Here are the original 10 Commandments and five additional interpreted from Scriptures. There may be other interpretations but these are a reasonable start. Clicking on a line will take you to it's explanation, with references to the Scriptures.
- I am God, Have no other gods
- Have no images of God
- Don't use God's name in vane or in a worthless way
- Keep the Sabbath and do no work,
- Honor thy father & mother
- Thou salt not murder
- Thou Salt not commit adultery
- Thou Salt not steal
- Thou Salt not give false Witness
- Thou Salt not desire no covert another's property
- Educate Thy Children
- Go the extra Mile,
- Don't judge others
- Care for the lowly in Your Society
- Have love for your fellow beings
Let us examine these Commandments, and and their purpose.
1. I am the Load Thy God, have no other God before you, reads the first Commandment. Here a strict or narrow interpretation can lead to confusion and conflict. Over the years separate societies have developed different religions even when they worshiped the same God. In both the Bible and the Koran , Jews, Christians and Moslems all trace their heritage to a man called Abraham and all worship the same God . That same God, called by many different names, is worshiped by at least 3 billion of Moslems, Christians and Jews. Then why is there so much religious based conflict?
Religion is such a fundamental factor to our emotional and physical well being that even a slight difference in it's
practice, due to differences in cultures, languages and people's physical appearance, a result of
human evolution and migration, can lead to fear or distrust the differences or the unknown. This leads to personal insecurity. The result is often outright
rejection of the differences and often to conflict. Even when worshiping the same God, some of us refuse to pray with those of other religions.
Whenever there's conflict winners and the losers remember their victory or losses, pride or shame, feelings which intern are passed on to future generations insuring
repetition of conflict. God knew this would be a major problem with humanity, so with this Commandment we are supposed to accept or be tolerant of other's worship of the same God and by what ever method. There should be no conflict based on religious belief.
Also, we can expand the interpretation of this Commandment to uncover another social concern. Many of us have come to give excessive importance to the pursuit of personal comfort, pleasure, wealth and/or power. By putting excessive energy into the desire for worldly goods and power, we diminish the energy and love of God. We can not serve two Gods. Thus by putting God first before all other desires and respecting the differences in how others worship most of our problems can be solved.
2. Make no images of God, is important because God knew that humans would find it difficult to comprehend what they couldn't see, hear, or otherwise sense. It is much easier if we can visualize and focus on an object in our religious practices. God knew that evolution, migration and cultural changes would result in different societies developing unique idols, paintings and objects of worship, further differentiating their beliefs. The existence and use of these objects alone have be cause of many conflicts. If someone's object of worship is ridiculed or belittled or if another's more beautiful or grander, insecurities and conflicts result.
God also knew that the process of focusing on an object during worship will eventually lead individuals to develop an emotional attachment to that idol. We see this everywhere, people worshiping statutes, objects, pictures etc. That emotional energy, now is misdirected aimed at the object and not to God. For example, imagine standing next to your spouse, but looking at and raising your arms or even attempting to embrace your new car, all the while saying "Honey, my dear wife (or husband) I love you". How would your spouse feel? Just because you call out your spouses name, would they feel your emotional energy? Likewise similar practices dilutes the emotional energy which we should be focusing and sending to God.
Finally because idols age, deteriorate, are lost and/or damaged, we can slowly diminish our love and respect for God, as if God were likewise disposable.
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3. Do Not use God's name in Vane Because we diminish our respect and love for that which we take lightly, the same happens by using God's name in a worthless way or in vane. Repeating such practices diminishes the love and respect we should have. Think about how you feel about that SOB baseball empire, or opposing player or that political opponent. It's harder to love someone whose name we curse or belittle. The more we use the name in a worthless way the less worth it has for us. Keeping God's name with utmost respect prevents the natural erosion of the love we have.
Now that our relationship with God is created and conflicts in God's name are avoided, we are given other rules to benefit society
4. Observe the Sabbath Day and Keep it Holy. "All work and no rest is not sustainable. God knew that humanity can not endure under constant labor without rest and spiritual renewal. The body, mind and soul needs rest and refreshing, therefore God gave us this 4th Commandment. Labor for 6 days, and on the 7th rest the body and worship to replenish the soul.
This Commandment has in itself caused controversy, such as which day is the Sabbath, what activities are permitted and can a day of rest and worship be skipped? Here our God given common sense and free will tells us that there are situations where we must work and toil for more than six consecutive days, such as in times of danger or natural disasters. I doubt God would want us to stop activity that would save our lives in strict adherence to the Sabbath, and obviously in times of danger we can silently pray and worship as we toil. Our rest will come when we eliminate the danger.
As which day is the Sabbath, again common sense says the whole world can not cease laboring during the same day. We have created societies dependent on infrastructures which need constant maintenance and support. So a staggering of the Day of rest is only logical and again the worshiping of God and the spiritual rejuvenation can be done in one's own home or any suitable place.
There's another problem with the day of rest. Rest and inactivity can become excessive. A society bent on too much leisure and not enough toil will eventually soften and decay. So work is required to maintain a functioning society.
5. Honor Thy Father & Mother is the first of the interpersonal Commandments. Because the Family is the smallest unit and basis of a society, that society can not function if it's basis or building blocks are in turmoil. If children didn't honor & obey parents the functioning of the family unit would collapse and weaken the society. However, honor and discipline are learned behaviors and the problems parents have with children are often of their own cause. Children raised in a loving, caring environment seldom cause problems, but external influential pressures can subvert the parent's teachings. Therefore the phrase "it takes a community to raise a child" is so true. If all parents practiced quality parenting, problems caused by peer pressure and other societal influences can be averted. This Commandment defines how parents should be honored, but leaves half the equation unsolved and therefore begs for another Commandment, one explaining conduct towards children.
6 Thou Salt not murder is Probably the best known Commandment, although often quoted as Though Salt Not killer are slight differences in the meaning of "kill" and "murder", Kill being to end a life and murder is to unjustifiably end a life. The ramifications of ending a life are most serious because once committed the act can not be undone, no one can be resurrected. The effects are permanent. Therefore we must consider the differences between kill and murder. Societies justified from Scriptures act of ending someone's life in order to save society from future harm, or in one's own self defense. To unjustifiably end a life is murder and a sin.
Much argument can justifiably be raised about the above definitions, such as any killing even, of the unborn child can be considered murder. Many hold the belief that abortion is murder, a belief which conflicts with other's desire to control their own bodies and destiny. In reality all cases killing, abortion and murder occur only because society fails to adhere to the other Commandments. If we faithfully lived up to the other Commandments, there would be little if any killing, murder or abortion. In arguing our opinions on this matter we're overlooking the real causes.
7. Thou Salt not commit adultery, is one of most emotionally costly Commandment. Guilt and hurt caused by the act are seldom remedied, and cause disintegration of the Family unit. But adultery goes beyond the physical act itself and it pertains also to the thoughts, desire and lust, people feel for another's spouse or person. For it's those thoughts when persistent which lead to a variety of unhealthy behavior.
There are two obvious reasons why adultery is bad for a society, first as stated it undermines and often destroys the unity of the relationships, marriages end, families are broken, children are hurt and often emotionally scared for life. Also there are the added financial costs, before, during and after a divorce which often adds to the alienation of the parties. The second detriment of adultery stems from the actual act and is the spread of disease. The emotional and financial costs of detecting, treating and controlling the effects of venereal diseases is staggering. The reality is if there were no adultery AIDS or other deceases which sap our resources, would be almost non existent
The ramifications of adultery are obviously counter productive and slows progress due to the divergence of resources, and the lasting emotional burdens experienced on individuals.
8. Thou Salt not Steal is another highly violated Commandment because it covers the full range of property loss from taking of someone's pencil to embezzling billions from industry or government. In all cases the loss of property and resources slows the progress of society because of the time it takes to discover and reconcile the loss, and the progress that is hindered by the loss. Prime examples are theft and misappropriation of business, public, private funds. When this occurs the purpose of the funds are not realized until they are recovered or replaced. The cost of this reconciliation adds to the initial loss. All of which slows the progress of societies. Another form of stealing occurs by not delivering the product or service as agreed and compensated for, don't short change your customer or tax collector.
9. Do not bare False Witness, or Thou Salt not lie. There's purpose in the saying "the truth shall set you free". However, because of our education and up bringing, we may not even know the truth. Many of us by not knowing reality can't always be truthful. Truth to us is what we have been taught. For example, a child of 4-5 may believe in Santa Claus because that's the Fairy Tale the child's been taught and will believe until they learn otherwise or figure out for themselves the impossibility of flying reindeer. Like children, until we "unlearn" our own falsehoods, we will "know those falsehoods" as truth.
To base our lives on something other than the truth is counter productive, wasteful and often dangerous. Where would we be if a computer or calculator periodically gave the result 2+2=5 or similar incorrect responses. This has often happened in design engineering where incorrect inputs or program errors, caused faulty outputs. In computer terms it's called "garbage in, garbage out".
In our personal lives, we often take incorrect actions due to bad information, "Hey Sam. I've got a great stock tip for you". Often several persons witnessing the same event will recall it differently and all believe their version to be true. When given wrong, invalid, inaccurate information individuals and societies make wrong decisions or interpretations, resulting in lost or wasted of resources and/or lives. Also, over stating the ability of a product or service, or not making clear it's limitations, are less that truthful and are forms of lying. Once we switch our thinking to truthfulness, what is based on reality, and concentrate on being as correct as possible, productivity will soar, violence will decrease, initiating a revolution in prosperity. This is what God intended.
10. Do Not Desire or Covert Another's Property or relations or animals can also be expanded to include do not accumulate more than you need (Mat 6,19-24). When we desire another's property or comforts we lose focus of what it takes to attain such, and these desires often leads to excessive spending if not stealing, lying and the accumulation of more than one needs. Thus the accumulation of excesses results in a disproportion of resources, few individuals will have too much, while many will not have enough. Our earthly resources are finite, and not uniformly distributed, giving certain countries vast resources and others none. At both the Global and personal levels we need to consider that "there for the grace of God go I," and be more generous with our riches. If a few have too much, then many have not-enough, slowing the progress of society as a whole.
In (Mat 6,19-24) and in the Koran God's message is to share our wealth and feed and cloth the needy. Although poverty can strike anyone or country it should not be a permanent way of life. Those who have too much should ensure that those without can be lifted out of poverty. Just as a structure can not stand on a weak foundation, a society can not survive on a foundation of mass poverty.Now that we reviewed the Ten Commandments we can see a pattern, a definite purpose. When any of these are violated individuals, families, communities, nations and all humanity are impacted, either seriously harmed or at least the social progress is slowed or set back. Thus one can conclude that the purpose of these Commandments was an attempt to ensure that humanity progresses, become fruitful and multiply. This purpose of life would be the result of the universal adherence to the Ten Commandments: Creation of a Paradise on Earth.
However, understanding this purpose of life, and wondering why a paradise on earth hasn't been achieved, we can assume something is missing and search for other Commandments. These missing instructions or Commandments were preached by Jesus and Mohammed documented in the New Testament and Koran.
The following are what can be interpreted as additional commandments. In fact in the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as saying "I give you a new Commandment." God through messengers have given us more instructions to live by. Consider these:
11Cherish and Educate Thy Children. Mat 7 11, as the complement to Honor Thy Father & Mother, children need to be nurtured and educated so that they become responsible adults, a benefit to and not a drain to society. Individually, we do not recall our own earliest days as infants, but by witnessing other infants we realize that we were all once innocent loving beings eager to love, learn and explore. The care, treatment and sum of our life experiences resulted in who we are today, good, evil and all between.
Every child born to this world is a perfect loving being. It is what we teach them, how we treat or mistreat them that produces the variety of good and evil we see in this world. A few years ago, when the 7 inmates escaped from a Texas prison, their pictures were shown on national TV. Behind the evil adult faces I visualized faces of a hurt children getting me to wonder how they became evil. From my own experiences, I could only imagine what they lived through. Yes, even Hitler and Stalin were born innocent loving children.
A few years ago, a question was posed to a nationally famous celebrity. "Could you love your child if he or she became a murderer." The answer was "No, there could be no love for such a person". This, was a terrible answer, and I submitted a reply that most adults would be heart broken to think that their child became such a person, and a parent would anguish wondering how and why their child turned bad, and any parent not feeling the hurt and anguish would not have to look far to discover how the child turned evil.
Finally with the recent death of Bob Keeshan who played "Captain Kangaroo" to millions of kids, he once said. "If we took good care of one generation of our children, we could solve all the problems of the world" What a uniquely simple solution to our world's problems. If we all treated, nurtured and educated our children with love and respect and taught them all to their highest potential, in twenty years we would be well on our way to solving all our problems.
Thus adhering to this additional Commandment would go a long was to solving the problems of our world, theoretically, in one generation we could create a Paradise on Earth.
However education is not effective if we don't record our knowledge and history Mat7 7-8. This doesn't seem very religious, but productivity is slowed by the lack of proper recording of accumulated or attained knowledge. Where would we be without the Bible. Because we cannot rely on memory or retention of verbal descriptions, making a written record is imperative Simple examples are not taking proper notes in school or writing down directions to a destination. Having to recover from these small lapses are counter productive, but even worse is the destruction of vast amounts of data such as those caused by computer viruses, natural or man made disasters. Considering the damage caused by computer viruses, lost resources and productivity, the punishment for such acts are not severe enough.
History has another example: At about the year 40 BC a vast collection of knowledge was lost when the Library at Alexandria was inadvertently destroyed by fire during a naval battle. It could be assumed that losing that accumulated knowledge set humanity back for centuries. Without that loss, instead of discovering America, Columbus could have gone to the moon. More recently the destruction of the World Trade Center was more than an attack on America, it was an attempt to cripple our economy and financial institutions by destroying vast databases. Thus securing knowledge and data is utmost important in continued productivity.
12. Go the extra mile Mat5 33-48. Consider all your dealings and associations, your job and those of others. How often do we slack off, don't complete something to the best of our ability, or fully reward others for their accomplishments? By not going the extra mile to complete the work right or reward those who do, we train ourselves that meritocracy is acceptable. We see it everywhere, shoddy goods and services, litigation because people were harmed by shoddy work. We are reducing our standard of living by not doing our best, and until we collective learn to go the extra mile we won't reverse the negative trend.
13. Don't judge others Mat7 1-5 so that you will not be judged. We all have emotions, feelings and opinions largely programmed into us by our own life's experiences. After once being born innocent loving infants, we are now what we are from those experiences. These are learned opinions, feelings and emotions and just because "we feel and think a certain way" it doesn't make it right. When we criticize others out of a preconceived notion or belief, instead of from rational reality, we are attempting to bolster our own emotions: the "pot calling the kettle black" These actions benefit neither party and only make matters worse by reinforcing our faulty psychological program and programming others to likewise act
14. Care for the lowly in your society because " but for the grace of God go I". Obviously poverty is a fact of life caused by a variety of natural and man made events. Droughts, storms, earthquakes and other natural disasters can destroy the infrastructure of a society, while poor planning, implementation, greed, violence and war or any decision not based on truth, can destroy the ability of persons or peoples to prosper. From the embezzling of someone's retirement to large scale corporate corruption, many can be driven into poverty. We are all potentially one mistake or act from falling into poverty, but poverty should not be a permanent condition.
Our economy has be able to buffer many of those mistakes, acts and natural disasters, but the numbers of those succumbing to poverty is growing The global economy is redistributing jobs and wealth as well as poverty. Its an economic pyramid where the base is comprised by lower economic and those in poverty. Above reside the middle class and wealthy. Just as structures built on weak foundations will collapse, societies can not be sustained on a large base in poverty. When we help the lowest of the world we help ourselves. This is God's instruction to us delivered by Jesus in Mat25:34-40
15. Have love for your fellow beings as you would have them love you. This is what we call the Golden rule and in Mat 7: 12 Jesus said simply that all the Laws of God were important but we would still be O.K. if we strictly followed two. Here in the Golden Rule is the second where the first was to love and have only on God. The simple reality is by strictly following Commandments 1 and 15 all the others would come naturally.
In conclusion, God has given us instructions and has sent messengers to update those instructions, but also God have given us free-will and the knowledge to know good from evil, the rest is up to us. We can follow those instructions and create a paradise on earth, or partially follow or even disregard those instructions and continue with our destructive and shameful ways. In reality we don't have to wait for resurrection or an after-life, we can have our paradise on earth, just by following these simple rules.