NOTES for Exo 20:1-20
The modern reader usually perceives the Decalogue as a kind of moral code. In such a reading, the commandments become simply clauses in this code, listing actions prescribed or, more often, forbidden by God. Few people, when reading the Decalogue, reflect on why God attaches such importance to morality. The answer seems self-evident, and two main points are usually mentioned. First, it is held—not without reason—that keeping the commandments allows us to avoid harming our neighbor when we have dealings with them. In this case, however, people usually point to the second part of the Decalogue, which forbids murder, theft, slander, sexual immorality, and other things that are unquestionably immoral and often punishable by law. Its first part, especially the first four commandments, is not mentioned, because they are in no way connected with relations between people. They describe only the human relationship with God, which modern pagan society regards as everyone’s private affair, unrelated to the norms and values usually called “universal.” The commandments forbidding what is considered a violation of universal norms were indeed known to many peoples long before Moses. Yet it would still be an exaggeration to call them universal, because, unfortunately, far from all humanity followed them, while those who did usually appealed to higher powers that, as they believed, had sanctioned these norms. Second, people often speak of morality as valuable in itself, saying that it adorns and ennobles the human person, and so on. It is difficult to disagree: being a good person is undoubtedly better than being a bad one, although in our fallen world being good is not always advantageous. But through Moses, God explains the need to keep the commandments differently: they are necessary so that people do not lose the fear of God and do not sin (v. 20). The Bible contrasts not morality and immorality, but sin and righteousness—and also sin and holiness. Both ultimately describe and define a person’s relationship, first with God and second with other people. Immorality is terrible not because it is ugly and certainly does not become a person, and not even merely because it harms one’s neighbors, but above all because it leads a person into sin and destroys their relationship with God. Once that relationship has been destroyed, immorality becomes the norm and prevents its restoration: the vicious circle closes. The Decalogue is not simply a moral code, but a description of the path that leads to God, as well as of what prevents a person from following that path.