NOTES for Exo 20:1-20

The famous Ten Commandments, which became the symbol and foundation of Jewish and Christian ethics, in fact serve as an introduction to a large body of laws and rules for life. Most of these are laws of social, clan, and family law that regulate relationships between people at every level. It is quite natural to call this biblical ethics, because the conduct of a member of God’s people must be based on these rules. But what is unusual and uncharacteristic of other peoples and cultures is that “human ethics” is interwoven here with ethics toward God. These are not ritual instructions or lofty words about God, but precise instructions about how to relate to God. He is the first subject and object of these ethics. First, therefore, look at God’s faithfulness; then be faithful to God yourself; and then apply this faithfulness, for example, to your parents and your wife. First remember how God delivered your people from slavery, and then do not create this slavery and oppression yourself: do not kill, do not steal, and do not covet what belongs to another. Here religion becomes not merely the “ideological foundation” of ethics, but its key, source, and model.