This is one of those commandments which most of us imagine that we’ve cracked. After all, murdering someone is an incredibly drastic act.  The problem is that Jesus widened the meaning of this commandment much further than we might imagine, and far enough to make all of us feel uncomfortable.  You can read that passage in Matthew 4:21–26.  Here, Jesus teaches that…

At the beginning of October we will be celebrating our Harvest Festival in both churches.  We’ve been plugging the date for a while now so I hope that we will have plenty of gifts (food and otherwise) to give away.  Giving is a sign that God has blessed us with enough to share; and that will be true of all us.  So…

Unlike commandment 8 which we looked at last week (don’t steal), adultery isn’t against the law.  There are consequences of course, there always are if we step outside God’s commands, but we don’t end up in prison.  So what’s the big deal?    Firstly, God is holy, and he wants his people to be holy too.  That means they should exhibit sexual…

As I’ve reflected further on this command over the last week, I’ve been struck by the amount of times when my wants, my opinions, my will being done leads to the wants, opinions and desires of others being neglected or ignored.  I wonder, might the spirit of the command, not to take for ourselves that which belongs to someone else, not apply…

On the face of it, this commandment seems very straightforward. Do not steal. Do not take things that belong to someone else. That’s theft, and theft, clearly, is wrong. Exodus chapter 22 says that stealing includes cattle rustling and burglary. Those are obvious enough. But that chapter also includes the damage done to crops and fields by someone else’s livestock, or by…