10 commandments of God summary. Bishop Alexander Mileant

Before we begin our discussion on the topic of Christ’s commandments, let us first determine that the law of God is like that guiding star that shows a person traveling his way, and a man of God the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. The law of God has always meant light, warming the heart, comforting the soul, consecrating the mind. Let's try to briefly understand what they are - the 10 commandments of Christ - and what they teach.

Commandments of Jesus Christ

The commandments provide the main moral basis for human soul. What do the commandments of Jesus Christ say? It is noteworthy that a person always has the freedom to obey them or not - the great mercy of God. It gives a person the opportunity to grow and improve spiritually, but also imposes on him responsibility for his actions. Violation of even one commandment of Christ leads to suffering, slavery and degeneration, in general, to disaster.

Let us remember that when God created our earthly world, a tragedy occurred in the angelic world. The proud angel Dennitsa rebelled against God and wanted to create his own kingdom, which is now called Hell.

The next tragedy occurred when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and their lives experienced death, suffering, and poverty.

Another tragedy happened during Flood, when God punished people - Noah's contemporaries - for unbelief and violation of God's laws. This event is followed by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, also for the sins of the inhabitants of these cities. Next comes the destruction of the Israeli kingdom, followed by the kingdom of Judah. Then Byzantium and the Russian Empire will fall, and behind them there will be other misfortunes and disasters that will be brought down by God’s wrath for sins. Moral laws eternal and unchangeable, and whoever does not keep the commandments of Christ will be destroyed.

Story

The most important event in the Old Testament is people receiving the Ten Commandments from God. Moses brought them from Mount Sinai, where God taught him, and they were carved on two stone tablets, and not on perishable paper or other substance.

Until this moment Jewish people represented powerless slaves working for the Egyptian kingdom. After the emergence of the Sinai legislation, a people is created that is called to serve God. From this people later came great holy people, and from them the Savior Jesus Christ himself was born.

Ten Commandments of Christ

Having familiarized yourself with the commandments, you can see a certain consistency in them. So, the commandments of Christ (the first four) speak of human responsibilities towards God. The following five define human relationships. And the latter calls people to purity of thoughts and desires.

The Ten Commandments of Christ are expressed very briefly and with minimal requirements. They define the boundaries that a person should not cross in public and personal life.

First commandment

The first sounds: “I am your Lord, may you have no other Gods besides me.” This means that God is the source of all goods and the director of all human actions. And therefore, a person must direct his entire life to the knowledge of God and glorify his name with his pious deeds. This commandment states that God is one in the whole world and it is unacceptable to have other gods.

Second Commandment

The second commandment says: “Do not make for yourself an idol...” God forbids a person to create imaginary or real idols for himself and bow before them. The idols for modern man have become earthly happiness, wealth, physical pleasure and fanatical admiration for their leaders and leaders.

Third Commandment

The third says: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” A person is forbidden to use the name of the Lord irreverently in the vanity of life, in jokes or empty conversations. Sins include blasphemy, sacrilege, perjury, breaking vows to the Lord, etc.

Fourth Commandment

The fourth says that we must remember the Sabbath day and spend it holy. You need to work for six days, and devote the seventh to your God. This means that a person works six days a week, and on the seventh day (Saturday) he must study the word of God, pray in church, and therefore devote the day to the Lord. These days you need to take care of the salvation of your soul, conduct pious conversations, enlighten your mind with religious knowledge, visit the sick and prisoners, help the poor, etc.

Fifth Commandment

The fifth says: “Honor your father and mother...” God commands to always care for, respect and love your parents, and not to offend them either in word or deed. A great sin is disrespect for father and mother. In the Old Testament, this sin was punished by death.

Sixth Commandment

The sixth says: “Thou shalt not kill.” This commandment prohibits taking the life of others and oneself. Life - great gift God, and only he sets the limits of earthly life for man. Therefore, suicide is the most serious sin. In addition to murder itself, suicide also includes the sins of lack of faith, despair, murmuring against the Lord and rebellion against his providence. Anyone who harbors a feeling of hatred towards others, wishes death to others, starts quarrels and fights, sins against this commandment.

Seventh Commandment

In the seventh it is written: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” It states that a person must be, if he is not married, chaste, and if married, remain faithful to his husband or wife. In order not to sin, there is no need to engage in shameless songs and dances, watch seductive photographs and films, listen to piquant jokes, etc.

Eighth Commandment

The eighth says: “Don’t steal.” God forbids the taking of another's property. You cannot engage in theft, robbery, parasitism, bribery, extortion, as well as evade debts, defraud the buyer, conceal what you have found, deceive, withhold the salary of an employee, etc.

Ninth Commandment

The ninth says: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The Lord forbids a person to give false testimony against another in court, to make denunciations, to slander, to gossip and to slander. This is a devilish thing, because the word “devil” means “slanderer.”

Tenth Commandment

In the tenth commandment, the Lord teaches: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his field, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox...” Here people are instructed to learn to refrain from envy and not have bad desires.

All of Christ’s previous commandments taught primarily correct behavior, but the last one addresses what can happen inside a person, his feelings, thoughts and desires. A person always needs to take care of the purity of his spiritual thoughts, because any sin begins with an unkind thought, on which he can dwell, and then a sinful desire will arise, which will push him to unfavorable actions. Therefore, you need to learn to stop your bad thoughts so as not to sin.

New Testament. Commandments of Christ

Jesus Christ briefly summarized the essence of one of the commandments as follows: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” The second is similar to it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the most important commandment of Christ. It gives that deep awareness of all those ten, which clearly and clearly help to understand in what human love for the Lord is expressed and what contradicts this love.

In order for the new commandments of Jesus Christ to benefit a person, it is necessary to ensure that they guide our thoughts and actions. They must penetrate our worldview and subconscious and always be on the tablets of our soul and heart.

The 10 commandments of Christ are the basic moral guidance necessary for creation in life. Otherwise everything will be doomed to destruction.

The righteous King David wrote that blessed is the person who fulfills the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. He will be like that tree planted by streams of water, which bears its fruit in its season and does not wither.

Throughout the history of man's communication with God, God always wants and will want to have a relationship with all people. God wants. so that we love Him and have the fear of the Lord, but at the same time, according to the plan of the Almighty, man was created with free will, so he himself must express a desire to join Him. One of the ways to attract a person's attention is by God using the law.
The Lord is at the center of all law:

1. And God spoke all these words, saying:

2. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...

(Book of Exodus 20:1,2)

In Hebrew, law may sound like Torah. The Torah has several meanings:

Word of God
Old Testament Scripture
Pentateuch of Moses
The Law of Moses, that is, the collection of moral, civil and liturgical laws that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. It includes the Ten Commandments, which are written by the hand of God, and 613 by-laws:

18. And when God stopped speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him two tablets of revelation, tablets of stone, on which was written by the finger of God.

(Book of Exodus 31:18)

16. The tablets were the work of God, and the writings written on the tablets were the writings of God.

(Exodus 32:16)

The law of God is the “order of life” determined by God and closely connecting Him with the chosen people.

The Ten Commandments can be roughly divided into 3 parts

1. Man’s relationship with God (1-4 commandments):

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; Let you have no other gods before Me.

(Book of Exodus 20:2,3)

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth...

(Exodus 20:4)

3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain.

(Exodus 20:7)

4. Six days thou shalt work and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger who is in your gates...

(Book of Exodus 20:9,10)

2. A person’s relationship with his family (5th commandment):

5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

(Exodus 20:12)

3. Human relations with society (6-10 commandments):

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

(Book of Exodus 20:13-17)

Purpose of the law or why the law was given:

1. To give his people a fair list of statutes, laws and commandments, and also to preserve Israel as a separate people to whom the Messiah should come. Thanks to the law, Israel was set apart from other nations and exalted before God:

1. Therefore, Israel, listen to the statutes and laws that I teach you to do, so that you may live and go and inherit the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

(Book of Deuteronomy 4:1)

6. Therefore keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who, having heard about all these decrees, will say: only this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

7. For what great nation is there to which its gods would be as close as the Lord our God is close to us, whenever we call on Him?

8. And is there any great nation that would have such just decrees and laws as all this law that I propose to you today?

(Book of Deuteronomy 4:6-8)

2. Through the law, awareness of sin occurs:

20. For by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

(Romans 3:20)

3. Predict the image and coming of the Messiah - Savior:

1. The law, having a shadow of future benefits, and not the very image of things, with the same sacrifices constantly offered every year, can never make perfect those who come with them.

2. Otherwise, they would stop offering them, because those who offer the sacrifice, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

3. But through sacrifices we are reminded of our sins every year,

4. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5. Therefore Christ, entering the world, says: You did not desire sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for Me.

(Hebrews 10:1-5)

4. Show a person that on his own he is not able to fulfill the Will of God

10. Whoever keeps the whole law and sins in one point becomes guilty of all.

(James 2:10)

The law for us is a teacher to Christ (schoolmaster from the Greek “stern teacher”, usually a slave who raised a child and could punish him with rods):

23. And before the coming of faith, we were imprisoned under the guard of the law, until the time when it was necessary to open ourselves to faith.

24. Therefore the law was a guide for us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith...

(Galatians 3:23,24)

Coming into this world as the Savior, Jesus replaced the law of commandments with His teaching, which boiled down to two commandments:
1. Love your Lord:

37. Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...

(Holy Gospel of Matthew 22:37)

2. Love your neighbor:

39. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself...

(Holy Gospel of Matthew 22:39)

Jesus came not to break the law, but to fulfill it:

17. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

(Holy Gospel of Matthew 5:17)

Each religious tradition offers its followers a certain set of moral rules that must be followed in order to gain and strengthen faith and move along the spiritual path. The basis of Christian morality is the 10 commandments of God; they are also used in Orthodoxy, although they essentially belong to the Old Testament tradition.

According to tradition, on the 50th day of the exodus from Egypt, Moses ascended the mountain, and there the Lord dictated to him the Ten Commandments, with which he descended from the mountain in order to give these covenants to the people of Israel. Nevertheless, people, in the absence of their prophet (Moses was on the mountain for 40 days in fasting and prayer), created a golden calf, which they began to worship. The disappointed prophet broke the tablets.

After this, he was instructed to cut out new tablets and go to the mountain again. As a result, Moses writes the commandments on tablets and gives them to his people.

There are references to these events in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, which, in turn, refer to the Torah (Pentateuch), which is related to the Old Testament, consisting of 39 books.

Relevance in Orthodoxy

Orthodox church tradition included writings from Old Testament, in particular, the commandments given to Moses are considered part of the canon. Nevertheless, the Bible does not list these rules, and if we remember what Jesus himself said, we should talk about the beatitudes that were given at the Sermon on the Mount.

Nevertheless, as the Savior himself said, He came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law. Therefore, there is no contradiction here. The commandments given to Moses are honored and observed.

The New Testament teaching of Christ is simply, let’s say, a more progressive and humane development of the topic. If the Old Testament tradition consisted mostly of prohibitions that were created in order to protect people from sin, then New Testament Christianity leads people to perfection and, ultimately, Salvation. Christ himself spoke about this: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another,” “be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

Therefore, the Orthodox tradition does not deny the list of commandments of Moses. However, it also focuses on the Beatitudes, which are to a greater extent a means to Salvation and spiritual perfection.

Especially here the 10th commandment should be emphasized. This is where the emphasis shifts to inner world man, on which Christ placed special emphasis, speaking not about external prohibitions, but about internal perfection (which inevitably leads to external ones): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He only needed such a basis, but this basis points to the very essence of faith.

Now we should characterize the 10 Orthodox commandments God's law in details. Of course, interpretations of each commandment can be varied; here we offer universal ones, compiled on the basis of the works of Orthodox theologians and priests. A deeper understanding of each commandment requires personal spiritual experience and careful reflection.

1. “I am the Lord your God... let you have no other gods before me.” We are talking about the biblical Host, which can also appear in the form of the Holy Trinity. If you do not delve into etymology and deep comprehension, which requires religious and mystical experience, then the commandment indicates the presence of a supreme principle from which all things come. The Light of the Lord permeates every creation of this world; He entered timelessness from timelessness and created a world that is completely saturated with Him. Therefore, it is strange to look for other gods and choose something else. The commandment indicates the need to turn to a higher principle, since only there is truth.
2. “You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Do not worship them and do not serve them...” The text is not given here in full. In some ways a continuation of the previous commandment, a prohibitive commandment that indicates the need to follow the true path and the consequences of choosing the wrong one. Most often here they point to the factor of the creation of the idol, which is well illustrated by the example of icon veneration in Orthodoxy. In this tradition (unlike, for example, Catholicism), icons are revered in a special way, they are an active part of religious practice, they help to tune in to prayer, but there is an essential detail: icons are revered as a window into spiritual world. To be more precise, the spiritual world itself is revered; the icon is only a window through which one looks. In fact, we are simply talking about a piece of wood or other surface with the presence of some kind of color composition, and worshiping the image itself is incorrect and exactly corresponds to the creation of the idol. Even if an icon is miraculous, it is not the piece of wood that does the miracles, but the Lord, who is addressed through the image. Therefore, a believer should avoid any creation of idols and realize the true purpose of worship.
3. “Do not take the name of the Lord in vain.” This is about taking the Lord's name in vain, according to Orthodox tradition, you need to say it when praying or serving in church. This emphasizes a certain respect. Also, of course, one should not remember the Lord with curses or anything like that. You need to separate the ordinary and worldly from the heavenly and realize what words are needed for what.
4. “Remember the Sabbath day...Six days you shall work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: on it you shall not do any work.” The text of this commandment is not given in full, but the essence is one thing - rest on the Sabbath day. Rest is perceived as detachment from worldly affairs, the best of which is, of course, prayer, reading spiritual literature and the like. It is more difficult for people who do not live in Israel to keep this commandment literally, but it is about the need to dedicate at least a day every week to the Lord. In this way, man becomes like the Lord, who rested on the seventh day after creating the world for six days.
5. “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” It is thanks to parents that a person gets the opportunity to see this world, learn faith and gain the opportunity to save his soul. Parental love is limitless, so they deserve to be honored. This commandment also points to the need to extrapolate this love to other people. If a person learns to honor his parents, then in the future he will respect every man and woman in general.
6. "Dont kill". It is a grave sin, and this prohibition is given to people so that they do not doom themselves to eternal suffering, since it is incredibly difficult to atone for such an offense. In fact, each person is an inseparable part of the Lord, and if he encroaches on another, he actually encroaches on himself, because people in this sense are indistinguishable.
7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Initially, the prohibition spoken of in the 7th commandment concerns having relations with married woman. For this period, it can extend to any relationship that contradicts the norm of morality.
8. "Don't steal." This includes not only the appropriation of another person’s property, but also any deception committed for this purpose, obtaining some kind of property and property in a not entirely honest way. By and large, even if a person receives more than is due for some work, or in some not entirely honest way extracts money from others, then such behavior also falls under the scope of this commandment. Therefore, you need to be careful when receiving any property and income from activities.
9. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” This commandment also includes the closest one, that is, the person himself. Thus, it is also prohibited to deceive other people about oneself, for example, to boast about something or mislead about one’s personality. You also shouldn’t lie about other people; such deception always has a negative impact, because at least the one they’re lying about always knows where the truth is.
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his servant… anything that is your neighbor’s.” This commandment is often emphasized because of its unique wording to the Mosaic laws. This particular commandment is often called a kind of transition from the Old to the New Testament, which Christ brought. If the reader pays attention, he will see the phrase “do not covet” that is different from the previous ones. The remaining commandments are prohibitive, and they prohibit certain actions. In fact, the believer may not think much about it. If the priest competently explained how to follow the previous 9 commandments, then the believer may well simply follow these instructions, but the 10 commandments of the Lord would not be complete without this final one. Here the appeal is not to action, but to thoughts. A primitive interpretation may indicate a simple meaning - do not envy. Such an interpretation really exists, but you need to look deeper: from every harmful desire comes a harmful action. If someone wants someone else's property, then for this they can plot murder, theft or adultery. Many sins and violations of commandments come precisely from sinful thoughts and intentions. In modern words, you need to control your consciousness and cleanse it of all negativity. In particular, one should cultivate basic righteous aspirations in oneself and eradicate harmful ones, which in the Orthodox tradition are explained by the influence of passions, demons and Satan.

Based on this list, 10 sins arise in Orthodoxy, which are a violation of these instructions. For example, if a person has created an idol for himself and begins to worship a beautiful picture, another person or pleasure, then he moves away from the Lord and is a violator of the commandment.

Connection with sins

Some may confuse the commandments of God and mortal sins a little, which are somewhat similar and may even have identical meanings, but still belong to different lists. In particular, in the Orthodox tradition, there are seven or eight main sins that have a negative effect on believers and that need to be eradicated.

Various interpretations

In Catholicism There is a widespread division into serious and ordinary sins, which, as the name implies, entail different consequences. This teaching is more aimed at ordinary people and is something like a social norm.

In Orthodoxy, the concept of fundamental sins was developed by the institution of ascetics. Spiritual ascetics, on their path to perfection, purified their nature from various passions and ultimately identified what a believer needs to fight in order to achieve the ideal. We are talking about passions such as:

Orthodoxy also uses a scheme with eight sins:

There are other schemes that can be used in the books of various ascetics and saints. For example, John Climacus identifies 33 stages of spiritual development, and in each of these stages it is possible to choose to overcome the corresponding sin.

The main thing here, perhaps, is not exactly how many sins are on the list, but understanding the basic passions and abstaining from them. For example, in the second list, pride is divided into vanity and arrogance - similar qualities. However, the point is not to get rid of vanity and arrogance individually or pride in general, but to get rid of these passions.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOD

Content:

FIRST COMMANDMENT

I am the Lord your God, and there are no other gods besides Me.

This means: there is one God, and there are no other gods except Him alone. He is the Most High, Almighty, All-Wise and All-Good God. From Him all creation came, through Him it lives and to Him it will return. He is the Holy, Mighty and Immortal God, Unchanging, peaceful, beginningless and endless. He has no need or discontent for anything. All ascend to Him countless lights(The angels who stand before the throne of God are often called divine lights. Their number is uncountable) and move around Him. He rests among them, like a motionless axle in a wheel. The axle holds and the wheel rotates. God has all the power, and there is no power outside of God. And the power of light, and water, and air, and stone is the power of God. The power that makes an ant crawl and a fish swim and a bird fly is the power of God. The power that makes seeds grow, grass breathe and people live is the power of God. All power is the property of God, and every creature receives its power from God. God gives everyone as much as He wants and takes it back when He wants. Therefore, when you are looking for strength, look for it only from God, because God is the source of living and great strength, and besides Him, there is no other source.
All wisdom is in God, and there is neither wisdom nor the slightest knowledge outside of God. Everything that was created was created by God, and God put something of His wisdom into every creation. Therefore, brother, in order not to sin before God, do not think that God gave wisdom only to man. The horse, the bee, the fly, the swallow, the stork, the tree, the stone, the water, the air, the fire, and the wind have wisdom. The Wisdom of God abides in everything, and nothing could exist without it. Therefore, when you seek wisdom, seek it only from God, because God is the source of Living and Great Wisdom, and besides Him, there is no other source.
All goodness is in God. That is why Christ said: “No one is good except God alone.” His goodness lies in His mercy, forbearance, and forgiveness of sinners. God has invested His goodness in every creation. Therefore, every creation of God has God’s goodness. So, even the devil has it, it is thanks to her that he wishes himself good and not evil. But out of his stupidity, he wants to achieve good through evil, that is, he thinks that by doing evil to all of God’s creations, he can do good for himself.
Oh, how great is the goodness of God, poured out in every creation of God: in stone, in plants, in animals, in fire, in water, in the air, in the wind. All of it is received from God, the Beginningless and Inexhaustible and the Great Source of all virtue. And when you want to grow in virtue, do not look for it anywhere except God. Only He has what you need in abundance. That is why the Lord commands us: “You cannot have other gods besides Me.”
And why do you need other gods if your God is the Lord Almighty? If you have two gods, know that one of them is the devil. But you cannot serve both God and the devil, just as one ox cannot plow two fields at the same time and one candle cannot burn in two houses at the same time. The ox does not need two owners, because they will tear it to pieces. The forest does not need two suns, because it will burn. The ant does not need two drops of water, because it will drown in them. A child does not need two mothers, because he will be left unattended. And you don’t need two Gods, because you will not be richer, but poorer. Because the more gods there are, the weaker they are. If you have as many gods as people, your gods will be weaker than people, and if you have as many of them as ants, then they will be as weak as ants. So, honor these numerous gods as nothing and, taking a broom, sweep them over the threshold of your house. You yourself remain with your one Lord God of hosts, who has all the power, all the wisdom and all the kindness, indivisible, inexhaustible and endless. Honor Him alone, worship Him and fear Him. Oh my God! You own countless creations, but I, Your creation, cannot have a god other than You alone. Dear God! Drive away all my empty thoughts and dreams about other gods. Cleanse my soul, sanctify and expand it, and dwell in it, like a King in His chamber. Strengthen, teach, correct and renew me, the One True One. Glory and blessings are due to You, towering above all false deities, like a high mountain above the plain.

SECOND COMMANDMENT

Do not make for yourself an idol or any image; do not worship them or serve them.

This means: do not deify the creation, do not honor it as the Creator.
If you climbed high mountain and there he met the Lord God. Why do you look back at the small swampy growth at the foot of the mountain? If a person wanted to see the king and after much effort achieved a meeting with him, will he at this meeting look around and look at the king’s servants and lackeys to the right and left? He can behave this way only in two cases: either he cannot stand the presence of the king and seeks support from those around him; or he sees that the king is unable to help him, and is looking for a stronger patron.
Why can't man stand the presence of the King of God? Isn’t this king his Father? Why is he afraid of meeting his Father? More humane! Didn't God think about you even before you were born? Did He not keep you in your sleep and in your waking life, even when you did not know it? Didn't He think more about you every day than you worried about yourself? Why then are you afraid of Him? Truly your fear is the fear of a sinner. Sin is always fraught with fear. It creates fear “where there is no fear,” where there is no place for it or its consequences. Sin distracts your gaze from the King to the slaves. In their midst, sin is the master himself, feasting among his slaves. But we must remember that the King is more merciful than slaves. Let us not turn away from the merciful King, our Father. The king's gaze will burn away the sin in you just as the sun burns away the microbes in water, and this water becomes pure and drinkable.
Or maybe you think that God cannot help you, and therefore you turn to His servants. But if God cannot help you, then even less can His servants. After all, they themselves are God’s creations and expect help from God. What kind of help do you expect from them? If a thirsty person cannot drink from a mountain stream, how can he get drunk by licking drops of dew in a meadow?
Who deifies a sculpture or a painting? The one who has not known the artist and the carver. Anyone who does not know God and does not believe in Him is doomed to deify things, because it is human nature to deify something. God, like a sculptor, sculpted mountains and valleys, carved the bodies of animals and plants, He, like an elegant artist, painted meadows and fields, clouds and lakes. He who understands all this glorifies and thanks God as a great Artist and Sculptor, but he who does not know this is forced to worship only statues and pictures of God.
If a person devotes all his thoughts and all his zeal to his family and does not want to know anything except his family, then his family is a deity for him. And then this is a disease of the soul of the first kind.
If a man devotes all his thoughts and all his zeal to gold and silver and does not want to know anything else, then gold and silver are his deity, to whom he bows day and night, until the night of death finds him doing this and covers him with its darkness. . And this is a disease of the soul of the second type.
If a person directs all his thoughts and all his zeal to be the first among everyone and to be in charge at all costs, so that everyone will glorify and praise him, he considers himself the best among all people and the best among creations, that he has no equal in heaven or on earth, then such a person is his own deity, for whose sake he is ready to do anything. And this is a disease of the soul of the third type.
If someone writes the name of God on paper, or on a tree, or on a stone, or on snow, or on the ground, then honor this paper, and this tree, and this stone, and snow, and earth for the sake of the Most Holy Name of God, written on them. But don't deify what it's written on holy name. Or when you have material on which the face of God is depicted, you bow to Him, but know that you are not bowing to matter, but to the great and living God, of whom the image reminds. Or when you see at night the greatness of the heavenly stars, you bow low, but not to them - the creation of God's hands, but to the Lord Most High, the highest of the heavenly stars, the radiance of which reminds you of Him. Lord, the One Most Merciful! We recognize, acknowledge and praise You alone.

THIRD COMMANDMENT

Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

What? Are there those who dare to take in vain the terrible and mysterious name of the Lord God Almighty? When the name of God is pronounced in the sky, the heavens bow in fear, the stars shine brighter, the Archangels and Angels sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, fill heaven and earth with Your Glory,” and the holy saints of God fall on their faces. How then can mortal lips dare to remember the Most Holy Name of God without spiritual trembling, without deep sighing and longing for God?
When a person lies on his deathbed, no matter what names he calls upon, none of them can make him brave and restore peace of mind. But the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, pronounced at least once, gives courage and brings peace to a person’s soul. The remembrance of this consoling name eases his last breath.
More humane! When you have lost faith in your family and friends and feel lonely in this endless world or tired of a long lonely journey, remember the name of God, and it will become a support for your tired and heavy arms and legs.
Scientist! When you are exhausted over solving a difficult riddle of nature and, having used all the capabilities of your little mind, cannot find the right answer, remember the name of God, the name of the Higher Mind, and the light will illuminate your soul and the riddle will be resolved.
O most wonderful name of God! How omnipotent You are, how beautiful, how sweet! Let my lips be silent forever if they utter it carelessly, uncleanly and in vain.
One goldsmith, working in his workshop, constantly used the name of God in vain: either as an oath or as a saying. A pilgrim passing through this village heard these words and was extremely indignant. He loudly called the master by name so that he would go outside and hide. And when the master went outside, he found that no one was there. Surprised, he returned to his workshop and continued working. After some time, the wanderer calls him again, and when he comes out, he pretends that he did not call him at all. The very angry master shouted to the wanderer: “Are you tempting me, wanderer, or are you joking when I have so much work to do? You call me, and then pretend that you didn’t call.” The wanderer answers him peacefully: “Truly, God has much more work than you, but you always remember Him in vain, and you are offended at me for distracting you. Who has more reason to be angry - God or you, goldsmiths master?" And the master felt ashamed. He returned to his workshop and from then on kept his mouth shut.
Let the name of the Lord, like an unquenchable lamp, constantly glow in our soul, in our thoughts and heart, but do not touch our tongue on an insignificant and solemn occasion.
A doctor came to one hospital to practice; he was given an assistant with whom he had to spend time from morning to night, operating and bandaging patients. The assistant had a habit of swearing dirty. He spared no one in his expressions. His dirty swearing did not escape even the God of Hosts. One day the doctor was visited by a friend who came from the city. The doctor invited a friend to attend the operation. The patient's abscess was opened. The guest felt sick at the sight of the terrible wound from which pus was flowing. In addition, the doctor's assistant kept swearing dirty. Unable to bear it, the guest asked: “How can you listen to these vile, blasphemous words?” The doctor replied: “My friend, I’m used to the fact that there are dirty wounds and that pus often flows from the wounds. If there is a purulent abscess on the patient’s body, then the pus becomes visible thanks to the wound, and this abscess can be cured. But there is pus in the soul man, and it is possible to detect it only when it flows through the lips. My assistant, swearing blasphemously, reveals to us the accumulated evil that pours out of his soul like pus from a wound."
O All-Merciful God, even toads do not scold You, but man scolds You! Why does a toad have a better larynx than a human? O All-Patient One, why do snakes not blaspheme You, but man does? Why is the snake closer to the angels than man? O Most Beautiful One, why does the wind, which girdles the earth in a cross shape, not turn in vain to Your name, but man does? Why is the wind more God-fearing than man?
O Most Wonderful Name of God, how omnipotent you are, how beautiful and how sweet you are! Let my lips be silent forever if they utter it carelessly, uncleanly and in vain.

FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Six days you shall work and do all your work, but the seventh is a day of rest, which you shall dedicate to the Lord your God.

This means: for six days the Lord created the world, and on the seventh he rested from His works. Six days are located in time, and therefore they are transitory and restless, but the seventh belongs to eternity, therefore it is enduring and restful. The creation of the world is a manifestation of God in time, but this does not mean that He ceased to be at this time in Eternity. “This mystery is great,” and it is indecent to speak fussily about it. It requires prayer and reverence. Therefore, this mystery is not accessible to everyone, but only to God’s chosen ones. The chosen ones of God are in time in body, but in their spirit they are in the Unapproachable Light, in which there is eternity, peace and bliss.
And for you, brother, it is good for you to work, and after work it is good for you to rest. It is useful to work, because God blessed the work; it is useful to rest, because God blessed the rest after work. Let your work be creative, since you are a child of the Creator, so do not destroy, but create!
Consider your work as collaboration with God. And then you will not do evil, but good. Before doing anything, think: would God bless you for this work or not? Because the most important thing is to remember that the Lord does all things; we are only His helpers. And if the work we are starting is blessed, then we must complete it sparing no effort. Your heart and the lungs work day and night and do not get tired. Why can't your hands work too? And your kidneys work without rest day and night. Why can’t your brain work too?
In one city there lived a rich merchant with three sons. He was a hardworking merchant and through his labors he made a huge fortune. When they asked him why he needed so much goodness and so many worries, he answered: “My only concern is that my sons be provided for and that they do not have the same worries that their father had.” Hearing this, his sons became so lazy that they abandoned all activities, and after the death of their father they began to spend the accumulated fortune. The father's soul wanted to see from the other world how his beloved sons lived without hassle and worries. God allowed this soul to go to his hometown. So the father's soul comes home and knocks on the gate, but opens some stranger. Then the merchant asked about his sons, and they told him that his sons were in hard labor. The habit of idly spending time in drunkenness and amusements first brought them to lewdness, and then led to the final ruin of the house and death. The father sighed bitterly and said: “I thought I had created heaven for my children, but I myself sent them to hell.” And the distraught father walked throughout the city, addressing all the parents: “Don’t be, people, like I was. Because of blind love for my children, I personally sent them to fiery hell. Don’t leave, brothers, any property to your children. Teach them to work and leave this as an inheritance for them. Distribute the rest of your wealth to orphans before your death. There is nothing more dangerous and soul-destroying than leaving children as an inheritance of a large fortune. Be sure that the devil, and not the Guardian Angel, rejoices most at a rich inheritance. Because the devil catches people most easily and quickly through wealth." Therefore, work and teach your children to work. And when you work, don’t look at work only as a means of getting rich. See in your work the beauty and pleasure that labor gives as a blessing from God. Know that you are degrading this blessing if you seek only material gain from labor. Such work, devoid of blessings, does not benefit us, and does not bring any benefit.
Rest on the seventh day! How to relax? Know that rest is only from God and in God. Nowhere else can righteous rest be found in this world. For this world is as restless as a whirlpool. Dedicate the rest of the seventh day exclusively to God, and then you can truly rest and be filled with new strength.
On the seventh day, think about God, talk about God, read about God, listen about God and pray to God.
One atheist did not honor God’s commandment to celebrate Sunday and continued Saturday labors on Sunday. On Sunday, when the whole village was resting, he worked in the field with his cattle, which he also did not give rest. On Wednesday of the following week he was completely exhausted, and his cattle were also exhausted. And now, when the whole village was working in the field, he lay at home in exhaustion, anger and despair. Brothers, do not follow the example of this atheist, so as not to ruin your strength, health, and soul. Therefore, work with God for yourself for six days with love and pleasure, diligence and reverence, and dedicate the seventh day entirely to God. Truly I tell you from my experience that correct work and the correct celebration of Sunday spiritualize a person, make him younger and make him strong again after the labor he has endured.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

Honor your father and mother, may you be blessed on earth and have long life.

This means: before you knew anything about the Lord God, your parents knew about it. And this is enough to bow to them and give praise and honor. Bow down and respectfully thank everyone who knew the Highest Good in this world before you.
One rich Indian youth traveled with his retinue through the Hindu Kush valley. In the valley he met an old man grazing goats. The poor old man bowed his head as a sign of respect and bowed low to the rich young man. The young man quickly jumped off his elephant and prostrated himself on the ground before the old man. The elder was surprised at this action of the young man, and all his servants were surprised. The young man said this: “I bow to your eyes, which before mine saw this light, the work of the hands of the Most High, I bow to your lips, which before mine uttered His holy name, and I bow to your heart, which before mine trembled at the joyful discovery of the Father of all people on earth. “The King of Heaven and the Lord of all.”
Honor your father and your mother, because your path from birth to this day is ensured by the efforts of your parents and their suffering. They accepted you even when all your friends turned away from you, weak and unclean. They will accept you when everyone else rejects you. And when everyone throws stones at you, your mother will throw wild flowers. The Father accepts you, although he knows all your shortcomings. But your friends will reject you, even if they only know your virtues. Know that the tenderness with which your parents receive you belongs to the Lord, who receives His creation as His children. Just as a spur makes a horse run faster, your guilt towards your parents makes them care about you even more.
One rude and bad man rushed at his father and, blinded, plunged a knife into his chest. And the father, dying, says to his son: “Quickly clean the knife from the blood so that you are not captured and condemned.”
In the Russian steppe, one dissolute son tied his mother to a pole in front of a tent, and in the tent he drank with bad women and friends. The robbers came across them and, seeing the mother tied up, they said that the scoundrels must be punished. But the bound mother raised her voice and thereby warned her unfortunate son that he was in danger. And the son escaped, but the robbers flogged the mother instead of the son.
Son, do not be proud of your knowledge before your unlearned father, for his love is greater than your knowledge.
If it were not for him, there would be neither you nor your knowledge.
Daughter, do not be proud of your beauty in front of your hunched mother, because her heart is more beautiful than your face. Both you and your beauty came from her meager womb. Learn, daughters, to honor your father, and through this learn to honor all other fathers on earth.
Practice day and night, son, to honor your mother, for in this way you will learn to honor all other mothers on earth. Truly, children, it is wrong to honor only your father and mother, and not notice other fathers and mothers. Your reverence for your parents is necessary for you as a school of respect for all people and all women who give birth in pain and raise their children in labor and suffering. Remember this and live by this commandment so that God will bless you on earth.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

Thou shalt not kill.

This means: God gives life from His Life to every creation, to all created beings. Life is God’s most precious possession, hence, whoever dares to encroach on someone’s life, dares to attack God’s precious possession - the very Life of God. All of us who live today are temporary carriers of the Life of God within ourselves, guardians of God’s precious estate. Therefore, we do not dare and cannot destroy this borrowed Life of God in ourselves and in others.
And this means: first- we have no right to kill; second- We cannot kill life.
One potter made a vase out of clay, and when careless people broke it, the potter was very upset and demanded compensation for the loss. Man is also made of the same cheap material as a vase, but what is precious about him is that man has a soul, which forms a man from the inside, and the Spirit of God, which gives life to the soul.
So, neither father nor mother have the right to take the life of their children, for it is not the parents who give life to the child, but God through the parents. Parents are a vessel in which God kneads life, and a kind of oven in which God bakes the Bread of Life. But parents do not give life, and therefore, since they do not give, it means they do not have the right to take it away. If parents who work so hard, care and worry about their children do not have the right to take their lives, how can those who accidentally met the children of these parents in this world have this right?
In America, in the city of Chicago, there lived two neighbors. One of them coveted his neighbor’s wealth, sneaked in at night and cut off his head. Then he took all his money, put it in his wallet and went home. As soon as he went outside, he saw a murdered neighbor who was walking towards him. Only instead of a severed head, the neighbor had the head of a murderer. In horror, the killer crossed to the other side of the street and ran without looking back, but the neighbor with the killer’s head on his shoulders again found himself in front of the runner and walked towards him. The killer, drenched in cold sweat, somehow made it to his house and did not sleep that terrible night. But next night he again saw his neighbor in front of him with his own head on his shoulders. And this happened every night. Then the killer took the stolen money and threw it into the river. But that didn't help either. The neighbor appeared to him every night. The killer surrendered to the court, admitted his guilt and was sent to hard labor. But that didn't help either. And in prison the murderer saw his neighbor every night with his head on his shoulders. In the end, he begged one old priest to pray for him, a sinner, to God and allow him to receive communion. The priest replied that he must repent before communion. He replied that he repented of killing his neighbor. “That’s not it,” the priest told him. “You just can’t understand and admit that your neighbor’s life is yours.” own life. And by killing him, you killed yourself. That's why you see your severed head on the body of the murdered man. By this God gives you a sign that your life, and the life of your neighbor, and all human life together are one and the same life.”
The convict understood this. And he also understood and acknowledged everything else. Then he prayed to God and took communion. And then the spirit of the murdered man stopped haunting him, but he continued to spend days and nights in repentance and prayer and told all the other condemned people about the miracle that had been revealed to him, namely, that a person cannot kill another without killing himself.
Oh, brothers, how terrible are the consequences of murder. If it were possible to describe them to all people, truly there would not be a single one who would raise a hand against someone else's life.
God awakens and irritates the conscience of a murderer so that his own conscience gnaws at him from the inside like a worm gnawing at a tree. The man thrashes and growls and barks like a mad lioness; neither day nor night, the unfortunate person has no peace, neither in the mountains, nor in the field, neither in this life, nor after the grave. It would be better for a person if they opened his skull and a swarm of bees settled in him and stung him from the inside, than what his unclean and criminal conscience does to his soul.
Therefore, brothers, God commanded people for the sake of their own peace and happiness: “Thou shalt not kill!” O Lord, Most Kind, how sweet is every commandment of yours, like fresh nutritious milk. O Lord Almighty, save Your servant from evil deeds and a vengeful conscience, so that I glorify and praise You forever and ever. Amen.

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

Don't commit adultery.

And this means: you cannot have an illegal relationship with a woman. Truly, animals are more obedient to this commandment than many people. For animals enter into communication with each other exactly at the same time and exactly as the Creator predetermined for them. And many people do not recognize either time or order in relationships between men and women. Their minds have been dulled by fornication, so that they do not distinguish a legal relationship with a woman from an illegal one, just as a person in illness does not distinguish salty from sour. Therefore, you can often hear an adulterer justifying their sin, because they don’t care at all whether it’s their own wife or someone else’s, the right time or the wrong time, it doesn’t matter. Just as if a sick person were to say, when they first put salt in his mouth, then pepper, then sugar: “All of this is equally tasty. These are the same things, with the same taste.” If it were all the same whether you lived lawfully or lawlessly, God would not have commanded the people of Israel through Moses: “You shall not commit adultery.”
Adultery destroys a person physically and mentally. Adulterers are usually twisted like a bow from a harp, and before old age they end their lives in wounds, torment and insanity. The most terrible and most vile diseases that science knows are diseases that are spread in large numbers by human adultery. The body of an adulterer is constantly in disease, like a stinking puddle, from which everyone runs with a pinched nose and great disgust. But if the evil ended with those who committed this evil, the matter would be less terrible. But it becomes terrible when you think that the children of adulterers inherit the illnesses of their parents: sons and daughters, and even grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Truly, diseases from adultery are a scourge for people, like the phylloxera worm for grapes. Because of these diseases, humanity is declining, degrading, and more of all from these diseases than from any others.
Their appearance is quite terrible when we think about those bodily torments and ugliness, rotting and disintegration of the body from prodigal diseases. But their appearance becomes even more terrible, to the point of nervous fever, when we see how spiritual abomination grows from bodily deformity, as the consequences of this prodigal evil. Therefore, brothers, God, who knows everything and foresees everything, gave a commandment against adultery, against fornication, against extramarital affairs between people. Especially young people must hide and hide from this evil, like from a poisonous snake. Because a nation in which young people have given themselves over to debauchery and illegal bodily life has no future.
Over time, such a people will have a generation of weak people until they are captured by a healthier people, who will easily subjugate them. Who is not stupid can read ancient history nations and from this learn what terrible punishments befall adulterous tribes and peoples.
IN Holy Scripture the end of the two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is described, in which not even ten righteous and pure people could be found. For this, God sent a hail of fire and brimstone upon them, so that both cities were walled up together, as if in a tomb.
In Southern Italy there is still a place called Pompeii, a once rich and luxurious city, but now miserable ruins where people gather and, seeing them, sigh in fear and horror. The history of Pompeii, in short, was this: wealth brought this city to such an immoral and prodigal life that cannot be remembered since the creation of the world. And God’s punishment came upon him unexpectedly. One day, Mount Vesuvius near Pompeii opened up and a volcano erupted from there, and fiery lava with ash and stones covered the city of Pompeii with all its inhabitants, just as they cover the dead in graves.
May Almighty God help you, brothers, not to get lost and not to take the slippery and dangerous path of adultery. May your Guardian Angel help you maintain peace and love in your home. May the Mother of God teach your sons and daughters Her Divine chastity, so that their bodies and souls are not stained by sin, but pure and bright, so that the Holy Spirit may be with them, instructing them and enriching them only with what is Divine, what is from God.

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

Don't steal.

And this means: do not offend your brother by disrespecting his property. Do not treat him as foxes and mice do, if you consider yourself greater than animals. The fox steals, not knowing the law about theft, and the mouse gnaws the barn, not knowing that he is harming someone. Both the fox and the mouse know only their own needs, but do not understand the loss of others. It is not given to them to know this, but it is given to you. Therefore, you are not forgiven what the mouse and the fox are forgiven. Your benefit must always be below the law, and your benefit must not harm your brother.
Brother, only those who do not know steal, in other words, those who do not know the following two truths.
First truth- something that a person cannot steal, and another- that a person cannot gain benefit through theft.
How is this possible? - many people who don’t know will ask and be surprised. Here's how: our Universe has many eyes. She really is all filled with eyes, like a plum tree with white flowers during flowering. People see and feel a certain number of these eyes, but they do not see a larger number and do not even know about their existence. First of all, the sun is the first such celestial eye, as well as the stars. But besides the sun and stars, there are also millions and millions of many-eyed spirits who, without closing their eyes, watch what is happening on every centimeter of the earth. How then can a thief steal without anyone seeing and without it being discovered? You can't put your hand in your pocket without a lot of witnesses seeing it. Even less do you have the opportunity to put your hand in someone else’s pocket without alarming millions of higher powers; and this is the first truth.
Another truth is that a person cannot benefit through theft. Because what benefit will it be if so many eyes have seen it, and the theft will still be detected? When the theft is discovered and the thief is identified, the name “thief” will remain for him until his death among his neighbors. There are thousands of ways in which the heavenly powers expose a thief.
In one Arab city, the unrighteous merchant Ismail traded. Every time he weighed a product to customers, he always underweighted it by a few grams. Due to this deception, his wealth increased greatly. But his children were sick, and he spent a lot on doctors and medicine. And the more he spent on the treatment of children, the more he again obtained from his customers by deception. But what he stole from his customers was all taken away by the illness of his children.
One day, when Ismail was in his shop and was very worried about his children, the sky opened up for a moment. He raised his eyes to the sky and saw that something unusual was happening there. Angels stand around huge scales on which they measure all the benefits that God gives to people. The turn has come to Ismail’s family, and Ismail sees how the Angels, giving health to his children, put less on the cup of health than needed, and instead put a weight on the scales. Ismail became angry and wanted to shout indignantly at the Angels, but one of them turned to face him and said: “Why are you angry? This measure is correct. We give your children a weight that weighs as much as you steal from your customers. And so we do.” the truth of God." Ismail was shocked by the answer and began to bitterly repent of his grave sin. And from that time Ismail began not only to weigh correctly, but also to give beyond measure. And his children recovered.
This is how, brothers, a stolen thing always reminds a person that it was stolen and not his.
A certain young man stole a watch and wore it for about a month. After a month had passed, he returned the watch to the owner, confessed his crime and told him that every time he took the watch out of his pocket and wanted to know the time, he heard it ticking: “We are not yours; thief".
Lord God knows that theft makes both of them unhappy. And the one who stole, and the one from whom it was stolen. And so that people, His children, would not be unhappy, the Wise Lord gave this commandment: do not steal.
We thank You, Lord God, for this commandment, which we really need for the sake of our peace and happiness.

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

Don't bear false witness.

And this means: don’t lie to yourself or others. When you lie to yourself, you know you are lying. When you tell a lie about another, he also knows that you are telling a lie about him. When you exalt yourself and boast in front of people, people do not know, but you yourself know that you are giving false information about yourself. If you constantly repeat some untruth about yourself, people will still know that you are telling a lie. You yourself can begin to believe in your own lies, and the lie can become the truth for you. And you will get used to lies, like a blind man gets used to darkness. When you tell lies about another person, that person knows that you are lying. This is the first witness against you. And you yourself know that you are lying to him. Thus, you yourself are a second witness against yourself. And God is the third witness. And know that one of the three witnesses will convict you before the whole world.
This is how God rebukes false witness against one's neighbor.
In one village there lived two neighbors, Luka and Ilia. Luke was angry with Elijah because Elijah was a more prosperous person than Luke, who was a drunkard and lazy. Tormented by envy, Luke declared in court that Elijah had spoken blasphemous speeches against the king. Elijah defended himself as best he could and finally waved his hand and said: “Let God Himself reveal your lies against me.” But the court sentenced Elijah to prison, and Luke returned home. When he was already close to the house, he suddenly heard crying in the house. Luke went completely cold, remembering Elijah’s words. Entering the house, he was horrified. His old father fell into the fire and burned his eyes and whole face. When Luke saw this, he was speechless and could neither speak nor cry. And in the morning he went to court early and admitted that he had slandered Elijah. The judges immediately released Elijah, and punished Luke for perjury. And so Luke suffered two punishments for one sin: God’s and man’s.
But this is how your neighbor can expose your false testimony.
In Nice there lived a butcher named Anatoly. He was bribed by a rich but dishonest merchant to give false testimony against his neighbor, whose name was Emil. Anatoly allegedly saw how Emil doused the merchant’s house with kerosene and set it on fire. And Anatoly, as he was taught, testified at the trial. Emil was convicted. When he served his sentence, he swore that he would prove that Anatoly lied in court. Emil was a hardworking man and quickly earned a thousand coins. He decided to use this money to force Anatoly to confess to everyone his perjury. First of all, Emil found people familiar to Anatoly. I agreed with them that they would do the following: they would call Anatoly for dinner in the evening, give him a strong drink, and then they would tell him that they needed a witness who would testify at the trial against one of the owners of the coffee shop, as if he were some kind of villain. When this plan was told to Anatoly, they laid out a thousand gold coins in front of him and asked if he could find a reliable person who would testify like this at the trial. Anatoly's eyes lit up when he saw such an amount of gold in front of him, and he immediately declared that he himself would take part in perjury. But these people expressed their doubts that he would be able to speak at the trial without confusing or forgetting anything. Anatoly argued ardently that it was he who was capable. And they ask him if he has experience and if he has tried to do this. Not noticing any trap, Anatoly admitted to them that he had been paid by one gentleman before for bearing false witness against Emil, and according to his false testimony, Emil was sentenced to hard labor. When people heard this, they told everything to Emil. In the morning, Emil filed a lawsuit. Anatoly was sentenced to hard work. Thus, the truth of God overtook the slanderer Anatoly and cleared the honor and name of the righteous Emil.
O Lord God the Righteous, how miserable are people who do not listen to Your holy commandment and do not nail their hearts and their tongues to it. Help me, a sinner, God, not to sin against the truth. Enlighten me with Your truth, Jesus Son of God, and burn all the lies in my heart, like a gardener burns the nests of caterpillars on the fruit trees in the garden. Amen.

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

Don't covet anything that belongs to others.

And this means: as soon as you wished, you have already fallen into sin. The question is this: do you want to quickly escape from the abyss into which your desire has brought you, or do you want to fall further down?
Desire is the seed of sin. A sinful deed is only the harvest of the seed sown and grown.
Remember the difference between this tenth commandment of God and the previous nine. In the previous nine commandments, God warns man against doing sinful things, speaking of the harvest of sin. And in this tenth commandment, God draws attention to the root of sin and transgression, He warns you so that you do not sin even with your desire. Thus, this commandment becomes a bridge connecting the Old and New Testament. First, given by God through Moses, and the second given by God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, when we read the New Testament of Christ, we must pay attention to the fact that Christ does not command people not to kill and steal with their hands, not to commit adultery with their bodies and not to lie with their lips. He looks deep into the heart of man, the human soul, and commands: do not kill in your thoughts, and do not commit adultery in your heart, and do not steal in your thoughts, and do not lie in your feelings.
Thus, the tenth commandment is a transition to the Law of Christ, which is more spiritual, sublime and more complex than the Law of Moses.
Do not covet what belongs to your neighbor. For when you wish, then you plant the seed of evil in your heart, and this seed, having fallen, begins to grow, and spread, and branch, and push your hands to sin, and your feet, and your eyes, and your tongue, and everything your body. For the body, brothers, is the executive organ of the soul. The body only carries out the orders that the soul gives it. What the soul wants, the body can do, and what the soul does not want, the body cannot.
Listen to my one piece of advice. Try to fulfill this last commandment of God, and it will be easier for you to fulfill all the others. Believe me, those whose hearts are filled with impure desires darken their souls so much that they become unable to believe in the Lord God, and therefore are unable to work in certain time, and celebrate Sunday, and honor your parents. Verily, this is true of all the commandments. If you fail to fulfill at least one, you will violate all ten.
One righteous man, named Lovro, left his village and settled in the mountains, where he lived in solitude. He tried to eradicate all unnecessary desires from his soul. For several years Lovro thought only about God, prayed to God and fasted. When he returned to the village again, all his fellow villagers marveled at the radiance of Lovra’s holiness. And everyone revered him as a righteous man of God. And there was someone named Tadiya in that village, and Tadiya became jealous of Lovr. And he told his fellow villagers that he too could become the same as Lovro. And Tadia retired to the mountains and began his self-inflicted feat alone. A month later Tadiya returned to his village. And when his fellow villagers asked him: “What did you do during the month?”, he said: “Killed, stole, lied, attacked people, boasted, committed adultery, committed all kinds of lawlessness.” “How can that be, you were there alone?” - “Yes, I was alone in body, but in soul and heart I was constantly among people, and what I could not do with my hands and feet, and with my tongue, and with my body, I did all this in my soul and heart.”
Thus, brothers, a person can sin far from people, alone. Because if a bad person leaves human society, his sinful desires, spiritual abomination and unclean thoughts will not leave him. Therefore, brothers, let us pray to God, may He help us fulfill this last commandment of His. Extinguish, O God, the coal of every sinful desire in our hearts before this desire grows and begins to choke us. Help us, Lord, that we may learn all the words of this first Law, so that through this we may accept the Great and Glorious Law of Your Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, our Savior, to Whom, together with You and with the Life-giving Holy Spirit, be eternal glory and praise, and song and worship, from generation to generation, from century to century, until the end of the world and the victory of the radiance of Your Eternal Kingdom over all kingdoms known and visible to human eyes and minds. Amen.

One of the strongest regulators of people's actions, actions and thoughts is religion. She gave us simple rules of life that anyone, even a non-religious person, can follow.

The commandments of God are not just 10 rules that were once accepted as a basis christian religion. You don't have to go to church every day for God to give you happiness. To do this, it is enough to show respect for his covenants and for the people around him. This is useful even from an energetic point of view, because positive and “pure” people always have more friends in their lives. less problems. This is evidenced by the philosophy of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and most religions.

10 commandments

First commandment: May you have no other Gods besides me. This is a purely Christian commandment, but it also tells everyone without exception that there can only be one truth. There are no exceptions.

Commandment two: Do not make yourself an idol. You don't need to look up to anyone other than God. This is disrespect for higher powers and to ourselves. We are all unique and worthy to go through life path to be an example for future generations. You can learn good things from others, but do not listen to them unquestioningly in everything, for people do not always advise and say what is pleasing to our Lord.

Commandment three: The name of the Lord should be uttered only when there is a compelling reason to do so. Try to talk less about Jesus Christ in simple conversations, and especially when your words are negative and dark.

Commandment four: Sunday is a day off. If you do not work on Sunday, then dedicate this day to proper rest. Always leave household chores for Saturday or weekdays. This is correct from any point of view, because from the point of view of bioenergy, one day a week should be a fasting day. Rest will increase your energy and give you good luck.

Fifth commandment: respect your parents. When children behave incorrectly towards their parents, this indicates that they are capable of hurting anyone. They gave you life, therefore they are worthy of respect or at least gratitude, because they do not require anything from you in return.

Sixth commandment: dont kill. Comments are unnecessary here, because taking the life of another person, even within the framework of the law, is disputed in many countries. The only reason to take a life is a threat to your life. Even in cases of self-defense, people do not tolerate such “gifts” of fate well.

Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery. Don't cheat on your partner and don't get divorced. Because of this, you yourself and your children, if you have them, suffer. Look for ways to create, not destroy. Don't damage yourself and your marriage with cheating. This looks like real disrespect.

Eighth commandment: don't steal. Here, comments are also unnecessary, because the appropriation of what belongs to another is an extreme form of immorality.

Ninth Commandment: do not lie. Lies are the main enemy of purity. A lie uttered by a child may be harmless, but an adult who lies for his own benefit cannot be happy, because the mask he puts on can become his true face.

Tenth Commandment: do not envy . The Bible says that you must not covet your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house, or anything that he has. Be content with what you have and pursue your own happiness. This is self-confidence, which is immaculate and pure. Bioenergetics experts say that envy destroys a person from the inside, not giving him a chance at happiness. It blocks the exchange of energy with the Universe, which helps us to be luckier and happier.

Keep it simple and respect everyone around you. Let happiness pulsate within you with love and understanding, and not with envy and anger. Believe in yourself and your humanity. Fulfilling the covenants of Christianity will help you with this.

Live in such a way that your actions do not harm other people. Open your mind, for all thoughts are material. You can achieve happiness only by thinking about it and letting it into your life and into your consciousness. Good luck and don't forget to press the buttons and

08.11.2016 03:20

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