “peace” sometimes doesn’t last as long as the flight home.

There is a solution. The Ten Commandments point to it, the whole Bible points to it, and the Word of the solution is our Lord Jesus Christ.

 How, you may ask, do the Ten Commandments point to Jesus? and world peace?

Talking about all of them would take a long time, so one will have to stand in for the rest. Let’s look at the final one – the tenth commandment. It reads as follows in Exodus 20:17:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

This commandment points to powerful components of a solution to world peace. Envy, jealousy, the desire for attention, popularity and pre-eminence all subvert my commitment to love my neighbor, and a lack of love for my neighbor is a dominant theme in the violence that destroys our peace around the world. The tenth commandment instructs us in no uncertain terms that focusing on our selfish interests is a very bad way to live.

Many of the conflicts around the world seem to be never-ending, and most center in an unwillingness of all participants to let go of the past. It might be a past as recent as five hundred years ago, or it might go back thousands of years. No matter how long it has been since the original land grab or insult or assault on innocent children, nobody has ever let go of the problem. Somebody coveted something that belonged to someone else, somebody felt slighted or insulted, somebody felt that another nation’s achievement diminished their own. No matter how long the participants have been fighting over the problem, nobody has ever been willing to say, “enough.”

Lest we be too quick to judge nations who act this way, we should remember that the Hatfields and the McCoys are just ordinary people who can’t ever let go of an injury.

You may think that it is too simplistic to say that the tenth commandment is the route to world peace, or even interpersonal peace. Is there really that much coveting going on?

The answer is, “YES!” There is a lot of coveting going on. Some of it is disguised as “my rights.” Some of it is disguised as “my entitlement.” Some of it is disguised as “my feelings.” Some of it is disguised as “my needs.” In other words, all that coveting is about selfishness. If Mark believes he had a right to the promotion that was given to John, the sense of entitlement can destroy his peace the way sand could destroy a gearbox. Upgrade the offense to a nation’s entitlement to a piece of land, and the constant irritation produces a war.

To find the real solution to all this coveting, and the subsequent violence, we need to look further than a proscription against it. The commandment only points up the problem; but it does not stand alone. No piece of Scripture in the Bible can safely be interpreted as if it stood alone. Every word of Scripture is like a single element in a complex protein. Change even one element and the whole is changed. Interpret one word of Scripture without reference to the rest, and you risk missing the whole point.

Here is the point of the tenth commandment. It teaches us what is wrong. Where shall we find out how to right the wrong? That answer is spoken by Jesus, the living Word of God, and recorded in the New Testament. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Ah. That sounds like somebody’s universal wisdom. It would really make me feel good if I loved my neighbor as much as myself. I could do it, too, if my neighbor were not such a renegade. Does the Bible really think I should love that scoundrel?

Yes it does, and Jesus explained that, too. Jesus said that if we want to be like him, like the living Word of God, we need to deny self. The exact words are “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23)  Denying self means we dethrone King Ego who sits on the throne of every person’s heart and enthrone God Almighty. In other words, I acknowledge that I am not the most important person or thing in the universe. God is most important, and I am the equal of all the other people he created. Before God, I don’t stand any higher than my scoundrel neighbor.

So, what is the answer to world peace? Remembering all the other things Jesus said we look at what he said in Matthew 5:23.

When you are offering your gift at the alter, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first, be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

The answer to world peace is reconciliation based on loving God and neighbor more than self. This is a hard truth. We don’t like it. We like simple rules that make sense. That sends us back to the Ten Commandments. There is a simple list everybody can remember and follow. Where do the commandments start? “You shall have no other gods before me.” Where do they end? “You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor.” In other words, Love God the most, and love your neighbor as yourself. The whole answer to world peace.

Yes!

If that’s what we find in a commandment at the tail end of the list, all about coveting, what might we find if we look at the rest of them? Check back from time to time and find out!