[A] The relation of love of neighbor and stealing:

The Law of God teaches us how to love our neighbors as ourselves. We love and respect his person, his marriage, and his property; and we do so for God’s sake and to God’s glory. Theft is a sin against love for God and for other human beings. (798)

"Theft or stealing is taking another [person’s] property by coercion, fraud, or without his uncoerced consent. Cheating, harming property, or destroying its value is also theft." 1. Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1973), 452–53. (799)

"Thus far, our definition of theft is incomplete. It must be added that theft is one form of violation of God’s fundamental order. Theft is therefore more than an offense against another person; it is an offense against God. God requires us to respect the life, marriage, and property of our neighbor and enemy, not because our neighbor or enemy is not possibly evil, and not because our own needs are not great, but because His law-order takes priority over the conditions of man. Neither the nature of our neighbor’s character, which may be evil, nor our own need, which may be great, can justify theft. The sovereignty of God requires the priority of His law-word.…

"A century ago, in his general survey of the law, Wines noted, “There are two principal sources of political, as of personal, power—knowledge and property.” This is the heart of the matter: property is a form of power, and wherever power is claimed for the state, there private property will be under attack." 3. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, 453–58. (800-801)

The foundation of the private ownership of property and property rights is the ownership of everything in all of creation by Almighty God: “For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all it contains.” (Ps. 50:10–12). Therefore, all human authority and property rights are “limited, delegated, and covenantal in nature.” 5. North, The Sinai Strategy, 140. (802-803)

[B] The Stewardship of Man:

Since God owns all property on earth, and in the universe, any ownership of property by human beings must be viewed as a stewardship from God (Matt. 25:14–30). (803)

It has long been recognized by Christian commentators that the biblical case for private property rests more heavily on this passage [Ex. 20:15] than on any other passage in the Bible. Individuals are prohibited by Biblical Law from forcibly appropriating the fruits of another man’s labor (which includes his ideas), or his inheritance. The civil government is required by the Bible to defend a social order
based on the rights of private ownership. (803-804)

"[T]he state is not the source of property. In the [tradition of John Locke] property is the creation of the state; or, the state was a social compact established to ensure the private ownership of property. In either form, control of property is in statist hands as the source of law and ownership. The Lockean world has thus moved logically from private ownership to ownership by the state as the trustee of the people. If justice has its origins in the state, then whatever the state does is therefore just." 8. Rousas J. Rushdoony, Commentary on the Pentateuch: Exodus (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 2004), 272. (804)

[C] Greed and Covetousness the root of theft.

[D]  Kinds of Stealing:

1. State Theft:
a) Eminent Domain: A man’s home is his castle....His governing authority over the home, his functions and jurisdictions are distinct from those of the church and the state. In his sphere, he is sovereign under God and His Law. (806)

How did the civil government come to the place where it can ignore the limitations to its authority regarding family and the family’s property and usurp the tyrannical power of eminent domain, i.e. the state’s power to confiscate personal property, even at below market value, whenever the state perceives its need for that property. ...
Such an attitude flies in the face of four Biblical principles. (1) “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” (2) God has given individuals and families the private ownership of property as a stewardship before Him. (3) The state is not the source of property and  ownership of property. (4)
"T]he control of property results in the control of man, so while we continue to refuse to live by biblical principles, we will continue to lose our personal liberty, until, finally, the State is in total (tyrannical) control." 10. Hanson, God’s Ten Words, 205. (807)

b) Socialism/Welfare state:
Socialism is an entire system that is built on theft. Robert Metcalf writes:
"The idea of socialism or even the liberal “welfare” state in mild form, has, in practice, led to all kinds of evil. The stifling of progress and the bringing of inflation, shortages, class divisions and warfare—all these are natural results of
the stealing and envy born of mild socialism of the “welfare” state, just as surely as in the all-out socialism of the fully communized nation.

"Collectivism causes the pitting of class against class, of each segment of society against the whole people. A welfare economy—socialism, communism, or any form of social order which takes from one group to give to another—is thus lawlessness
organized into a system. Marxist economies hold to the principle of, from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.… The wealth of the successful is given to the unsuccessful. Special privileges are thereby given to the incompetent, the unsuccessful, and the lazy." 12. Hanson, God’s Ten Words, 203. (808)

c) Property taxes:
"In God’s view, having a tax on property itself could result in a person or family not being able to afford the property. “By restricting taxation to production the Bible restricted severely the powers of the state and preserved the liberty of the family, the merchant, the church, and every other order of life” [Rushdoony]." 13. Hanson, God’s Ten Words, 204 (809)

2. Business/Industry Theft:
"When business and labor use the law to steal from the consumer, or from one another, they are denying the rule of law in favor of the rule of might, of violence, for might apart from right is violence. Theft is theft, whether it be stealing from the rich, the poor, or the middle classes. The premise of pro-business legislation is this: It is right to steal for the sake of business, since business is good for the country. The premise of pro-labor legislation is: It is right to steal for the sake of labor, since the workingman is poor, and also because he has many votes.… A labor association may call itself Christian, but if it accepts the basic premises of unionism, it becomes
morally compromised.… The fact that a worker is poor gives him no more right to steal than an employer’s power gives him a right to defraud. Theft is not a privilege or right pertaining to any class of men." 14. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 509–10. (809)

3. At the Ballot Box:
The commandment against theft does not read, “Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.” We need to have private-property rights respected not just by criminals, but also by individual citizens who find that they can extract wealth from others by means of State power. Furthermore, private property rights must be respected by profit-seeking businesses that would otherwise petition the State for economic assistance: tariffs, import quotas, below-market interest rate government loans, and so forth. (810)

4. State Refusal to Protect Private Property Rights:
The civil government is required by God to serve as the protector of property. It must honor the laws of ownership that are set forth in the Bible. It should not prosecute a man who takes a few ears of corn from his neighbor’s field....The civil government can legitimately compel a farm owner to respect the gleaning laws. But the civil government cannot legitimately say which persons have to be allowed into the field to glean. The owner of the property has that responsibility, just as Boaz did (Ruth 2:3–12).
This view of theft and protection is not in conformity to either modern socialism or modern libertarianism. In the first system (socialism), the State collects the tithe for itself, and many times God’s tithe, to be used for purposes specified by bureaucratic and political bodies. In the second system (libertarianism), all coercion against
private property is defined as theft, including taxation itself (in some libertarian systems). Nevertheless, the Bible’s standards are the valid ones, and the Bible is clear: there is no absolute sovereignty in any person or institution. (811)

5. Church Robbery:
The older commentaries on the Eighth Commandment would condemn not only “land thievery,” but also “church thievery.” This sin included the withholding of tithes from God. (812)

A] Truth, Faithfulness, and Justice in Contracts and Commerce

Without truthfulness, reliability and fairness as defined by Biblical Law, a free market, binding contracts, commerce that benefits buyer and seller, and prosperity are impossible. In other words, free market economics cannot exist outside a Christian moral and social order. (814)

B] Rendering Everyone His Due

Verse 7 [Rom. 13] tells us that we are to discharge our obligations to all people and especially those obligations we owe to civil magistrates, e.g., honor, taxes, respect, submission and love. In fact, Paul teaches us that it is our love for God, for God’s institutions, and for other people that motivates and enables us to discharge the obligations we owe each other in human society, as commanded by the Law of God. We are not loving others if we fail to treat them with dignity and respect. If fact, we are stealing from them what is their due by virtue of the fact that they are created in the image of God, in places of authority, in possession of superior gifts, older in age, or our brother or sister in Christ. (815)

C] Restitution of Goods Unlawfully Detained from the Rightful Owners

In God’s social and moral order for human beings all trespasses must be amended. Restitution must be made for the restoration of peace in that order. (816) 

First, restitution means the returning to the rightful owner what has been taken illegally from him. It also means to make amends by doing something or by paying something to make up for losses or injury incurred.
Second, restitution is a civil punishment administered by the civil magistrate according to the Law of God (Ex. 22:1, 4, 7; Lev. 6:5; Num. 5:7; 2 Sam. 12:6).
Third, restitution was also a ceremonial rite in the Old Testament, with reference to the reparation offering to the Lord, which pointed to Jesus Christ and was fulfilled in Him, who alone could make restitution to God for us and in our place (1 Peter 2:24; Luke 7:36–50).
Fourth, the desire to make restitution to those whom we have offended is an evidence of true conversion (Luke 19:9–10; Matt. 5:23–24; Phile. 18–19).
Fifth, restitution in everyday (non-civic) relationships is not to be demanded in every instance of injury or loss. ...
Sixth, this is not to be interpreted so as to forbid Christians from ever taking to court those who steal from them, when the occasion requires it (1 Cor. 6:1–3; Acts 25:11; Deut. 16:18–17:13). (818-819)

D] Giving and Lending Freely, According to our Abilities, and the Necessities of Others

In this verse [Luke 6:30], we have two commands in one: (1) If anyone asks something from you, and you give it, do not demand it back; and (2) If anyone takes away something from you, do not demand it back.
“Love will always be ready to help, to give without expecting a return. But it need not be said that Jesus could not inculcate indiscriminate giving such as fosters shiftlessness and other evils.” 22. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN:Augsburg Publishing House, [1946] 1961), 364. (819)

Is Jesus saying that under no circumstances should we ever make any effort to regain stolen property? There are times when it is our duty to defend ourselves, our family and our property (John 18:22, 23; Acts 16:37–40). God has given us courts of law for that purpose. “What the present passage teaches is the very important truth that our personal attitude should never be one of taking revenge.” 24. William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, [1978] 1990), 351. (820)

In these verses, Jesus is commanding us to love and treat kindly those who do not love us ([Luke] 6:32–38). We are not to love the way the ungodly love, for self-aggrandizement; but we are to love selflessly with no thought of benefit from or the worth of the one we are to love....Although Jesus approves of interest on commercial loans (Luke 19:23; Matt. 25:27), here He is calling upon His disciples to be loving to the needy and be willing to give charitable loans without interest in obedience to Biblical Law (Deut. 23:19, 20). (821)

The point of the command is that the disciples of Christ are those who love others and who give of themselves and their resources generously and who, in faith, will receive back from God generous blessings. (821-822)

Work and theft are two antithetical approaches to property. Furthermore, human beings not only have the obligation of self-support and family-support, they also have the obligation to show charity to those in need. (822-823)

E] Moderation of our Judgements, Wills, and Affections concerning Worldly Goods

Our evaluation of, desire for and delight in material wealth, possessions and prosperity must be in moderation, if they are to be used and enjoyed to the glory of God...To be moderate is “to restrain from excess of any kind.” In other words, we are not to think of material wealth more highly or more lowly than we ought to think. (823)

1 Timothy 4:8, for example, teaches us that, whereas physical exercise and concern for the health of the body are important, godliness of life is far more profitable, “since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”...Therefore our desire for and efforts toward physical health should be moderate, whereas our desire for and efforts toward spiritual health should be all-consuming. (824)

Godliness with contentment is beneficial to the believer in every facet of life—physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual; therefore it should be the ultimate pursuit of our lives. Physical and material blessings are to be used and enjoyed as gifts of God to His children, but we must bear in mind three truths. (1) (v. 7, 8) Because physical health and material wealth are temporary, we should be
content with God’s provision of nourishment and shelter....(2) (v. 9–10) With the immoderate desire for, pursuit of and enjoyment of physical and material blessings, come temptations, snares and “many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”...(3) Immoderate pursuit of health and wealth soon drowns out any concern for the Christian Faith or any pursuit of the Christian life: “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith.” (825)

F] Provident Care and Study to Get, Keep, Use and Dispose of these things which are Necessary and Convenient for the Sustentation of our Nature, and Suitable to our Condition

1. 1 Timothy 5:8 is clear: a godly man has the responsibility to provide materially, as well as spiritually, for the needs and welfare of his broad circle of family and friends, “his own,” and for his immediate family and dependents, “especially his own household.” If he neglects this responsibility to acquire wealth and property for the sake of his family, he “has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Earlier in verse 4, Paul teaches us that children and grandchildren are to acquire wealth and property so as to care for their aged parents: “[I]f any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, and to make some return to their parents; for this is acceptable in the sight of God” (5:4). (826)

The general rule of inheritance (Deut. 21:15–17) is limited primogeniture, i.e., the oldest son, who had the duty of providing for the entire family in case of need, receives a double portion. Related to this is the idea that to bequeath an inheritance is to bless; therefore for a parent to confer a blessing on a rebellious and contemptuous child is to bless evil, which may not be done. (826)

2. Implied in this proverbial instigation to diligence in our calling, without complaining about hard word, are the following duties. (1) We ought to have some work to do, and not be idle. (2) We ought to have a good understanding of the work we are to do. (3) We ought to assume ultimate responsibility to our work, and not assign it to another. (4) We ought to be careful and considerate in taking every advantage possible to advance and expand our work, not letting any opportunity slip by, so that no time will be lost. (5) We must be diligent and prompt in planning
and in executing plans. (828)

Priorities must be kept straight and the primary focus of life must be on the triune God, “who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” (829)

H] A Lawful Calling and Diligence in it

1. Once we have entered on our calling from God, we must not rashly withdraw from it because of external and social circumstances (7:18). Social status is irrelevant to living for Christ. (831)

We are not to complain about our lot in life, although we may work to improve ourselves (7:22–23). Therefore, stay courageously and diligently in the place God has assigned you as a faithful sentry. Be content with your calling in Christ and work hard and diligently in it. (832)

2. Laziness will bring poverty—materially, mentally, civilly and spiritually, but diligence in the duties of a vocation brings full-orbed prosperity. (832)

Prosperity and provision are given us from God through our diligence at working in a lawful calling. As Martin Luther said somewhere: “so he tempts God who snores and does not want to work, taking for granted that he must be sustained by God without work, although God has promised to provide for him through his work.” (832)

I] Frugality 

Frugality is a Christian duty. It is the opposite of wastefulness. (832)

J] Avoiding Unnecessary Lawsuits and Suretyship, or other like Engagements

1. It should be clear that unnecessary lawsuits, i.e., litigiousness, is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. Litigiousness is, according to Noah Webster, “a disposition to engage in or to carry on lawsuits.” (833)

In 1 Corinthians 6:1–9, Paul explains the relation of the Christian to courts of law, both civil and ecclesiastical. The point of this important text has been narrowed by some today to say merely that members of the church of Christ should never sue their fellow members in a civil court of law. Such a narrow view fails to understand
our text in the light of its Biblical and historical context.
First, such a view disregards the fact that God Himself instituted civil courts for the benefit of all citizens, including those who are members of churches (Deut. 16:18–7:1). ...
Second, Paul, who is issuing these apostolic injunctions to the Corinthian church, initiated a lawsuit, not only against fellow church members, but also against the leaders in the Jewish church of his day, in his appeal to Caesar recorded in Acts 25. ...
Furthermore, what Paul is condemning in 1 Corinthians 6:1–7 is, to quote John Calvin, “an excessive fondness for litigation, which took its rise from avarice.” (834)

2. Irresponsible debt is a hindrance to wisdom and to prosperity; and unnecessary and unwise suretiship is irresponsible debt. What is “surety?” It is a person who makes himself liable for the financial obligations of another, e.g., co-signing notes, corporate liability, etc. (Prov. 22:26, 27; 11:15; 17:18). ....
These passages do not condemn all debt or all co-signing of loans. (836)

How is irresponsible debt to be avoided? (1) Avoid as many debts as possible (Rom. 13:8). (2) Use great care and wisdom in incurring debt. (3) Order your finances by the Bible. (4) Set the Laws of the Bible on debt-limitation (Deut. 15) as your goal; and aim for it as the Lord makes it possible for you in this ungodly society. (5) Watch out for greed and for impulsive spending, which are two of the leading causes of debt. (6) Disentangle your financial affairs from previously sinful decisions as soon and as wisely as possible. (7) Live by rule, not by impulse. (837)

K] Endeavor by all Just and Lawful Means, to Procure, Preserve, and Futher the Wealth and Outward Estate of Others and Ourselves

This insightful answer to Larger Catechism Q. 141 is simplified in Shorter Catechism Q. 74: The eighth commandment requireth the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others. (839)

A] The Neglect of the Duties Required

Refusal to be charitable to those believers in need of food and clothes, not because of any fault in them, is theft from them. (843)

B] Theft

As we have seen, theft, stealing, and robbery are to be defined as “taking another [person’s] property by coercion, fraud, or without his uncoerced consent.” 45. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 452. (844)

C] Robbery

Our Catechism makes a distinction between theft and robbery. “Robbery differs from theft, as it is a violent felonious taking from the person or presence of another; whereas theft is a felonious taking of goods privately from the person, dwelling, etc. of another. These words should not be confounded." 47. Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language. (844)

D] Man-Stealing

“Man-stealers” are kidnappers, slave-traders, hostage-taking terrorists, etc.
A modern form of man-stealing is imprisonment as a form of civil punishment. Imprisonment, as we know it today, was not a punishment for criminals in the ancient Hebrew republic, because it had no place in the Law of God, other than a “holding tank” for a person arrested and charged with a crime, awaiting his/her day in court (Lev. 24:12; Num. 15:34). The civil sanctions according to the Bible are restitution, capital punishment, and mandatory bond-service to work out required restitution.
"[I]n Biblical law the goal [of the courts and civil law] is not punishment but restoration, not the infliction of certain penalties on criminals but the restoration of godly order. The center of attention is thus not the criminal but the righteous man and the total godly order.…" 50. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 515–17. (846)

[Stealing of another man's work and ideas falls under this category]

Not only is stealing a person theft, but manipulating a person to do what you want is also stealing—it is “stealing another person’s heart.” (847)

“Stealing the heart,” then, would apply to all forms of manipulation of others for gain for self, including advertising. (848)

E] Receiving Anything Stolen

These two texts instruct us not to be “a partner with a thief” or to be “pleased with him” or to “associate with adulterers.” To receive that which is stolen, to use it and to enjoy it, is to encourage in theft and to become one with the thief. (849)

F] Fraudulent Dealing

It is possible to “deal falsely” and to defraud your neighbor in a variety of ways.
"His property can be alienated by expropriation, injury, restrictive legislation, and a variety of other means. A man’s property, moreover, includes more than his land, home, material possessions, and money. A man has a property also in his ideas and inventions. Patents thus have a long history in Western culture as an outgrowth of the law against theft." 54. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 497. (849)

Sexual immorality “transgresses,” i.e., goes beyond and overreaches the boundaries God has placed on life. Therefore, it “defrauds” another of his or her rights....It is, among other sins, theft. (849)

G] False Weights and Measures

This law, so important to the monetary and economic morality of a nation, pertains to measurements of length or surface; weights as money, measures of capacity and scales. ...
First, it means that the phrase “let the buyer beware,” is not Biblical. ...
Second,
"Justice requires the maintaining of strict standards in [measurements of length and surface], and the penalizing of those who defraud by means of false measures." 57
Third,
"fraud in weights is essentially fraudulent money. 58 ...
Fourth, this law requires strict honesty in all measurements of capacity, liquid and dry.
Fifth, just balances refers to scales; and “[h]onest scales are basic to just commerce, and the regulation of scales is thus basic to the ministry of justice (Amos 8:4–8).”59
Sixth, “the consequences of violations of this law are apparent in the land itself, which will cast out the people.” 60
57. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 470.
58. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 470–71.
59. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 471.
60. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, 472. 
(850-852)

H] Removing Landmarks

This Mosaic law calls for universal respect for private property and the right to bequeath and inherit property in the family. John Calvin wrote: “That everyone’s property may be secure, it is necessary that the landmarks set up for the divisions of the fields should remain untouched, as if they were sacred. To remove a boundary landmark in this way is to break the eighth and ninth commandments at the same time. It is theft and false witness.” (853)

We must resist and overcome the attempts of our culture to cut itself loose from the past, from solid historical precedents and milestones, like the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries, from tried and proven doctrinal guidelines, such as the Westminster Standards, and from the absolute moral standard of Biblical Law. Today’s western culture has broken down the boundary markers between right and wrong, truth and falsehoods, God and false gods. To do this is to murder western civilization.
The removal of old landmarks of history, doctrine and morals has been the major task and goal of humanistic education, politics and jurisprudence in the 20th century. (854)

I] Injustice and Unfaithfulness in Contracts

The Law of God governs man’s heart as well as his life (Matt. 5:21, 22, 27, 28). Some actions, technically within the letter of the Law, violate the spirit and intent of the Law, whenever man expropriates the property of another person by abuse of the letter of the Law. (855)

J] Injustice and Unfaithfulness in Matters of Trust

Theft includes injustice and unfaithfulness…in matters of trust, whether what has been entrusted is small or large, insignificant or important, without much monetary value or priceless. If a person’s heart is right with God, He will be faithful to whatever is entrusted to him. (856)

K] Oppression

By “oppression,” is meant the use of slander, fraud, force and any other means to accomplish their desires. (858)

L] Extortion

Extortion is “the act or practice of wresting any thing from a person by force, duress, menaces, authority, or by any undue exercise of power.” 68. Webster, American Dictionary on the English Language (859)

M] Usury

These laws forbidding usury have reference to charitable loans to poor, fellow believers or covenant members. Thus, these usury laws do not forbid all interest on all loans, e.g., commercial loans (Deut. 23:20), but all interest on charitable loans (Ex. 22:25; Lev. 25:35–37). (861)

N] Bribery 

These texts clearly condemn giving or taking bribes in order to obstruct or pervert justice, as defined by God’s Law. However, Proverbs 17:8 and 21:14 present us with godly bribes. (862)

According to these two proverbs [17:8 and 21:14], under certain conditions in an aggressively anti-Christian context, it is proper to give bribes and secret gifts to impede the progress of the apostate, or to encourage someone to do right, if that is the only way he can be convinced to do right. (862)

O] Vexatious Lawsuits

Vexatious lawsuits, then, are those devised to do harm to one’s neighbor, out of revenge, bitterness, or envy, without a just cause. (863)

P] Unjust Enclosures and Depopulations

Unjust enclosures was a practice that once existed in England
"whereby “common” land, (owned by the lord of the manor but which other persons had a legal right to use for pasturage) would be “enclosed” or fenced in for purposes of agriculture. Such enclosures would be unjust if the rights of those who were entitled to use the “common” land were disregarded. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries laws were enacted providing for “enclosures” on an equitable basis for all parties concerned, when more land was needed to raise crops. By “depopulations” the catechism means the practice of buying up large tracts of land to form a great estate, and removing the tenants who had been living on it, a form of  injustice known in Old Testament times and condemned in Isaiah 5:8 and Micah 2:2." 79. Johannes Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, ed. by
G.I. Williamson (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing Co., 2002), 384. (865)

Q] Ingrossing Commodities to Enhance Price

This has reference to monopolies of commodities.
"Not every form of monopoly is necessarily wrong; some businesses or services are natural monopolies.… What the catechism condemns as sinful are monopolies the purpose of which is to raise prices by “cornering” the total available supply of a product. This practice eliminates competition and prevents the normal functioning of the law of supply and demand; it creates an artificial shortage or disappearance of the product from the market, in order that those who have established the monopoly can name their own price and get it because no one else has the product for sale. Such monopolies of commodities, especially of the necessities of life, are so
clearly unjust that they are prohibited by civil legislation in many countries." 86. Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism, 384–85 (868)

R] Unlawful Callings

Regardless of how profitable they may be, some vocations are unlawful for human beings, since by their very nature they require theft of time, energy and money from the one, true and living God, along with theft of time, money, energy and even health from other human beings, and their products are expressly for anti-Christian uses. (870)

S] All other Unjust or Sinful Ways of Taking or Withholding from our Neighbor what Belongs to Him, or of Enriching Ourselves

The Eighth Commandment forbids such sins as:
Usurpation, i.e.,
"the oppression of those who are of low social status by either not paying them, or by having or retaining that which is theirs. This occurs if one files suit against those from whom one has purchased something, or if one keeps litigation pending against those of lower social status who have no recourse." 87 ...
Keeping legal cases pending for the purpose of exhortation.
Drafting fraudulent wills, contracts, obligations, and receipts for the purpose of making illicit gain. This also applies to fraudulent billing.
Withholding or reducing wages unjustly and contrary to contract...
Purchasing on credit while knowing all along that you will not or cannot pay....
Undermining a neighbor’s business...
Concealing goods belonging to another that have been found, keeping them for your self, without making any effort to strive that the owner receives them again...
Inappropriately using rented and borrowed items in such a way as to unnecessarily damage them. 87. Wilhelmus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, trans. by Bartel
Elshout, 4 vols. (Pittsburgh, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994), 3:219. (871-872)

T] Covetousness

Covetousness transgresses the Eighth Commandment as well as the Tenth Commandment because it is the opposite of contentment, which, according to sixteenth century Swiss Reformer, Johannes Wollebius, is “the virtue by which man is satisfied with what he has justly acquired, and with his lot.” 89. Reformed Dogmatics: Seventeenth-Century Reformed Theology Through the Writings of Wollebius, Voetius, and Turretin, ed. and trans. by John W. Beardslee, III (Oxford University Press, 1965; reprint Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1977), 250. (872)

U] Inordinate Prizing and Affecting Worldly Goods

“Inordinate” means “excessive, immoderate, not limited to rules prescribed.” “Prizing” means “rating, valuing, esteeming.” “Affecting” means “strongly desiring.” “Worldly goods” refers to material wealth and property. So then, the Catechism is teaching us that the Eighth Commandment is transgressed when we value and desire material wealth and property excessively and immoderately. (874-875)

V] Distrustful and Distracting Cares and Studies in Getting, Keeping, and Using Them

Worry about the acquisition, keeping and using of material wealth and possessions is a transgression of the Sixth and the Eighth Commandments. It is a transgression of the Sixth Commandment because worry is suicidal; it leads to stress and tension related illnesses. It is a transgression of the Eighth Commandment in that it is a stealing from oneself of time, energy and joy. (876)

W] Envying the Prosperity of Others

"Envy is the greatest disease of our age. It is often confused with jealousy and covetousness, which have to do with wanting the possessions and privileges of others. Envy is much more insidious—and deadly. Envy is the feeling that someone else’s having something is to blame for the fact that you do not have it. The principal motive is thus not so much to take, but to destroy. The envier acts against the object of his envy, not to benefit himself, but to cut the other person down to his own level—or below.....

"Socialism is institutionalized envy." 93. David Chilton, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt-Manipulators (Tyler, TX: Institute for Christian Economics, [1981] 1990), 139–41. (878-879)

X] Idleness

Idleness is doing as little as possible to get by. (881)

The point of this parable is: avoid laziness and poverty by planning ahead, by structuring your life wisely, and by working hard in a calling. Do without now, and save, in order to have later. Do not worry about the future, prepare for it!
Laziness, which is a refusal to begin and/or to persevere in good works, comes in different forms: (1) Physical laziness: refusal to begin and carry through exercise, hard work, chores; (2) Mental laziness: refusal to use the mind to its fullest extent; refusal to put effort into concentration and mental discipline; and (3) Spiritual laziness: refusal to persevere in Christian duties. (882)

Y] Prodigality, Wasteful Gaming, and all other Ways whereby We do Unduly Prejudice our outward Estate

Prodigality is the wasteful “extravagance in the expenditure of what one possesses, particularly of money.”99 By wasteful gaming the Catechism means all forms of gambling that waste energy, resources, time, money or other possessions. We unduly prejudice our own outward estate when we do anything sinful that hurts, damages, injures, obstructs, impairs or threatens our health, wealth, possessions or family. In other words, we are forbidden from stealing from ourselves and our families. 99. Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language. (883)

Z] Defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort that that Estate which God hath given us

The Catechism’s exposition of the Eighth Commandment ends with the warning that we should not defraud ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us....This means that: (1) All the good things we enjoy in life are gifts from God...(2) Human beings do not have it in them at all to draw enjoyment from life with all its mundane functions. (885-886)

In Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:16, Solomon shows that the apparent contradictions and injustices of life do not overturn the theme of Ecclesiastes....In 4:7–12, he answers the fact that men are lonely and isolated, with the argument that Godly marriage and family end that loneliness and isolation. God bestows the gift of companionship. Therefore, it is sinful to deprive ourselves of companions or to hinder others from enjoying our companionship, or that of others. (886)

      Racheal

The Hebrew word translated “to commit adultery” indicates that a person, married or unmarried, has sexual intercourse with a married person, thereby destroying the faithfulness and the marriage of his/her neighbor. This is such a heinous sin and violent assault on the family that God calls it a capital crime...This also applies to engaged people as well... (704)

Furthermore, rape is also considered a capital crime in the Bible... (705)

However, although fornication, i.e., sexual intercourse between two unmarried people, if consented to by both parties, is immoral and sinful, it is not a capital crime... (705)

What is the difference between adultery and fornication? The status of the woman or man involved: Was he/she married or engaged? Did he/she belong to another person by marriage covenant? Adultery, then, is not a crime against property. It is a crime against the marriage covenant and against the family. An adulterer destroys two marriages: his own and that of his neighbor. Above all, it is a crime against our faithful God who never breaks His covenant. (705)

The Seventh Commandment, as other commandments, mentions only one sin, but one that includes a wide range of other sins of the same species; in this case, because all sexual relationships in some way or another are related to the marriage covenant and the family. (706)

Two fundamental truths are presupposed by the Seventh Commandment. First, it presupposes that God is faithful to the covenant bond He establishes with His people in Christ. Second, marriage is an institution of God. (707)

[1] God is Our Faithful Covenant God:
The story of God’s relationship to His covenant people has romance about it. In the Old Testament that relationship is described as a bond of eternal intimacy and solidarity in which the Lord is the Husband and Israel is His wife. The love He has for her is completely undeserved. When she rebelled against Him, she is described as having committed spiritual and moral adultery. In the New Testament that relationship is pictured as a marriage bond in which Jesus Christ is the loving and self-sacrificing Bridegroom and the Church is the submissive Bride. God is always faithful to His Bride even when she is unfaithful to Him. (707)

[2] Marriage is an Institution of God:
Marriage originated with God (Gen. 1:28; 2:18–25) and therefore has a sanctity that must be respected by everyone: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (Heb. 13:4, NIV). (709)

Adam says, “She is bone of my bones,—(the structure of my being is the structure of her being.” “Flesh of my flesh”—(‘the very life of me is the life of her; I find myself, I realize myself in terms of her.’) We are one-flesh. (709)

Furthermore, each partner has a divinely assigned role toward the other according to Eph. 5:22–33. The husband is to be the loving, faithful and self-sacrificing head of the woman and the wife is to be the loving, faithful and submissive helpmeet to the man.
Sexual unfaithfulness in marriage causes those roles to break down, breaks apart the bones and cuts the flesh of the one-flesh union...Unchastity in any form is an act of treason against the covenant God and against the marriage partner. (709-710)

According to the Bible, marriage has a fivefold purpose. First, marriage is a means to the end of global dominion under God (Gen. 1:28). ....
Second, marriage was instituted by God for intimate companionship (Gen. 2:18; Ps. 68:6).  ....
Third, in marriage is the completion of the Divine image. Man and woman in marriage, two persons sharing one life in God’s image, complete the picture intended by the image of God. ...
Fourth, marriage was instituted by God for procreation and replenishing the earth with godly generations. ....
Fifth, marriage is intended to be a living illustration of the intimate and loving relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church, as husbands relate to their wives the way Christ relates to His Church, and as wives relate to their husbands the way the Church is to relate to Christ. (710-712)

Marital love and marital sexuality are not the impoverishing of life. Rather, they are well-springs of joy and health to a married person’s life (Prov. 5:15–20). This joy is seen in the fulfilling of the purpose of marital love and marital sexuality.
First, marital love and marital sexuality are creative. ...
Second, they are recreative. They are used by God, not only to establish this “one flesh union,” but also to assist in sustaining and nourishing it, thus making marital sexuality a renewing power in marriage. ...
Third, they are procreative. (712-713)

A self-contained, self-sufficient male or female does not exist. The life of woman is ordered, related to and directed to that of the man and of man to the woman: “Man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.… However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman” (1 Cor. 11:9, 11). (713-714)

"Marriage is the consummation of a growing relationship of love and personal commitment; it is the consummation of two people’s commitment to a life together. Similarly, sexual intercourse is the consummation of a growing physical intimacy.
In God’s design, these twin consummations are meant to converge at the point of marriage. The commitment of love is matched by the commitment of sexual intimacy." 14. Dwight H. Small, Christian, Celebrate Your Sexuality, 177. (714)

While marriage is the God-ordained sexual relationship between man and woman, it cannot be understood simply in terms of sex. Sex is but one aspect of marriage. Therefore, we must avoid two errors many today have in their attitude toward sexuality. (1) It is a necessary and embarrassing evil that must be suppressed and covered up as much as possible....(2) It is the essence of marriage with God-like powers. This is to overspiritualize, over-glamorize and to mysticize sexuality.  (714)

Proverbs 5:16–17 pictures the evil of wasting one’s sexuality on another person outside of marriage: “Should your springs be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you.” These verses also forbid becoming emotionally entangled with and marrying “strangers,” i.e., non-Christians, including people who profess to be Christians, but who are “strangers” to a Christian way of life: “by their fruits you shall know them.” (715)

The person who gives himself/herself to immorality will: (1) Be enslaved by his own
sinful appetites; (2) Be held down by the chains of his sinful lusts; (3) Die in guilty ignorance; and (4) As a fool, go astray from God. (715)

So then, how can someone avoid immorality and marital unfaithfulness:
• Develop a great dread and detestation of immorality.
• Be diligent in avoiding everything that may be an occasion of unchastity or a step toward it.
• Keep watch on your own heart and mind; and do not be confident of your own strength and determination.
• Trust in the power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ to enable you to resist sexual temptations and to keep you pure.
• Whatever has become a snare to you or an occasion to sin, be willing to “pluck it out” and part with it, even if it is most dear to you, rather than hazard your own soul (Matt. 5:28–30).
• Stay in a close and abiding relationship to Jesus Christ and His Church.
• Keep saturating yourself in the Word of God.
• If you are married, be diligent in loving your wife/husband.    (715-716)

An important benefit of faithful marital love and sexuality is physical, mental, emotional and spiritual pleasure...
Marital sexuality is parabolic (Eph. 5:23–24).....
• Marital sexuality is symbolic. ....
• Marital sexuality is communicative. ...
• Marital sexuality is a gift from God and must be received with thanksgiving and used responsibly as a stewardship.
• Marital sexuality is an offering to God. ... (716-717)

God takes great delight in observing Christian married partners “making love” with each other, therefore, we must love each other as marrieds before the eye of God, diligently and to His glory, remembering that it is “more blessed to give than to receive.” If we cannot smile on marital sexuality, our perspective is not that of God’s. (717)

Therefore, we must consider the desires of our married partner above our own desires or lack thereof. (717)

Chastity in Body, Mind, Affections, Words, and Behavior:
Chastity in body, mind, affections, words and behavior begins with chastity in the heart—“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:19). If our minds, affections and desires are to be morally pure, our hearts must be purified by the sanctifying work of the
Holy Spirit, our fervent love for Christ, and our disciplined obedience to the truth of God: “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart” (1 Pet. 1:22). (718-719)

The original meaning of the Greek word for chastity was “what awakens awe.” It came to mean “moral purity” (2 Cor. 6:6; 1 John 3:3; 1 Tim. 4:12; 5:2, 22; James 3:17); “innocence” (2 Cor. 7:11); and “chastity” (2 Cor. 11:2). (719)

A “chaste” person, then, is someone who is morally pure, decent, modest, virtuous, abstaining from unlawful sexual thoughts and behavior.  (719)

We are to abstain from sexual immorality physically, mentally and emotionally....In this way, Christians are distinguished from non-Christians “whose god is their appetite” (Phil. 3:19). “Immorality,” pornea in Greek, is a noun that covers all forms of illicit sexual activity and involvement. (720)

Paul is teaching the church that the whole question of sexual relationships must be viewed in the light of the fact that the physical body of the Christian belongs to Christ, not to the Christian (1 Cor. 6:13–15, 19–20). (721)

“Possess” denotes mastery over one’s body and its God-given appetites and desires. We are to keep our bodies pure, with a modest countenance and chaste behavior in all our relationships: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). (721)

The reasons sexual immorality must be shunned and rejected are set forth in 1 Thess. 4:6–8:
(1) [v. 6a] It “transgresses,” i.e., goes beyond and overreaches the boundaries God has placed on life; therefore it “defrauds” another of his or her rights. ...
(2) [v. 6b] The Lord is the avenger in these issues; He takes action against these sins. ...
(3) [v. 7] Sexual immorality is a contradiction of the whole character of the Christian life: “God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.” ...
(4) [v. 8] Sexual immorality is a sin against the Holy Spirit of God. (722-723)

It is true that “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33) (NASB); and it is equally true that “evil communications corrupt good manners” (KJV). The point is that unchaste language undermines good morals. (724)

The Preservation of Chastity in Ourselves and Others:
Not only should we diligently preserve chastity in ourselves, by avoiding all immorality and by marrying, if the opportunity allows; but we must also seek to preserve chastity in others. The best way for preserving our own and our neighbor’s chastity is “the cherishing in our minds and consciences of a continual regard, reverence and awe of the divine Majesty, and a fear of displeasing him, Prov. v:20, 21.” 28. Fisher, Fisher’s Catechism, 110. (725) 

Watchfulness over our Eyes and All Other Senses

Temperance:
Temperance had reference to “self-control” and self-discipline in contrast to over-indulgence, i.e., giving freedom to one’s appetites, desires, and passions without restraint. (728)

Keeping Chaste Company:
The Bible reminds us time and again that, if we are to remain chaste, we must closely associate only with chaste people because “bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). (729)

Therefore, as much as possible, avoid those who would encourage you to sin for pleasure (Prov. 1:15; 5:8; 1 Cor. 6:18); and stay in the company of good people (Prov. 2: 20). (730)

Modesty in Apparel: 
In 1 Timothy 2:9, the Greek word translated “modest” in the KJV (“proper” in the NASB), means “respectable” and “honorable” in contrast to immodest and indiscreet. Paul’s point is that women must dress in a way that is consistent with their Christian profession and life. (730)

The word translated “discreetly” (NASB) or “sobriety” (NASB) carries the idea of “good judgment, moderation, self-control, decency, chastity.” (731)

Excess and sensuality—both of these bear on modesty. Christian women (and men, for that matter) must self-consciously control their hearts and passions, instead of arraying themselves elaborately, expensively, and/or sensuously. If they are modest, they will not draw attention to themselves in the wrong way. Their dress
will not say “SEX!” or “PRIDE!” or “MONEY!,” but “purity,” “humility,” and “moderation.” (732)

Marriage By Those That Have Not the Gift of Continency:
God has given some people “continence” with reference to sexual issues. “Continence” or “continency” is the ability to restrain the passion for sexual intimacy and intercourse. If a person does not have this self-control, he or she should marry and not live a single life, because “it is better to marry than to burn.” (733)

Conjugal Love:
Sexual relations are “due” each other within marriage, because the body is not one’s possession to do with what he/ she will, it belongs to the spouse. (734)

According to verse 5, married couples may not abstain from sexual relations unless by common consent and only then under three conditions: (1) Both must agree to it; (2) It must be for a set time, and not for a long or indefinite time; and (3) It must be for the purpose of devoting themselves to prayer. Any other sexual “separation” amounts to defrauding one another. (735)

Cohabitation: 
Just as wives are to be submissive to their husbands in the Lord (1 Pet. 3:5, 6), “likewise” husbands are to be submissive to Christ and to His lordship over their lives. The Lord’s two-fold mandate to husbands is: (1) “Live with your wives in an understanding way;” and (2) “Grant her honor as a fellow-heir of the grace of life.” It should be obvious that these two mandates are necessarily interrelated. (735)
 
1] The Greek word translated “live with” denotes “to cohabit,” “to live together as husband and wife,” “to live chastely with your wives, cohabiting with them alone.” The point is that God is calling upon husbands to make a home for their wives in which they live with their wives.
This exhortation has several implications. (1) Each marriage should have its own home and dwelling place....2) Husbands, as well as wives, should ordinarily and habitually dwell in the same house. A wife’s primary and most exalted duty is to be a “keeper at home.” Husbands, too, are bound, as much as is possible, to make their house their home and special dwelling place....A husband who is much away from home has great difficulty in discharging his family responsibilities—family worship, family instruction, family discipline, family surveillance. When a married man voluntarily and unnecessarily spends his evenings away from home, the home is put at risk.
To “live with your wife” is to spend time with her as your chosen companion and closest friend. ...
He will live with his wife “in an understanding way” or “according to knowledge.” The husband’s relation with his wife should be in harmony with and governed by knowledge derived from the Word of God in communion with God, which deepens communion with his wife. He must understand the Bible, his wife and himself so he
will not injure his wife in any way, but bless her and make her a blessing. The whole context of marriage should be one of “knowing” each other in the full, Biblical sense of the word (Gen. 4:1).
The husband must live with his wife “as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman.” “Weaker” is a comparative adjective, indicating that both husband and wife are weak instruments used by God for His purposes: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7). The greater weakness of the wife does not
imply inferiority and it is not derogatory. ...
"The wife may be considered weak because of her role as wife. She, by marrying, has accepted a position where she submits herself to her husband. Such a position is vulnerable, open to exploitation. The husband is commanded not to take advantage
of the woman’s vows of submission." 47. Susan T. Foh, Women and the Word of God: A Biblical Response to Feminism (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), 133. (736-737)

2] Wives are to “reverence” their husbands (Eph. 5:33), and husbands are to grant their wives “honor” (1 Pet. 3:7). They are continually and habitually to show them respect and to treat them with honor, dignity and love. To honor your wife is to have and to manifest a deep respect for her, not berating, despising, exasperating, frustrating or grieving her; not revealing her weaknesses and shortcomings to others, not being quick to see and criticize them yourself; but hiding her shortcomings from the eyes of others, as well as from your own eyes by love; never criticizing her more than love requires, and even then, in gentleness that flows from love.
The reason husbands should show their wives honor as they live with them is because they and their wives are “heirs together of the grace of life.” (737-738)

Christian husbands and wives believe in the same Savior, are redeemed by the same blood, live by the same grace, follow the same rule, filled with the same Spirit, members of the same Body, heirs of the same promises, and look forward to the same eternal destiny. To be fellow heirs of that grace of God that gives and enhances life in Christ is the highest position to which poor mortals may rise; and it is this spiritual height that prompts mutual honoring. (738)

Diligent Labor in our Callings:
How is diligent labour in our callings required of us by the Seventh Commandment forbidding sexual immorality?...Thomas Watson answers: “Take heed of idleness.
When a man is out of a calling, he is ready to receive any temptation. We do not sow seed in fallow-ground; but the devil sows most seed of temptation in such as lie fallow.”48...Men and women, both, like the “Proverbs 31 woman,” should diligently labor in their callings as husband and wife, father and mother, and never “eat the
bread of idleness” so married partners will trust each other and place the welfare and holiness of the family above their own pleasures and desires. 48. Watson, Body of Divinity, 338. (739)

Shunning Occasions of Uncleanness and Resisting Temptations:
If we do not give careful attention to the Word of God and to parental instruction
based on that Word, we will have neither the knowledge nor the power to resist the strong temptations of immorality. And if we do not resist immorality, it can kill us physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually and eternally. (740)

Neglect of the Duties Required

Adultery:
Adultery is a crime of such heinousness that its only just punishment is death (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22), because it is a vicious assault on marriage and family, and on God’s moral and social order. (743)

Whereas all pre- and non-marital sexual intercourse is forbidden, adultery is especially abhorrent.
Biblical Law is designed to encourage and protect marriage and family. Therefore a central offense against God and society is to strike at the integrity of marriage and the life of the family. (744)

Fornication:
One thing is certain from 1 Corinthians 6:9–10: fornicators do not go to heaven unless they repent of their sinful way of life and are cleansed of their immoral lifestyle by the power of the Holy Spirit... (744)

Fleeing immorality is not a mindless reaction; rather, because we understand its nature, heinousness and danger, we are to run away from it. (745)

Rape:
Rape is a capital crime for the rapist, but not for the victim. According to this law, rape is a capital crime because it is comparable to murder. A woman is raped contrary to her will in the same way that a person is murdered contrary to his will. (746)

Incest:
Marriage makes the husband and wife “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). A husband and a wife become one legally, covenantally and in love. This unity between man and woman in marriage is the basis of these laws forbidding incest. ...
Marriage creates a “vertical” or “lineal” relationship in children, and a “horizontal” or “collateral” relationship between spouses. (748)

It is highly significant that the Westminster Standards use Leviticus 18 for support of their statement on incest. This shows that our Westminster fathers believed that these laws are still in effect and of abiding authority today. (748)

The reasons these laws forbidding incest are as valid today as they were when they were first written is that they are grounded, first, in the nature of the relationship and union of the husband and wife as “one flesh” (Lev. 18:16), and second, in the relation of blood between members of the same family (Lev. 18:10)....Therefore, because incest is an assault on marriage and family, it is considered by God to be a capital crime. (749)

Sodomy and all Unnatural Lusts:
Leviticus 20:13 and 18:22 are explicit in their condemnation of homosexuality. Its portrayal of homosexual activity is unmistakable. Such activity is said to be “detestable” or “abominable,” which is a term of strong disapproval, in Hebrew, of something that is intrinsically evil (e.g., Prov. 6:16). The death penalty is attached to this prohibition. (750)

As one would expect, the Bible also condemns and forbids bestiality. This filthy act is also an abominable attempt to pervert God’s moral order, an assault on marriage and family, and a transgression of God’s boundaries between man and animal; therefore, it remains a capital crime for human and animal. (752)

All Unclean Imaginations, Thoughts, Purposes, and Affections:
Environmental influences are powerful, but we are accountable regarding how we let them influence us. Jesus said that we are not what our environment makes us; we are what our heart makes us. It is what proceeds out of the heart that determines our behavior....If this battle is to be won, the believer must perseveringly resist unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes and affections, which resistance he can do because of the power of the Holy Spirit within him....The Holy Spirit has made us new people and He has taken up residence in us to help us say No! decisively to sinful desires. For this reason, we will have success in “putting to death the deeds of the body.” (753)

Corrupt and Filthy Communications:
Fornication and everything that leads to it must not only be avoided by Christians, such things must not even be the theme of our conversations with each other, because such filthy communications are not “proper among saints,” whom God has separated from the world and consecrated to be holy as He is holy. Our conversations must not contain any “filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting,” i.e., obscenities, whatever is morally hateful, or that which is revolting in that it excites disgust, either physical or moral.  (754)

Wanton Looks:
One of the sins for which God severely punished Israel, was the immoral behavior, immodest apparel, sensual dancing and “seductive eyes” of the women of Israel....They are looks and gestures that are designed to stir up sexual lust in another person. “One also commits fornication with the eyes if, by ogling and casting lewd glances, one seeks to allure others to commit fornication.” 65. Wilhelmus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, trans. by Bartel Elshout, 4 vols. (Pittsburg, PA: Soli Deo Gloria, 1994), 3:208. (755)

Impudent and Light Behavior; Immodest Apparel

Prohibiting Lawful Marriages:
The apostle Paul condemns the prohibiting of lawful marriages in the strongest terms imaginable. (758)

Paul is condemning and refuting all forms of Dualism, the idea that physical desires and material things are base and morally contaminating; and that spiritual, contemplative, and heavenly concerns are good and uplifting. Therefore, to be holy, one must suppress and deny physical desires and needs, e.g., the sexual desire and the need for pleasure, in order to spend one’s entire life focusing on the spiritual, intellectual and heavenly things. Dualism has manifested itself detrimentally in the church in ascetic Gnosticism in the early church, monasticism in the medieval church, Pietism shortly after the Dawn of the Protestant Reformation, and much of Fundamentalism in the 20th and 21st centuries. All of these forms of dualism have their roots in Greek Neo-Platonism, which has its roots in Persian Zoroastarianism. Asceticism and monasticism considered marriage and sexuality as a morally inferior way of life to single hood and celibacy. Pietism and Fundamentalism have by their unbiblical lists of do’s and don’ts, characterized largely by a distaste for the physical, material and pleasurable, have left the impression that enjoying God-given and physical appetites and desires, and of material things and the pleasures of this life, is “worldly” and a distraction from “spiritual things” and thinking about heaven. (758-759)

Genesis 1:31a refutes all these forms of Dualism: “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”...God instituted marriage for companionship and pleasure. God placed the sexual desires in the human being to be enjoyed in marriage. (759)

Dispensing with Unlawful Marriages: 
...the Seventh Commandment is transgressed when marriages forbidden by God’s Law are allowed and condoned by family, church or state. (761)

The question is what does the Bible identify as unlawful marriages?
First, marriages with unbelievers are forbidden by God.. ..
Second, marriages within the degrees of sanguinity and affinity defined in Leviticus 18 and 20 are forbidden by God (WCF, XXIV, iv). ...
Third, marriages of daughters without the permission and approval of their fathers are forbidden by God....
Fourth, same-sex marriages are forbidden by God (Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:26–27). ...
Fifth, marriage by the guilty party after a just divorce is forbidden by God (Matt. 5:31–32). ...
Sixth, remarriage of parties in an original marriage, after divorce and the end of a second marriage by one party (Deut. 24:1–4) is forbidden by God. ...
Seventh, marriage by someone incapable of fulfilling all the conjugal duties required by marriage (Matt.19:1–12) is forbidden by God. ...
Eighth, marriage is only allowed for those who are able with judgment to give their consent (WCF, XXIV, iii). ...
Ninth, such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, Papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies (WCF, XXIV, iii). ...
Tenth, polygamous marriages are forbidden by God (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5–6, 9).
(761-764)

Allowing, Tolerating, Keeping of Stews and Resorting to Them:
So then, not only should a person not be a prostitute, he or she should not resort to prostitutes. A nation should not even allow a brothel to exist or to tolerate its existence. The full force of family, church, state and society should be used to eradicate them. (765)

Entangling Vows of Single Life:
The point is that, normally, people ought not to make entangling vows of single life, unless they are physically incapable of fulfilling their conjugal duties to their spouse, or unless they have the gift of continence, and have dedicated themselves completely to the spread of the gospel in difficult and hazardous situations. Otherwise, it is more beneficial for a man or woman to marry. (767)

Undue Delay of Marriage:
If a man and a woman have all the prerequisites for marriage, are willing to love each other all their lives, are willing to solve life’s problems together God’s way, and have found that they are better Christians together than either is single, they should marry as soon as is reasonable, “for it is better to marry than to burn.” (768)

Polygamy:
Polygamy is having more wives or husbands than one at the same time (Mal. 2:14). It is a perversion of the original intent for marriage instituted at the beginning of the human race by God: one man and one woman in one flesh (Gen. 2:22–25; Matt. 19:5, 6). (769)

Unjust Divorce:
To understand divorce from a Biblical perspective we must always view it in the light of: (1) The authority and sufficiency of the Bible (2 Tim. 3:16–17); (2) The indissolubility of the marriage bond (Gen. 2:24); and (3) The centrality of reconciliation (Col. 3:12–15). And, as we shall see, some divorces are just and some are unjust. It should also be pointed out that divorce is not commanded or made mandatory, neither is it encouraged; but it is permitted as God’s legal way of dealing with sin. (769-770)

This provision is necessary because of the entrance of sin into the human race. We no longer live in a sinless world. Some hearts are as hard as rock. (770)

The law of God is addressed to men and women who love that law (Ps. 119), i.e., to covenant-keepers who want to please God by obedience to His law. Therefore, if a woman “finds no favor in his eyes,” it is with reference to the husband’s holy standards of the law, and not to his caprice. (771)

By requiring a formal bill of divorce presented to the guilty party, makes mandatory, on purpose, a cumbersome legal process, full of technicalities, including: a serious charge for divorce; a writ of separation for a woman’s protection; the involvement of a public official who might also have to judge the adequacy of the alleged grounds for divorce; and a formal dismissal. (771)

The resuming of a marriage that ends in divorce, after an intervening marriage, represents an abomination to God because the intervening marriage was a defilement. (771)

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was threefold. (1) He endorsed the permanence of marriage. (2) He confirmed the full details of Deuteronomy 24:1–4...He teaches us that the marriage union is so inviolable that only “fornication,” i.e., sexual immorality, can qualify as grounds for breaking it....And (3) Jesus calls remarriage after divorce, save for the one exception, adultery. (773)

Paul says that divorce is permitted on the irremedial desertion of an unbelieving spouse, or at least, acting like an unbeliever. No separation other than divorce is allowed (7:10, 11). Furthermore, divorce places a man and a woman in the condition they were in prior to their marriage, and it implies the possibility, in some cases, of remarriage. (774)

“Fornication” must include malicious, irremediable desertion of the unbelieving spouse. In 1 Corinthians 7:15, Paul establishes desertion by an unbeliever as a legitimate cause of divorce, or else we must assume that Jesus and Paul contradict each other. (774)

Desertion:
Although Christians and forbidden to marry unbelievers, once such a marriage takes place, the Christian has no right or obligation to dissolve the marriage because his/her partner is an unbeliever, as long as the unbeliever wants the Christian partner to remain in the marriage. ...The reason is two-fold: (1) The sanctifying effect the believer can have on the unbeliever; and (2) The holy position of any children. In a marriage in which one parent is a Christian, the children belong to the Lord, are to be considered children of the covenant and have the right to be baptized. (775)

If one marriage partner acts like an unbeliever...regardless of what he professes (because faith without works is dead), and abandons his/her role as husband or wife, which is what desertion really is (which means that it is possible for one spouse to desert the other without leaving their house), then the believing partner is not obligated to remain in the bondage of that broken marriage, and is free to leave that marriage by divorce. Being the innocent party in the divorce, he/she, therefore, is free to remarry. (776)

Idleness, Gluttony, Drunkenness:
Idleness, gluttony and drunkenness are often occasions and incentives to immorality. Idleness is a deliberate wasting of our precious time, and as we are correctly told “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” (Prov. 7:7, 8). Drunkenness “deforms the image of God in the soul, by divesting a man of the right use of his reason; it leaves him defenseless against all temptations,”83 e.g., immorality. 83. Fisher, Fisher’s Catechism, 116. (777)

Gluttony is often linked with drunkenness in the Bible (Prov. 23:21; Matt. 11:19); and drunkenness is often linked to immorality (Rom. 13:13; Gal. 5:21). In fact, gluttony in the Bible is far worse than merely overeating. Gluttony is a capital crime! (778)

So then, the phrase, “a glutton and a drunkard” was
"a reference to a worthless, vile person who drank too much and fornicated. This is why the Westminster Larger Catechism lists “gluttony” right next to “drunkenness” as a violation of the seventh commandment, against adultery, footnoting Prov. 23:30–33 (KJV).… Obviously, they saw the essence of gluttony to be vileness and fornication, not overeating." 85. Boer, “Regardless of What You Have Heard, Overeating is Not the Sin of Gluttony,” 7. (778-779)

Unchaste Compnay

Lascivious Songs, Books, Pictures, Dancings, Stage Plays:
A brief analysis of pornography will show that it has a revolutionary purpose.
First, pornography hates Biblical morality. ...
Second,
"pornography sees a tremendous appeal in moral evil. Morality is seen as tedious and confining, as utterly boring and restrictive, whereas evil is portrayed as man’s liberation." 98 ...
Third,
"for the pornographer morality is death. To confine men and women to the prisonhouse of morality, marriage, law, and order is seen as equivalent to a sentence of death. Since evil is life, morality is logically death, and this is the religious faith of pornography. The gospel for man is thus evil; sin is the way of salvation, the way to life and liberty.…" 99 ....
Fourth,
"pornography manifests a hostility to the very idea of law and morality..." 100 ...
Fifth, a definite link exists between pornography and totalitarianism. ...
Sixth,
"the politics of pornography is a moral anarchism whose purpose is revolution, a revolution against Christian civilization." 102
98. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 17.
99. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 17.
100. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 17–18.
102. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 19.
(787-789)

All Other Provocations to, or Acts of Uncleanness in Ourselves and Others

[1] Levirate Marriage:
The purpose of this levirate law was: (1) To protect and preserve the godly family; (2) To preserve property and inheritance in the family; and (3) To carry on the deceased father’s name. ...
Also, (4) The levirate institution provided for the widow’s future welfare and security. (792)

[2] Sex and Menstruation:
John Calvin, Matthew Henry and R. J. Rushdoony consider this prohibition to be morally binding in all ages. ...
While Calvin’s counsel is taken to heart, others have pointed out that that which made a woman ceremonially unclean in the Old Testament was the loss of blood (Lev. 12:1–8) as well as other bodily discharges (Lev. 15) because “the life is in the blood.”....The point is that Old Testament rituals of the sacrificial system are not morally binding on the Christian; however, he is to seek to understand the particular gospel principle symbolized in the rituals of that system.
One thing is certain: in marital sexuality anything that is morally abhorrent, aesthetically repulsive or indelicate, unpleasant or humiliating or hurtful to either partner is contrary to true marital love. (974)

      Racheal

This commandment is concerned with unlawful killing, the unjust taking of the life of a human being, “killing that violates justice.” 1. J. Douma, The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life, trans.by Nelson D. Kloosteman (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers, 1996), 214. (630)

Unlawful killing is a better translation of rasah than murder, which usually refers to the intentional, premeditated and unjust taking of human life. (630)

Here [Gen. 9:5-7]  we find the divine establishment of capital punishment for the unlawful killing of human beings. Human life is to be protected by the civil government because it is the image of God. The unlawful killing of a human being is so heinous that it deserves capital punishment precisely because it is a direct assault on the image of God in man, and therefore, an assault on God Himself....Man is not free to do as he wishes. His life must be regulated by the Law of God and that Law must be enforced by the civil government (Rom. 13:1–7). (632)

"Saying no to death means saying yes to life. And this yes is just as radical as our no. We have not arrived if we simply avoid killing or hating our neighbor, for the opposite of these is that we must love our neighbor." 9 Douma, The Ten Commandments, 231. (634)

All Careful Studies and Lawful Endeavors to Preserve the Life of Ourselves:
Obeying the Sixth Commandment includes taking care of ourselves physically, doing what we can to stay in good health.
"This includes every form of human research and planning directed toward the preservation of life. For example, it includes such varied matters as scientific investigation of the causes and prevention of diseases, studies in chemistry directed
toward discovering drugs which will save life or prevent suffering, plans for preventing traffic accidents on the highways…agricultural research by which the productivity of the soil can be increased, and development of swift and efficient means of communication by which quick relief can be brought to the suffering in time of disaster such as earthquake, fire, or flood." 10. Johannes Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, ed. by G. I. Williamson (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing Co., 2002), 362. (635)

All Careful Studies and Lawful Endeavors to Preserves the Life of Others:
(I Kings 18:3-4) At the risk of his own life, and motivated by an appreciation of the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah “hid them by fifties in a cave, and provided them
with bread and water.” (636)

Resisting all Thoughts and Purposes Which Tend Toward Unjust Taking of Life:
The Sixth Commandment gets down to the root of the matter, the cause of all unlawful killing: wrong, unloving attitudes, desires and goals in the heart. As a person thinks in his heart, so is he. (636)

Subduing all Passions Which Tend Toward Unjust Taking of Life:
These three interrelated exhortations are based on four assumptions. (1) Not all anger is sinful (Mark 3:5). (2) Sinful anger in the heart is a murderous emotion (Matt. 5:21–26). (3) Sin is ambitious. It always attempts to go as far as it can and turn every sinful thought into a sinful action. (4) Satan is always seeking someone to devour....Because anger, if left alone and un-dealt-with, easily and quickly degenerates. Anger, resentment, hatred, envy are fully capable of expressing themselves in murder. (637-638)

Avoiding all Occasions Which Tend Toward Unjust Taking of Life:
This law of God, which is a practical application of the Sixth Commandment, presupposes a general liability principle that demands safety in building construction. The point is that “[a] property owner [has]…a general responsibility to remove occasions of hurt to legitimate persons on his land or in his home.” 12. Rousas J. Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law (The Craig Press, 1973), 252. (638)

Avoiding Temptations and Practices Which Tend Toward Unjust Taking of Life:
We learned from Larger Catechism Q. 99 that under one sin or duty, all of the same kind are forbidden or commanded; together with all the causes, means, occasions, and appearances thereof, and provocations thereunto. This means that any thought or choice on our part that leads to an overt transgression of a commandment is a transgression of the commandment, e.g., if immorality is sinful,
then entering a pornography store is also. The same is true of succumbing to temptations or placing temptations in the paths of others that would lead to or tend toward the unjust taking of life or the diminishing of life. (639)

Just Defense Against Violence:
​...God calls upon us to redress and rectify wrongs and injustices committed against the defenseless by those who oppress the disadvantaged, whether they are thugs, vandals, landlords, politicians or judges. In fact, we are commanded to do what is necessary and what is Biblical to “rescue” and “deliver” them from their oppressors,
literally, “to carry away safe” and “to cause to escape.” This is particularly the function of the civil government, i.e., to protect, defend and do justice to the defenseless. (640)

The laws of the liability of the bystander, which is a practical application of the Sixth Commandment, reinforces this duty (Deut. 22:1–4, 24; Luke 10:29–37). These laws, along with Proverbs 24:11–12, give citizens a measure of police power.
....
(Of course, this God-given police power of the citizenry must not be misused, nor used in a rash, impatient or unbiblical fashion.)
(641)

Patient Bearing of the Hand of God:
Impatience with and complaining against God’s providence can bring down on our lives His judgment. Furthermore, impatience with God’s hand, rooted in unbelief and self-love, produces bitterness, anxiety and worry, which in turn lead to stress-related illnesses and the shortening or diminishing of health and life, hence a transgression of the Sixth Commandment. (642)

Quietness of Mind:
​Making it our ambition to lead a quiet life attending to our callings and working with our hands to the glory of God as believers enables us to live a quiet life with quietness of mind. Such a life of tranquility, quietness, peace, godliness and dignity enhances life and therefore is our duty under the Sixth Commandment. (642)

It is only when we are resting in the Lord in faith, trusting His promises and persevering in obeying His Word that we are able to keep from fretting over prosperous evil-doers...These soul destroying attitudes are also body-destroying if they are left to simmer and boil within us. They have the potential of destroying spiritual and physical life. (643)

Cheerfulness of Spirit:
The body of a human being is influenced by his state of mind, therefore, we can speak of psychosomatic illnesses. Many people who are physically sick have made themselves sick by their sinful attitudes....spiritual joy often has a healing effect on
the body; whereas “a broken spirit dries up the bones,” i.e., has a life diminishing
effect on the body. (643-644)

Sober Use of Meat, Drink, and Physick:
Proverbs 25:16 is telling us that moderation in eating is important to our health. Ephesians 5:18 forbids drunkenness because it dissipates and squanders our physical and mental health. And in Isaiah 38:21, God shows Hezekiah the means by which he will be healed of his illness. Medicine and treatment alone could not have cured Hezekiah. (644)

Sober Use of Sleep:
Good sleep is important to clear minds and healthy bodies. It is directly related to believing and resting in the strength, wisdom and protection of the Lord concerning our days, nights and tomorrows. The sleep of such a person can be truly restful and refreshing.
...
In other words, we are not to oversleep. Know how much sleep you need, get it and do not overindulge yourself. Furthermore, this kind of sleep comes with diligent and satisfying work during the day (Ps. 127:2), with living orderly, disciplined, and scheduled lives (Eccl. 5:12), and with believing God’s promises concerning sleep (Ps. 121:4—while you are asleep, God will not be asleep), and God keeps on blessing you
while you are asleep (Ps. 127:4). (645)

Sober Use of Labor:
Hard, meaningful work in a calling is good for a person’s mental, spiritual, physical and emotional health....Meaningful work in a calling is virtuous; and idleness and laziness are contemptuous. (645)

But, if work is to be godly and life-enhancing, it must be sober, i.e., it must be within the confines of our gifts and limitations and moderated with rest. Workaholics are sinning against God. This is especially true when this excessive work is motivated by the excessive craving for wealth without moderation. (646)

Sober Use of Recreation:
Recreations, vacations and play are important aspects of life and are pleasing to God, when used soberly, according to His Word and for His glory. (646)

Cheritable Thoughts: 
A kind and charitable attitude toward others is required of us by the Sixth Commandment because an unkind, uncharitable, unloving, bitter attitude toward others will sooner or later have a harmful effect on ourselves and on others—physically and spiritually. (648)

Love:
The essence of love is self-giving—the giving of itself for the welfare and happiness of another person. Love delights in its object, which prevents us from injuring those we love. Therefore love seeks to do all that the law of God requires of us, because it requires nothing that is not conducive to the best interests of others (13:9). (648)

Compassion: 
Showing compassion to people in need or misery enhances life....Jehovah of the Old
Testament is a God of compassion: “Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:13–14). Because Israel was the covenant people of God, they were to reflect God-like compassion in their daily relationships: “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;
but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks” (Deut. 15:7–8). (649)

As Jehovah incarnate, Jesus’ life was characterized by compassion: “When Jesus went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). Jesus also taught His disciples that Christ-like compassion should
be extended to everybody. (649)

The Greek word for showing compassion is an interesting one. It is based on the Greek noun meaning “the upper viscera, lungs, heart and liver.” It denotes therefore “warm and tender affections and emotions.” (649)

What was it in people that drew out compassion from Jesus for them? Whether they were distressed, harassed, downcast, leaderless and shepherdless (Matt. 9:36); sick (Matt. 14:14); hungry and ignorant (Matt. 15:32); blind (Matt. 20:34); leprous (Mark 1:41); demon possessed (Mark 9:22); in debt (Matt. 18:27); grieving
(Luke 7:13); bankrupt, sorrowful, guilt-ridden, self-abused (Luke 15:20); or lacking in material needs (1 John 3:17), Jesus had compassion on them.
Therefore, we can draw two conclusions: (1) It was human suffering caused by human sin that drew out Jesus’ compassion; (2) His compassion moved him to action—to do what He could to relieve their need. Feeling without action is not compassion (James 2:14–17; Amos 1:11).
....
So then, compassion is rooted in: a proper view of sin; a genuine concern for the welfare and destiny of people; a desire to be one with Christ in compassion, to be more conformed to His image; a self-less, self-denying, neighbor-loving, servant-spirit; and a desire to see God glorified in the salvation of sinners (2 Cor. 5:17–20). (650)

Meekness, Gentleness, Kindness:
Meekness is life-enhancing.
"[T]o be meek is to be as tender as a mole and as soft as silk, so that it is a delight to have dealings with such a person. It is to have a quiet and dispassionate disposition, and to manifest this by the enduring of wrong, by maintaining a
consistently tender disposition, by forgiving wrongdoing as if it had not been committed, and by rendering good for evil—all this so that everyone may be convinced of their wrongdoing and cease doing wrong against us. A meek person
is as a smooth beach upon which tempestuous waves break and then gently flow away, interacting, so to speak, in a playful manner with it. "17. Wilhelmus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 4 vols., trans. by Bartel Elshout (Ligonier, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1993), 3:203. (651)

The Greek word for “kindness” in this text can be translated “kindness,” “good-heartedness,” “graciousness,” “benevolence,” “considerateness,” “friendliness.” This kindness is a perfection in God that finds expression in the saving work of Christ (Rom. 11:22). It is almost an equivalent to “grace.” (651)

This Greek word means “mild and gentle friendliness.”...Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit and it enables the believer to correct others without arrogance. (652)

Peaceable Speeches and Behavior:
Our love for life means that we will strive for the establishment and preservation of peace: “being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). We are to “seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 34:14). And Paul exhorts us: “If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” (Rom. 12:18). (653)

Mild and Courteous Speeches and Behavior:
This Proverb [15:1] is also a practical application of the Sixth Commandment for it teaches us that mild and courteous speech can have a positive effect on an angry person, calming his anger; and that harsh words can have a negative effect on a person, stirring up strife between friends. (653)

Forbearance, Readiness to be Reconciled, Patient Bearing and Forgiving Injuries, and Requiting Good for Evil:
Forbearance is the willingness to suffer being wronged rather than standing up for our rights. Readiness to be reconciled is the willingness, and even eagerness, to be reconciled with those who have offended us or with those whom we have offended, as quickly as possible, because by the grace of God in Christ, we have been reconciled with God, although we did not deserve to be reconciled. Patient bearing and forgiving of injuries is possible for the believer because God has freely forgiven him of all his sins against Him and is patient with Him everyday. Gratitude to God makes him patient and forgiving with others. Requiting good for evil is refusing to repay or return evil for evil, i.e., to refuse to treat or react to another person in the same evil way that he or she has treated you. We are never to return evil for evil. We are always to return good for evil. (654-655)

"It may sometimes be our duty, as well as our right, to seek justice from the constituted authorities of church or state.… Especially when the rights of God and
truth of God are at stake, it is our duty to stand up courageously for truth and righteousness, without respect of persons. Kindness to men must never induce us to become lukewarm in defense of God’s truth." 19. Vos, The Westminster Larger Catechism: A Commentary, 366. (655)

Comforting and Succoring the Distressed and Protecting and Defending the Innocent:
The Sixth Commandment demands of the Christian that he give comfort and succor to the distressed. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that our extension of mercy to those in need by trying to meet their needs is not based on the merit or worth of the needy person. It is especially our duty to try to relieve the sufferings
of our fellow Christians anywhere in the world.
...
We are also called upon by the Sixth Commandment to protect and defend the innocent. The innocent are those who are suffering unjustly for no fault in them, or who are being treated as guilty persons, when they are not. It is always our responsibility to protect and defend others against unjust treatment so far as it is in our power and place to do so. The individual, the family, the church and the state all have this duty in their distinct spheres and according to their divinely-assigned functions, authority and jurisdiction. (656)

All Taking Away the Life of Ourselves or Other:
As we have seen above, the Sixth Commandment forbids all unlawful killing of human beings, which includes suicide. (657)

Except in Cases of Public Justice or Lawful War:
The God-appointed function of civil government is to terrorize evil doers and to punish them by enforcing the Laws of God. To make the civil government effective in its responsibility, God has placed “the sword” in the hands of the civil magistrate to protect law-abiding citizens by administering God’s “wrath” on the criminal
law-breaker. Romans 12:19 tells us clearly that vengeance belongs to God, but to the civil magistrate God has given the authority to administer His vengeance: “it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.” When a civil government justly punishes a criminal, it is God acting through that government. (658)

The purpose of “the sword” can be defined in three ways:
First, its purpose is to enable the civil magistrate to protect the church and law-abiding citizens from the lawless and the criminal. If the civil government is going to provide this protection, it must have strength superior to that of the lawless. The godly state must be of superior strength to evil men and nations.
...
Second, a Christian civil government with a sword in its hand is a holy terror to evil-doers.
...
Third, the power of the sword is to be used to administer God’s justice, to make sure that God’s order is maintained, and that restitution is made whenever God’s Law is broken. When crimes are committed against God’s Law, restitution must be made to God, to society, and to the victim, or his family, in order for peace and order to continue[.] (659-660)

God has given the civil government the authority to use deadly and coercive force, when necessary, to preserve justice in the domestic relationships within a nation. This includes the legitimacy of capital punishment. (660)

There are three fundamental reasons why capital punishment is essential to public justice.
First, the holy character of God is the basis of capital punishment.
...
Second, the holy command of God is the basis of capital punishment.
...
Third, the sanctity of the image of God in man and the importance of the family comprise the basis for capital punishment.
(661-663)

God has given the state the power of the sword in international affairs to protect the citizens of that nation from lawless invaders or terrorists from outside its boundaries. This is the national defense of a nation’s families. (663)

Neglecting or Withdrawing the Lawful and Necessary Means of Preservation of Life

Sinful Anger:
Anger that arises when God’s honor is defamed is righteous anger. Emotions are God-given, and are constructive, when governed and used in accordance with Biblical principles. They become destructive when they are unrestrained or when we fail to express them in harmony with Biblical principles. (670)

Jay Adams,in his books The Christian Counselor’s Manual and Competent to Counsel, shows us how anger becomes sinful in two ways: By the ventilation of anger, or “blowing up,” and by the internalization of anger or “clamming up.” (671)

First, believe that, as a Christian, you have the power to control your anger (Rom. 6:11–12).
Second, settle daily all emotional issues between yourself and others, rather than allowing the matter to fester and abscess.
...
Third, learn to redirect your anger, making it solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented. Understand that anger is a God-given emotion “designed to mobilize force to tear something apart,” (Jay Adams), e.g., a problem by solving it.
...
Fourth, avoid people who are dominated by anger: “Do not associate with a man given to anger; or go with a hot-tempered man, lest you learn his ways, and find a snare for yourself” (Prov. 22:24–25).
Fifth, determine to be angry only at sin. The holier we become, the more anger we will feel against sin and the less anger for each other (Ps. 139:21–24).
Sixth, learn to love each other in terms of 1 Corinthians 13.
Seventh, do not try to play God. Submit under His mighty hand, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for His own.
...
Eighth, meditate on the reality, nature and objects of God’s anger (Rom. 1:18; Ps. 7:11; Ex. 22:24; Eph. 4:26, 27; Ps. 4:4; Rev. 6:15–17). His wrath is severe and final (2 Thess. 1:7f); but it is also slow (Ps. 103:8).
(671-672)

Hatred:
Hatred is deadly because it is a deep-seated anger. One will harbor this within himself until an opportunity arises in which he can avenge himself. (672)

Therefore, since no contradiction can exist between the ethics of the Old Testament and the ethics of the New Testament, then no contradiction exists between Jesu’s command to love our enemies and the declarations of the Bible that we are to hate God’s enemies. On the one hand, we are to obey the law of God from the heart with
reference to other people generally, and to our enemies in particular (Rom. 13:10); and, on the other hand, being repulsed and angered by their blasphemy of the Name of God, their audacious assaults on His Kingdom and their blatant disobedience to His revealed will, we are to hate God’s enemies by separating ourselves from their goals and behavior, and work to resist, expose and overcome their efforts for evil. Furthermore, we are never to use our resources or show compassion in such a way as to subsidize and encourage the continuation of a life of rebellion against God (Prov. 28:17), or the vicious assault on the people of God (2 Chron. 19:2). We also must be wise in the nature of our relations with others, sensitive to the fact that, as we love our enemies, we must not allow ourselves to be
corrupted by their evil (Prov. 22:10, 24). (674)

Envy:
Envy is a manifestation of a murderous disposition of heart.
...
Envy is destructive to a peaceful social order.
(677)

Desire of Revenge:
Revenge is also murderous. It is
"the inclination to retaliate against someone for a wrong actually committed or an imaginary wrong—yes, they are not satisfied with a retribution of a similar degree, but the least wrong which has been done to them is deserving of death in their eyes." 36. á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 3:201. (678)

All Excessive Passions:
Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice are all intimately related sinful attitudes and passions. “Bitterness” denotes disagreeableness, pungent to the taste and poisonous. Figuratively it refers to any excessive and unrestrained passion that corrodes and “acts on the mind as poison does on the body, or on the minds of others as venom does on their bodies.… The command, therefore, to lay aside all bitterness, is a command to lay aside everything which corrodes our own minds or wounds the feelings of others.”38 This would include “wrath,” i.e., the mind burning with passion; “anger,” i.e., outward excessive expressions of that wrath; “clamor,” i.e., sinful expressions of wrath in speech and conversation; “slander,” i.e., any form of speech aimed at wounding or injuring other people; and “all malice,” i.e., the desire to injure and all forms of malevolence. In the place of all excessive passions, “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). 38. Charles Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d.), 275–76. (679)

Distracting Cares:
Worry for the Christian is absurd and irrational....Filling each day with worry, anxiety and distracting cares about the future are destructive of joy, peace and life itself, filling it with fear and stress. (680)

Immoderate Use of Meat, Drink, Labour, and Recreation:
Doing injury to yourself by overindulgence in eating, drinking, sleeping, and pleasure-seeking is suicidal, because if left unchecked these sins lead to death. Furthermore, the immoderate use of meat, drink, labour and recreations “weighs down” the heart with “the worries of this life” (Luke 21:34) making us insensitive to and unprepared for the crises of life, like the fall of Jerusalem, prophesied in Luke 21. (681)

All the good things we enjoy in life are gifts from God. If they are to be used properly and joyfully, they must be received and understood as coming from God’s gracious hand. (682)

Provoking Words:
Words can kill. Sarcastic, slanderous and biting language, that reveals a heart full of anger, and which provokes others to anger or discourages others from faithfulness is murderous. They are like “the thrusts of the sword.” (683)

A look can kill.
....
Ministers kill people in their congregations by their words or lack thereof, i.e., by not warning the ungodly of the evil of their ways (Ezek. 13:18, 22). (684)

Oppression:
Oppression is repeatedly condemned in the Bible as a sin particularly heinous in the sight of God, e.g., the treatment of Israel by the Egyptian Pharaoh....All forms of oppression are forbidden—by fraud or by violence, in all spheres of life—family, politics, economics, commerce, business, etc. (684-685)

Quarreling: 
The metaphorical condemnation of quarreling in Galatians 5:15 makes clear the point that quarreling breaks the Sixth Commandment, because it is destructive and murderous speech toward our neighbor. Love serves others, and if we serve one another we will not “kill” each other in malicious talk, gossip, and slander. (686)

Striking and Wounding:
Although much more can obviously be said about this text, suffice it to say that this provision in the Mosaic Law calls us to great carefulness with human life. (687)

Whatever Else Tends to the Destruction of the Life of Any:
The Bible does not allow us to use force to solve disputes between each other, except for the legal force of the civil magistrate, when necessary. We are required to submit our arguments to arbitration....In an escalating dispute, the person who initiates the escalation to physical violence, bringing injury to his opponent, is the guilty party. Self-defense is allowable. (688)

Indentured servants and their owners both have rights before the Law. The owner may flog his servant for just causes (Deut. 23:15); but if he maims him by abusive treatment, the servant is set free (Lev. 24:17). Murder is murder, even in the case of a slave. This law assumes that, if the slave did not die immediately, the owner did not intend the murder. If he dies later on, as a result of the flogging, unintentionally
caused, then the owner has lost the value of his labor. It also assumes the servant, in this case, to be deserving of severe flogging. (688)

​Therefore, if accidentally and prematurely induced abortions are to be treated as murder, how much more so are deliberate abortions. (690)

If an owner beats his slave too severely and unjustly, permanently damaging or maiming him, and the slave recovers, the servant is freed in fair compensation and restitution. (691)

(1) Animals as well as men are liable for murder charges (Gen. 9:5). The owner of an animal that kills a person is not guilty or liable for punishment, if the animal has no previous record of unprovoked violence. But the animal must die. If the animal did have a record of violence, then the irresponsible owner is liable for murder charges and capital punishment. .... (2) If a man’s animal kills the child of
his neighbor, he is to be dealt with and not his children (Deut. 24:16). (691)

God made man and woman in His image (Gen. 1:27), to reflect His character and glory. Jesus Christ came to restore that image which had been marred by sin (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). This gives all human life sanctity, in other words, a sacred inviolability defined by God’s Word. (692)

The question of the hour is this: Is the unborn child covered by God’s special protection? Is the unborn child a human person in God’s image?
The Bible is clear in its answers to these crucial questions. It leaves no doubt about the continuity of personhood which includes the unborn child. In other words, the Bible teaches that at conception, (more accurately, at fertilization), the unborn child is a human person in the image of God, and therefore, under His special protection. This point is made in a variety of convincing ways:
(1). The express statement on the beginning of human life (Job 3:3).
(2). The continuity of personhood from conception through adulthood (Ps. 139:13-16).
(3). The continuity of sinfulness from conception through adulthood (Ps. 51:5).
(4). The continuity of human experiences from conception through adulthood (Luke 1:15, 41, 44).
(5). The nature of conception as a gracious act of God (1 Sam. 1:19), etc.
(6). The case-law governing abortion (Ex. 21:22-25).

​(693)

      Racheal 

Using God’s name, or anything God has revealed, or anything by which He has revealed Himself, or anything He has created as a “good luck piece” or a “lucky charm,” in an attempt to control the present and future, to satisfy sinful desires, to accomplish things or to explain and justify sinful practices is particularly evil and obviously a transgression of the Third Commandment. (397)

A false prophet is one who seeks, by the occult, to communicate with the unseen world by unlawful means; and who seeks to predict and control the future by unlawful means in defiance of God and His Biblical revelation. Why are these unlawful means—witchcraft, sorcery, magic, divination, etc.—forbidden and detested by God? (1) The true believer is to walk by faith in the Word of God and not by sight, and the occult is an effort to deny that basic principle. (2) The occult assumes that God can be forced or persuaded to act in certain predicted ways through magic, trickery, and rituals of various sorts, ways originating in the fallen, depraved human imagination determined to rebel against God and to live by power obtained “from below.” (3) It assumes that the real and superior power is somewhere other than in the God of the Bible, that even He is influenced by a great, mysterious power, that He cannot fully control, and that pervades the entire universe. (4) It involves, by implication, the belief that Satan is that ultimate power. (5) Since Biblical Law has as its foundation the one true God, false prophets, in ignoring His Word, assault the foundation of society, thereby becoming guilty of treason, idolatry and blasphemy. (401)

Biblical Law is the one God-ordained way to predict and plan for the future. The central purpose of this whole section of Deuteronomy is to provide God’s people with a true means of predicting and preparing for the future in the unchanging Law of God. If men disobey that Law, certain curses will result; and if they obey, blessings will result (Deut. 28; Lev. 26).

The gospel preaching of Paul and Barnabas was having great success in Antioch....so the Jewish leaders openly tried to contradict the apostolic gospel, “and cast abusive aspersions on the two apostles, perhaps including the name of Jesus in their defamatory remarks.”211 They would revile the apostles as heretics and their gospel as heresy, “blaspheming Christ Himself as an impostor and a false Messiah.”212 Such maligning of God’s name, i.e., of His gospel, His Son, and His apostles as vehicles of God’s revelation, is a clear transgression of the Third Commandment.
211. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts, 281.
212. J. A. Alexander, Acts of the Apostles (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust [1857] 1991), 40.
​(406-407)

In the Bible a “scoffer” or “the scornful” are those who are full of indifference, intolerance or hatred for the “name of God,” for revealed truth and revealed religion and anything connected with it. They think of God and treat Christianity with contempt, as they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18f). (407-408)

Hence, to malign Christians or their life-transforming gospel is to take the name of the Lord in vain. This hostility of the pagan to the Christian often results in a campaign of insult and slander against the Christian to discredit him, his Bible and his God. The reason for this hostility is given by Jesus in John 15:18–19: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (410)

To oppose the preaching of the revealed truth of God, to try to resist and defy the overtures and purposes of the gospel of God’s grace, and to stand in opposition to any of the ways of God with man, is to oppose God Himself. It is to oppose, resist, and defy the revelation of His name to man which is man’s salvation. Such opposition is to oppose the only name by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Hence, it is a transgression of the Third Commandment. (411)

The Bible describes those who make such hypocritical professions of faith as “lovers of self…holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power.” They live to please and satisfy the desires and goals of self, not of God. (417)

Being ashamed to confess Christ and His divinely-revealed religion as the only true Savior and only true religion, before a hostile and wicked culture is taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is rooted in unbelief and cowardice. It is so heinous in the sight of the Lord Himself that He will be “ashamed” of those who are ashamed of
Him, at His glorious Second Coming. (420)

[By Uncomfortable Walking]
A life that does not conform to one’s Christian profession or to the Word of God is a transgression of the Third Commandment. It is to profess the name of Christ, and to bear that name as “Christian,” and then to live in disregard for the claims of Christ on one’s life or in conformity to the implications and demands of that name
which is above all other names (Phil. 2:9), by which name alone we are saved (Acts 4:12). (421)

[By Unwise Walking]
Failure to walk wisely and carefully before a watching world brings shame on Christ and Christianity and is therefore a breach of the Third Commandment. To be “careful” in how one walks is to walk strictly by the rule of God’s Word without deviating by a hair’s breath. To walk as a “wise” person is to walk as one who possesses divine truth, “understand[ing] what the will of God is,” and who lives in the “light” of that truth, and not as those who live in “darkness.” (423)

[By Unfruitful Walking]
Someone whose life does not “bear fruit for God” (Rom. 7:4), by that fruitlessness, betrays his Christian profession and takes the Lord’s name, which he professes and bears, in vain....What is the fruit that our union with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to bear for God? It is a life of obedience to Christ and love for others (John 15:7–12). It is a life of holiness (Rom. 6:22). It is “the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). True believers “bear” the fruit of Christ-likeness and “gather” fruit in the church and world (Rom. 1:13), i.e., are effective in ministering the gospel to other people. Fruit confirms one’s profession and keeps him from bringing shame to that Christian profession: “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit.… So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 18–20). (424)

[By Offensive Walking]
Any bringing of shame or dishonor of God’s revealed name, i.e., Biblical Christianity, is a breaking of the Third Commandment, and it is most certain that we bring shame to Christ and dishonor to Christianity by professed Christians walking offensively, i.e., by teaching others to live godly lives, but failing to teach ourselves to do so, by preaching that one should not steal or commit adultery or
idolatry, and then by stealing, committing adultery or idolatry ourselves (Rom. 2:21–22). We live offensively if we boast that we are Christians, who believe the Bible, and that the Law of God is that one and only righteous standard by which we must live or be judged by God, and yet through our breaking or disregarding of the demands of the Law dishonor God and His name which we profess to bear (Rom. 2:23). (427-428)

[By Backsliding]
Although it is impossible to be lost again after being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, it is possible for true believers to backslide for a time from a correct understanding of the Bible because of ignorance, negligence, confusion, or allowing oneself to be swayed from the truth by the eloquence or persuasion of a false teacher. Such backsliding in the understanding of truth leads to backsliding in the practice of truth. (429)

We are to obey the Third Commandment simply because God commands it. We are the creatures of the Creator, subjects of the Lord, and children of the Redeemer, and because of all those relations with God, we want to obey whatever He commands....We will not wait until God gives us reasons for His commandments. We don’t need reasons in order to obey. And because God is not accountable to us, He often commands but does not give us any reasons behind His commands, other than that He commanded it: “Why do you complain against Him that He does not
give an account of all His doings?” (Job 33:13). And yet in mercy and in grace, God condescends to our need and often reveals the reasons behind His commands or gives us motives to encourage us to be faithful in the keeping of them. (434-435)

We want to obey the Third Commandment because the One who gave it is “the Lord,” Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, who is in complete control of His creation, who reveals Himself, i.e., “My name,” to His people, and who is present with His people to fellowship with them and to guide them, and who is self-existent and all sufficient in and of Himself: “I am that I am.”...Therefore, we want to obey this commandment because we love the Lord who gave it. (435)

But, the Lord who gave us this commandment also refers to Himself as “your God.” We are not to take in vain the name of “your God” (Ex. 20:7), of “our God” (Ex. 5:3), of “my God” (Ps. 22:10). It would be audacious of us to use these terms with reference to the transcendent Creator of the universe, if He had not brought us into
intimate union and eternal communion with Himself by His Covenant. It is because of His promise which we believe that we call the infinite God “our God.”...Matthew says of the birth of Jesus that it was the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name IMMANUEL, which translated means, GOD WITH US” (Matt. 1:23). Therefore, we obey the Third Commandment because the God who gave it is “our God,” our Friend, our Savior. He is God with us in Jesus Christ. The strength and motivation we need to obey it we find in this vital union we have with Him. (435-436)

God motivates us to obey the Third Commandment by means of a solemn threat which implies that: (1) A Day of Judgment is coming when all human beings “shall have all their conduct investigated with the scrutiny of omniscience, shall all be found innocent or guilty, and shall all be condemned or acquitted.”243 (2) On that Day of Reckoning we will have to answer to God for every irreverent thought, feeling, word or action, for every infraction of this commandment, and of all others. (3) God will by no means clear those who are found guilty on that Day or leave them unpunished. (4) No mercy shall be shown to those who are found guilty on that Day. ​243. Plumer, The Law of God, 286. (436-437)

      Racheal

God threatens to curse all those who do not honor His name as it deserves and who do not take His name, and all it means, to heart. God will curse their persons and
their blessings. This is particularly true of Christian leaders, like the priests to whom these words were originally addressed (vs. 1). They must show the people the right way to live and worship, and correct any impiety and false worship in the people whenever they see the people growing cold in God’s worship. (306)

[1: Ignorance]
Abusing or misusing God’s name in ignorance is still a breaking of the Third Commandment, for our ignorance of God, i.e., the willful suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, is guilty, inexcusable ignorance: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). (307)

“The unbeliever is fully responsible for his mental state, and this is a state of culpable ignorance. That explains why Paul issued a call for repentance to the
Athenians (v. 30); their ignorant mindset was immoral.” 79. ​Bahnsen, Always Ready, 256 (308)

[2: In Vanity]
The reason for these petitions [Prov. 30:7-9] is that he does not want to dishonor his God by sinning against Him either by unbelief or pride....Either way he considers his sin as an abuse of God’s name in vain. (308)

[3. Irreverent Profanity]
By their treatment of the altar and the table of the Temple, the people and priests were, in God’s opinion, guilty of contemptuous behavior in corrupting His worship, because they had regarded the worship of God as of such little sacred value, that it was nothing to them to adulterate that worship. Irreverence for the means by which God reveals Himself is irreverence for the God who is “majestic in holiness” and who is “a consuming fire.” (310)

[4. Superstition]
For example, in the incident described in 1 Samuel 4, Israel had a misplaced and superstitious trust in the ark of God, rather than the God of the ark: “Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord that IT may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies” (vs. 3). Such superstitious attitude
and use of the ark of the Lord is a heinous sin against the Lord of the ark. Faith puts its trust in the trustworthiness of divinely instituted symbols, sacraments and ordinances as pledges of God’s presence and blessing to His faithful people. But these divine symbols, sacraments and ordinances do not derive their power from the trust that is properly placed in them, that is, in God through them. (311)

[5. Wicked Mentioning of God's Name]
    A] Titles and Attributes:
Those wicked people who speak against God wickedly, taking His holy name in vain, using His glorious titles or mentioning His perfections in a wicked and irreverent manner are counted by God as His enemies and as haters of God....God takes a person’s wicked use of His name far more seriously than we ordinarily think. God hates it, is insulted by it and will punish it. (320)
   
    B] Ordinances:
To mention or use God’s divinely instituted ordinances revealed in His Word in a wicked manner is also taking the Lord’s Name in vain. In Psalm 50, “the Mighty One, the Lord…God, your God” (vs. 1, 7) counts “the wicked” as everyone who speaks His statutes and ordinances favorably and who confess His covenant, making their public vows, but who hate His discipline of them and audaciously
disregard His revealed Word. (321)

Correct forms of worship and correct words in worship without faith, heart and repentance are forms and words used wickedly before God. Such empty formalism, being superstitious and without heart, is detestable to God. (321)

    C] Works:
Any wicked mentioning or using of God’s creative, providential or redemptive works amounts to taking His name in vain. Isaiah 5:8–30 is a catalogue of the specific sins of Israel and their appropriate judgment. In verses 11–12, Israel is condemned for being a debauched people. Their lifestyle, music and knowledge are debased and immoral. They give themselves to drunkenness and dissipation making them unfit to glorify God in six days of meaningful work for God’s glory and one day of rest and worship. (324)

This last passage (Lev. 24:11–16) shows us how God views blaspheming His name: it is such a heinous sin and crime in His sight that it must be punished by the civil magistrate, and it is of such an extremely heinous nature, because it is against God’s infinitely valuable Name, that its only just punishment is death. Blasphemy, then, remains a capital crime as long as God’s name is infinitely holy. (326-327)

Basic to a godly social order is the sanctity of the name of the God who defends such an order. (The source of law for a society is the God of that society.) The blasphemer verbally assaults the name of God: His titles, perfections, works, ordinances, representatives, etc. He publicly challenges God and His representatives to do something about his renunciation of his covenant oath to God and his faith in God by uttering a curse against God. Such verbal assault is rebellion and treason. It is an attack upon the foundation of a godly social order, which social order is to be defended and maintained by the civil magistrate. (327)

Perjury is a serious offense according to Biblical Law. It is regarded as a destruction of the processes of justice (Lev. 19:12; Deut. 17:6, 7; 19:16–21; Prov. 19:5, 9; 25:18; Matt. 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). Biblical Law equates perjury with blasphemy, since it is God’s justice that is offended (Lev. 19:12). (329)

[1: Cursing]
"You need not go far in this life to meet a Shimei. His personal characteristics are all too common.… Here is an unbridled tongue, fulminating in the foulest language and pointing to an untamed heart (James 3:5–6). Here, also is the capacity to combine a monolithic sense of being in the right with a readiness to indulge a sinful, judgmental attitude to another person (James 3:9). Allied to this is a lack of interest in solving whatever problem exists, or of extending the slightest hint of a willingness to forgive a perceived wrong, and a vicious enthusiasm to see the wrath of God poured out on that person. The Shimeis of this world are driven by a burning desire for revenge. They don’t want any repentance, reconciliation, or restitution. They want to see the other fellow “get his deserts,” as the saying goes. Bitterness consumes those who, far from not letting the sun go down on their anger
and so leaving everything in the hands of a just Father- God, wallow in unholy anger, self-pity or vengefulness. 114. Keddie, Triumph of the King, 155–56. (335)

[2: Oaths]
    A] Flippant Oaths made in Everyday Conversation:
Both Jesus and James (5:12), forbade flippant oaths in everyday conversion, lightly taken with reference to trivial matters. They did not forbid oath-taking, but the taking of such oaths in every day conversation. (335)

Therefore, when Christ said, “make no oath at all,” He was not absolutely forbidding all oaths on necessary and solemn occasions, but, rather, was forbidding the taking of oaths in everyday conversation and oaths in the name of creatures, rather than in the name of God. (336)

    B] Made in the Name of Someone or Something other than God:
Oaths are to be taken only in the name of the God of the Bible, the one, true and living God....Swearing in the name of God implies faith in and confession of the God of the Bible and of His glorious perfections, especially His omniscience, omnipotence, justice and sovereignty. It follows, therefore, that to swear in the name of anyone or anything else besides Him is utterly unlawful and is nothing less than idolatry, which God hates. (337)

    C] Swearing to Something that One is not Fully Persuaded is the Truth:
In taking an oath we should swear to nothing but what we are fully persuaded to be the truth: “And you shall swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness” (Jer. 4:2). (338)

    D] Swearing to What is not Good and Just:
To swear to that which is good and just is to swear to that which is Scriptural because the Bible, as a written revelation of the character and will of God, is the standard for goodness and justice. (338)

    E] Swearing to Something that One is not Able and Resolved to Perform:
We should swear to do nothing but what we are able to do with the Lord’s help and what we are resolved and prepared to do. (341)

    F] Oaths Obligating Sinning:
​No oath is obligatory which binds a man to do what is unlawful or impossible. The sin lies in taking such an oath, not in breaking it. The reason of this rule is, that no man can bring himself under the obligation to commit a sin. (343)

[3. Vows]
    A] To do Something Forbidden:
We may never do what God’s Law forbids us to do; hence, it is wicked to vow to do what God forbids (Acts 23:12, 14; Mark 6:26). (343)

    B] To do Something which would Hinder our Performing any Duty Commanded by God:
Because we are to obey whatever God commands of us in His Word, we may take no vows that would keep us from doing what God commands. (343)

    C] To do Something which is Not in Our Power to Perform:
The Bible explicitly forbids us from vowing to do things that we are totally incompetent to carry out: “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.… You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips” (Deut. 23:21, 23). Therefore, vows which are not in our power to perform are forbidden, as well as vows which we do not have the authority to make. (344)

    D] To do Something which we have No Promise From God for the Ability to do:
Where there is no divine bidding, there is no divine enabling....Therefore, since we cannot faithfully keep a vow without the assistance of Christ and His Spirit, we cannot make any vows other than those which obligate us to do what He has commanded, since the only promise of ability which He gives us is in reference to being enabled to do what His Word commands. Hence, Roman Catholic vows of
perpetual chastity, poverty and silence, or Fundamentalist vows of total abstinence of alcoholic beverages are forbidden us since God has not promised to give us the ability to keep such vows because He has not commanded such things of us in His Word. (345)

[4. Lots]
In the light of what we explained about lots, as revelatory of God’s will until the completion of the Biblical canon, any use of lots to determine God’s will is sinful. It is to seek to know God’s will apart from the all-sufficient Word of God which thoroughly equips us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). (353)

[1. Violation of Lawful Oaths and Vows]
The word treason, means literally “to give up” or “to betray” a trust, an oath or a vow. (353)

It is…a sin to refuse an oath touching any thing that is good and just, being imposed by lawful authority (WCF, XXII, iii). (354)

This incident [Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar] also teaches us that we are to keep lawful oaths even when they are made to heretics and infidels. The obligation of a lawful oath does not depend upon the character of the person imposing the oath. (356)

[2. Occasions when Oaths and Vows May Be Broken]
    A] When they would Commit Us to Sinning:
Because oaths are made in the name of God to a God-ordained agency, and because vows are made directly to God, neither church nor state can regard either as in any way binding men to them, rather than to God’s law. No disobedient and faithless church can regard its clergy and laity as bound to loyalty to the institution, and no lawless state can bind the conscience of man apart from the Word of God. (357)

B] When made by a Family Member without the Consent or Knowledge of the Head of the Family

C] When Imposed on Us for Evil Purposes:
Therefore, “where the truth is being extracted from us for evil purposes, for the commission of a crime, we are under no obligation to tell the truth. To tell the truth and help an evildoer in the commission of a crime is to become an accessory to it.” 153. ​Rushdoony, Law and Society, 118. (361)

      Racheal

God forbids trying to capture the Lord God in any mental or visual images, for such efforts are a contradiction of His uncreated, immaterial and infinite spirituality, a rejection of God’s sovereignty, a denial of His incomparable majesty, and represent attempts to control God by magic. (129)

Mental pictures of images of God are idolatrous. God is to be perceived in His perfections and works, not in terms of a specific form or shape, even mentally. (130)

It should be obvious that giving such mental images or visual images the worship, adoration, veneration or honor that belongs alone to God is idolatry, and idolatry that is an abomination to the living God, who is jealous for His own glory. (132)

Although it is obvious that graven images should not be worshipped, it is not as obvious that all worshipping of God by means of, or represented, in or symbolized by such graven images is also idolatry... Aaron had no intention of leading Israel to worship another god than Jehovah, or of worshipping the golden calf, but of worshipping Jehovah by means of and as symbolized in the golden calf. (133)

Why is this desire [to worship God with images] evil? (1) It is rooted in unbelief. Faith rests in the sheer Word of God without any other props. If God says He is
near His people, faith believes God. (2) It is an attempt to control God and to guarantee His presence with His people. (3) Worshipping God by means of a graven image promptly turns into the worshipping of the graven image as God. (134)

The Second Commandment forbids using images as pretended helps to worship, because no feigned images of God, Father, Son or Spirit, are at all helpful in the worship of God, rather they are hindrances to true worship. (140)

Representation of feigned deities give a false appearance, are a pretense and a sham.

Superstitious devices are those ceremonies and rites invented by the brain of man, not commanded by God, used to manipulate the supposed “dark supernatural forces, ” e.g., lucky charms, or used in the worship of the true God, e.g., kneeling to receive communion, clerical vestments and prayers for, or to, the dead. In whatever sense we use the phrase, superstitious devices, all of them are forbidden by God. (142)

We should notice five emphases in this text [Is. 1:10-15]: (1) The Divine disgust for religious rites without repentance; (2) The “heartless” but sincere worship of Judah; (3) The hatred of God’s “soul” for worship without heart; (4) The burden of superstitious worship to God; and (5) The refusal of God to hear and answer prayer in superstitious worship. (143)

[1] In her apostate condition Israel’s worship, prayers, religious rites and holy days meant nothing to Jehovah. In fact, He was repulsed by their observance, frequency and sincerity. Although He had commanded that these things be done in His worship, He never commanded these religious rites apart from repentance and integrity of heart before Him (1 Sam. 15:22; Jer. 6:20; Hos. 6:6; Amos 5:21–23).
....
The sacrifices, prayers and holy days had been prescribed by Jehovah, but not without faith in the heart. (143)

[2] The worshippers in Judah and Jerusalem were generally correct in their worship practices and they may have been enthusiastic and sincere in the performing of them, but sincerity, enthusiasm, and external correctness are no substitutes for obedience to God’s commands from the heart and in the life. (144)

[3] He hates apostate, superstitious worship. “My soul” is an anthropomorphic
expression which means much more than merely a substitute for the personal pronoun “I.” “My soul” is “the center of His being, regarded as encircled and pervaded by self-consciousness." 200. Delitzsch, quoted in Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1:67. (145)

[4] Superstitious worship, then, according to this text is comprised of two things: (1) Worshipping God in a manner not commanded by God; and (2) Worshipping God when in the worshipper’s heart there is no living faith in God. This merely formal, although sincere, worship is seen as a burden resting heavily on the Lord. (145)

[5] Isaiah 1 teaches us that the prayers and worship of apostates, however externally correct and sincere, are rejected by Jehovah, because fervor and zeal in prayer and worship are no substitutes for faith and obedience. (147)

The people and priests of Israel were corrupting the worship of God during Malachi’s day by “presenting defiled food on My [God’s] altar,” i.e., by presenting blind and lame and sick animals to be sacrificed rather than perfect and unblemished animals and by offering unsuitable and coarse bread, probably dry and moldy, to be placed on the “table of showbread” in the Temple. (155)

The people were defiling God’s altar and despising His name by being convinced that they needed to offer sacrifices to God to secure His blessing, and yet by being careless and negligent and disobedient in offering sacrifices that were not exactly what God commanded....They were trying to secure God’s favor by a general correctness in the externals of worship, but for them it was not worth the effort to be carefully and painstakingly obedient to God’s ordinances from the heart. (156)

The priests were particularly defiling God’s altar and despising His name by being wicked and sacrilegious in their corrupting of God’s worship, while suppressing any consciousness of doing anything wrong (1:6). In fact, God’s reproofs through Malachi are primarily directed to the priests, because they allowed and encouraged
the people to corrupt their worship of God by offering the corrupted animals and bread the people brought. (157)

So then, by corrupting the worship of God, the Larger Catechism is describing such sins as half-heartedness and hypocrisy in the worship of God, failure to see the value of strictness of observance of God’s revealed ordinances of worship, giving to God less than our best and highest devotion, holding anything or anybody as more precious to us than the worship of the triune God. (161)

The text of covenant Law God has given His people is not to be tampered with, for it is the revelation of the will of Jehovah, their Lord and Savior. It is to be accepted as given by Him without amendment or abridgement by human legislation. Without lessening God’s demands, by obeying only part of them, or increasing God’s demands by the addition of human laws, God’s people are to submit themselves entirely to the inviolable Word of God, lest they detract from the majesty of God’s Law, which is a “testimony” of the glorious character of God. (163)

Any addition to the Law of God is forbidden by Deuteronomy ed and taken up of ourselves, and therefore such “practices” makes those who use them “unclean” in God’s sight. Some people invent ways of worshipping God for themselves personally without any desire to impose them on others or to make them public. Even these practices in personal and private worship are forbidden.
Such “practices” make us “unclean,” for placing our own personal practices alongside the Law is not only the height of arrogance, it has the effect of invalidating the Law of God (Mark 7) and is in God’s sight spiritual prostitution, i.e., unfaithfulness to our covenantal Husband and Bridegroom to whom we have pledged our total, life-long, unqualified, and undivided submission to love and
obey: “they played the harlot in their deeds.” (164-165)

Even if these worship rituals invented by man without Divine sanction are received by tradition from others, with a long and distinguished history in the church, they are dishonoring to God and hence forbidden....(1) They make true worship empty and vain: “in vain do they worship Me.” (2) They are the “precepts of men, the tradition of men, your tradition which you handed down,” rather than the commandment of God. (3) The keeping of such traditions causes the “neglecting of the commandment of God,” “nicely set[ting] aside the commandment of God,” and “invalidating the Word of God.” (166)

1] Nor does it matter that man-made worship rituals have the title of antiquity, i.e., they have a long and celebrated history, “inherited from your forefathers;” the passage of time does not make good evil or evil good. It is evil to supplement, amend or abridge the Law of God and it is never right to do so, nor will it ever be right, and although such things have been approved by many for centuries, it has never been right. (166-167)

Even if these human inventions are venerated as the established customs of a religious society, which most of the people followed, along with the rich, powerful, prestigious and famous, they are still forbidden by the Word of God. (167)

Neither religious zeal, sacrificing devotion, utter sincerity nor enthusiastic passion for the worship of God can justify any innovations in worship not sanctioned by God’s command in the Bible. (174)

God accepts no honoring or worshipping of Him, however “good” our intentions, “without it having the express commandment of his own word to be done in all points.” 253. Knox, Selected Writings of John Knox, 24 (179) 

     Racheal

      Racheal

God dealt with Nadab and Abihu so severely to teach us several things. (1) In His Church, His Word is Law; it may not be added to or subtracted from. He will not share His glory with another. (2) We worship a holy God, jealous for His Name, who will be worshipped only as He commands. (3) Good intentions, sincerity, religious preeminence and religious fervor do not excuse adding to or subtracting
from God’s Word. And (4) “[If] we reflect how holy a thing God’s worship is, the enormity of the punishment [of Nadab and Abihu] will by no means offend us.” 113. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, 3:431 (85)

Man is not to alter, edit or supplement what God has revealed for worship. (86)

In other words, regarding the worship of God, whatever He has not commanded is
forbidden! (90)

(1)“God is vitally concerned about the way He is worshipped.… He did not leave it to the ingenuity of man’s depraved mind to devise a worship system which would be acceptable to Him.”120 (2) “Man’s pride often leads to impertinence in worship.”121 (3) Disobedience to God’s directions for worship is sin and brings
punishment.…122
120. McCracken, “An Exposition of II Chronicles 26:16-21,” 77-78.
121. McCracken, “An Exposition of II Chronicles 26:16-21,” 78.
122. McCracken, “An Exposition of II Chronicles 26:16-21,” 80. (90)

First, the imposition of man-made liturgies in public worship.

Second, the introduction of holy-days in the church calendar.

Third, the use of vestments, or clerical garb, in worship.

Fourth, the use of the “altar call” in worship.

Fifth, the practice of coming forward and kneeling to receive the Lord’s Supper.
 (92-100)

(1) The first point to notice in this text [Deut. 13] is that this “prophet or dreamer of dreams” is not an open pagan idolater, he is a prophet, one who is supposed to be a mouthpiece of the Lord, who speaks only the Word of the Lord. ...
Second, this prophet may be able to perform “a sign or a wonder,” i.e., apparent miracles.
Third, he uses his power and office to lead the covenant people to another faith, to faith in other gods: “Let us go after other gods…and let us serve them.” ....
Fourth, the Lord uses this false prophet to accomplish His own purposes for His people. He is “testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”   ....
Fifth, this prophet is a traitor to the covenant and to the covenant people, and is therefore to be arrested, tried, convicted and executed.....
Sixth, “testing is the prerogative of the Lord, not of man. Man has no right to test God, but God has every right to test man. Idolatry requires exposure, and the idolatry latent in the covenant people is tested and sifted out.”158  ....
Seventh, the key in distinguishing a covert spokesman of idolatry wearing the mask of a minister of God from a true minister of God is not the ability to do miracles; it is covenant faithfulness.  ....
Eighth, it is important to note that what is being condemned here is not heresy or wrong thinking about the Word of God, but the practice of idolatry, the teaching of idolatry and the encouraging of idolatry. ....
Ninth, this Biblical statute enforces the Second Commandment, because the condemnation of idolatry is so basic to the entire Biblical revelation....
Tenth, it is important for us to be clear on the nature of idolatry that is being forbidden and condemned in Deuteronomy 13. In verses 2, 6, 13, we are told that it is the sin of going and serving other gods. ...
158. Rushdoony, Law and Society, 463.    (107-109)

(2) First, “[i]t is the policy of the tempter to send his solicitations by the hand of those whom we love, whom we least suspect of any ill design upon us, and whom we are desirous to please and apt to conform ourselves to.”167
Second,
[i]t is our duty to prefer God and [the Christian] religion before the best friends we have in this world. 1. We must not, in complaisance to our friends, break God’s law (v.8) Thou shalt not consent to him, nor go with him to his idolatrous worship, no, not for company or curiosity… 2. We must not, in compassion to our friends, obstruct the course of God’s justice [“your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him”]. He that attempts such a thing must not only be looked upon as an enemy, or dangerous person, whom one should be afraid of, and swear the peace against, but as a criminal or traitor, whom, in zeal for our sovereign Lord, his crown and dignity, we are bound to inform against, and cannot conceal… (v.9) 168
167. Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1:609.
168. Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1:609.     (113)

If it is idolatry to devise acts of worship that are not commanded by God in the Bible, how much more evil is it to impose idolatry on people by requiring them to perform the acts of worship originating in the brain of man rather than in God and inflicting them with church censure, ridicule or persecution for not doing so....To impose rites and acts of worship upon a church is to bind the conscience of the worshippers and to play God, for Christ alone is the Lord of the conscience. (114)

Kings are to obey and enforce God’s law, and the people are to obey those laws and
resist and seek to overturn all those laws not originating with God’s Law, and to disobey all those civil laws of the state which obedience to would demand disobedience to God, for “we must obey God rather than men.” (117)

When a tyrannical state or church government imposes acts of worship upon a people which are invented by men and not commanded by God in His Word—regardless of the threat and the punishment, even if it is death—Christians may not obey them....To submit to and use forms of worship so imposed upon us out of fear of persecution, ridicule or martyrdom is nevertheless idolatry. (117)

[T]o use any worship forms not commanded by God even forced upon us by the civil government or church on pain of death is idolatry and is forbidden to the covenant people of God. (119)

From Israel’s beginning as the Holy Nation, God commanded them to take measures to protect themselves from the risk of moral contagion. ...
The toleration of theological or ethical evil in the covenant community is suicidal.(122)

       Racheal

We not only have the responsibility to receive and observe the worship of God and its divinely revealed ordinances, we also are to keep pure and entire the worship of God and its ordinances. To keep them pure is to be constantly vigilant and to make the utmost effort to preserve God’s ordinances of worship from any and all mixture
with rites and practices invented by the brain of man and not commanded in the Word of God, for as John Knox said, “[a]ll worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment, is idolatry.”76 In keeping the worship of God pure we are “to allow or practice nothing but what is warranted by the rules which God has given us in his word; in opposition to those who corrupt his worship by intruding those ordinances into it which are of their own invention.”77 To keep them entire is, in faith, to practice diligently and regularly EVERYTHING God has commanded in His worship, leaving out not the smallest detail in its season, “so as that one duty may not justle out another,” “walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6). 
76. John Knox, Selected Writings of John Knox (ed. by David Laing; Edinburgh, 1895; reprint Dallas, TX: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1995), 23.
77. Ridgeley, Commentary on the Larger Catechism, 2:330.  (58-60)

We cannot keep the worship of God and the revealed ordinances of worship pure and entire for long unless we are faithful and diligent in the disapproving, detesting, opposing of all false worship. (63)

Paul was stirred emotionally when he saw the name of God so wickedly profaned, and His pure worship so corrupted, because nothing was more precious to him than the glory of God. This is the common response of all true Christians, that as soon as they see their God blasphemed, they are greatly vexed in their spirit, and are moved to do what they can to stop such blasphemy. (64)

Second, Paul was not so angry and grieving over the idolatry that he saw that he was driven to despair and discouragement with a defeated spirit, paralyzed to any effort to resist and seek to overturn the idolatry. Other men, angry at what they see, overwhelmed by the extensiveness and intensity of the idolatry would give up,
because they believe that all their efforts would be in vain. (65)

There can be no unity in the church, purity of worship with the blessing of God if believers “do not break off all the bonds of impiety, separate ourselves from idolaters, and keep ourselves pure and at a distance from all the pollutions which corrupt and vitiate the holy service of God… [because] after men in their folly have
once begun to make to themselves false gods, their madness breaks forth without measure, until they accumulate an immense multitude of deities.” 87. John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, trans. by Rev. James Anderson, 5 vols. (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society; reprint Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), 1:220. (65)

By monuments of idolatry, then, it is obvious that the Catechism, with Gillespie, is referring to: (1) Any monument dedicated in the past to the worship of idols that might preserve the memory of that idolatry or that might move people to return to that ancient idolatry; and (2) Those popish ceremonies obtruded upon the [Reformed and Presbyterian] Church of Scotland by the king of England and the Church of England, which were imitations of older rites and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church, for which no basis can be found in the Word of God as to their being commanded of God for us to use in His worship. This refers to such ceremonies as those set forth in the FIVE ARTICLES OF PERTH (1618) which were imposed upon the Church of Scotland by the English king: (1) Kneeling at Communion, (2) Observing holy days such as Christmas (which the Scottish Presbyterians saw as the idolatrous Saturnalia of the Romans adapted to become a popish festival), Easter, and Pentecost, (3) Episcopal Confirmation; (4) Private baptisms; and (5) Private administration of the Lord’s Supper.93 In fact, such ceremonies include any rite or liturgy in worship not commanded by the Word of God.
That it is the God-given duty of individuals, families, churches and states to remove all false worship and monuments to idolatry from a culture, according to each one’s place and calling, can be repeatedly shown from the Word of God. False worship, i.e., the worship of idols and the attempted worshipping of God by ways and means not commanded in His Word, is forbidden by God in the First and Second Commandments and is detestable to Him. Innovation in worship originating in the brain of man leads to tyranny in the state with laws imposed upon the populace originating in the brain of man, rather than the Law of God. (68-69)

The words, “shall be utterly destroyed,” are literally in Hebrew, “shall be put under the ban,” i.e., herem, which word denotes being devoted to God in death and “destroyed as execrable [detestable] and accursed, put to death without mercy.”95 Herem is a Hebrew word meaning “to utterly destroy,” “to devote to destruction,” “to place under a total curse,” “to ban.”  (70)

The lesson in the Herem principle is that toleration of evil in ourselves, our homes, our churches, our schools, our businesses, our courts, our communities, and our nations is intolerable, as well as displeasing to God. A society that tolerates evil collapses under the righteous judgment and anger of the God who “hates all workers of iniquity.” ..... Above all, we must be intolerant of the sin that remains within us. We must tear down the idols of our own hearts before we start tearing
down the altars of idolators. (71-72)

[A]ll monuments of idolatry, i.e., everything that has been notoriously abused by idolatry, are to be abolished for two reasons: they remind and they move.
First, they remind, i.e., they preserve the memory of idols in people’s minds.
....
Second, they move, i.e., such reminders of idolatry often move people to turn back to idolatry from the worship of the true God. These reminders not only allow the memory of the superstitions they represent to continue among people, but many times that memory, imagination and curiosity seduce people to resume the superstition and the idolatrous use of them. (79-80)

     Racheal

      Racheal