The Ten Commandments

Question:

About the “Thou shall not murder commandment” … sometimes I need to kill, for example, fleas. And the “You shall not commit adultery commandment” … I’m divorced, so I can’t have another husband if with the time it appears. But in general I have questions about all of them.

Comment:

I would highly recommend The Ten Commandments by Emmet Fox as an outstanding guide to approaching the commandments from a Unity/New Thought perspective. The basic point he makes is that a more spiritually accurate translation would be “You cannot” instead of “You shall not.” The intent of the commandments is not to impose rules from above, but to keep us in alignment with the flow of divine energy and the working out of divine law. Thus, for example, it isn’t “You shall not murder” but “You cannot murder.” Life is eternal; trying to end it is impossible under divine law, and the attempt just generates negative karmic energy in your own life. You cannot steal, because everything is an expression of God, so you’re only stealing from yourself. At this fairly early stage on our spiritual journey, we aren’t yet ready to understand the underlying spiritual truth; it is enough that we obey the commandments out of fear of negative consequences. As we move toward spiritual maturity, we learn to replace the fear with love. We obey the same commandments, but we do so out of an energy of love for God, for ourselves and for our neighbors. This, of course, is the very heart of the message of Jesus Christ. He made it clear that his teaching was not intended to replace the law, but rather to shift our understanding from fearfully obeying arbitrary rules to joyful cooperation with God as loving and creative Law.   With regard to the two issues you raise, a couple of points. The first is that Jesus helped us to see that it is not behavior alone but consciousness that is at issue with the commandments. Certainly animals have been “killed” for food, and even as sacrifice, long ago without any belief that it was a violation of the commandment. It is holding a murderous intention that removes us from the flow of divine Love. And adultery involved the violation of a sacred agreement; it was not necessarily concerned with the sex act per se. If, through your divorce, you are affirming that there is no longer a sacred agreement between the two people involved, then it is not adultery to make a new commitment.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed