God’s Image • Ten Commandments Study — Closing
We began with the words spoken in Exodus. Following them through Scripture brought us into questions of worship, identity, authority, rest, life, relationships, testimony, and desire.
The commandments repeatedly returned us to two questions:
Whom am I following?
Does the way I treat another reflect the love I claim to have?
Jesus brings these responsibilities together in Matthew 22:37–40: love for YHWH (יהוה) with the whole heart, soul, and mind, and love for our neighbor as ourselves. His answer draws upon Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 and places the Law and the Prophets in relation to these commands. Read Matthew 22:37–40.
Completing this study does not remove our responsibility to examine its contents. Your faith should not rest upon my words, a pastor’s words, or an institution’s claims. Take the passages to Scripture, and seek the Father’s understanding in Christ’s name.
1. No Other Gods: Preserve Whom We Are Following
We examined the difference between a name, a title, and authority entrusted to another. Being called god in a passage does not, by that word alone, establish that every bearer of the title is the Almighty.
First Corinthians 8:6 distinguishes the Father, from whom all things are, and Jesus Christ, through whom all things are. Jesus also identifies the Father as his God. These statements must remain part of our understanding rather than disappear beneath a formulation we already accept. Read 1 Corinthians 8:5–6 and John 20:17.
Our study has emphasized putting the Father first while honoring the Son whom He sent. The Father draws people to Jesus; Jesus reveals the Father. Recognizing these relationships helps us examine whose authority is being represented. Read John 6:44–45 and Matthew 11:27.
2. Images and Worship: Examine What Receives Our Allegiance
Our examination extended beyond a carved object to anything we allow to displace faithfulness to YHWH (יהוה): a person, an establishment, a cherished image, a desire, or our own standing.
An object’s religious appearance does not settle how it is being used. Nor does an institution’s name establish that every practice within it faithfully represents the One it claims to serve.
The False Christs study brought the same responsibility into our understanding of Jesus. Paul warns about another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. Familiar religious language must still be examined. Read Exodus 20:4–6 and 2 Corinthians 11:3–4.
3. The Name: Representation Carries Responsibility
We preserved YHWH (יהוה) alongside the distinction between the One sending and the one sent.
Exodus 23 describes the divine name being in the angel sent ahead of the people. John describes the Father setting His seal upon Jesus. These passages require attention to commission, voice, obedience, and entrusted authority. Read Exodus 23:20–22 and John 6:27–29.
Speaking in that name is not permission to attach divine authority to our own desires. Jeremiah’s warnings concerning people speaking without being sent remain relevant to every claim to represent YHWH (יהוה). Read Jeremiah 23:21–32.
4. Sabbath: Hearing, Entering, and Keeping Holy
The Sabbath examination began with the seventh day and followed the passages into rest, provision, release, faith, and obedience.
Hebrews brings the question into the present response of the hearer. Hearing the message and entering rest are not automatically the same. The warning against hardening the heart remains beside the promise. Read Genesis 2:1–3 and Hebrews 4:1–11.
Our examination therefore reached beyond a dispute over calendar days: am I responding faithfully to the voice I claim to follow?
5. Father and Mother: Recognize Life, Instruction, and Care
We followed the command through teaching, nourishment, honor, and the promise of life. Our comparisons also examined spiritual parenthood: Jerusalem above described as mother, children of promise, and the relationships developed in the Bridegroom and Bride study. Read Proverbs 6:20–23 and Galatians 4:26–31.
Within those comparisons, Father and Mother concerned life-giving and nurturing roles, rather than reducing every reference to human biology.
Unity must preserve the relationships being described. Head, Bride, body, children, friend, and invited guests should each receive careful attention before their descriptions are treated as interchangeable.
6. Do Not Murder: Examine Hatred and Its Fruit
The examination did not stop with physical killing. First John connects hatred of a brother with murder and contrasts remaining in death with love. Read 1 John 3:14–18.
That brought persecution, exclusion, and treatment of another into view. We also considered the responsibility of witnesses: seeing harm and choosing how to respond.
The Samaritan account asks us to consider the difference between seeing suffering and showing mercy. Stephen’s death exposes the further seriousness of approving violence against another. Read Luke 10:30–37 and Acts 7:54–8:1.
7. Do Not Commit Adultery: Examine Our Allegiance
We followed the marriage language into faithfulness, joining, and spiritual unfaithfulness. James uses adultery language concerning friendship with the world. Paul distinguishes joining a prostitute from being joined to the Lord. Read James 4:4 and 1 Corinthians 6:15–20.
The Babylon study expanded this examination through her claims, clothing, influence, commerce, and treatment of human lives.
The question is not merely what relationship we profess. To what are we joining ourselves, and whose purposes are we serving?
8. Do Not Steal: Access Does Not Establish Ownership
Stealing led us beyond possessions into words, stewardship, testimony, authority, and Glory.
Jeremiah explicitly speaks of prophets stealing words from one another. Entrusted responsibility must also be distinguished from ownership: a steward’s access does not make the master’s possessions their own. Read Jeremiah 23:30 and Luke 16:1–12.
Our recurring questions were: Who is the source? What was given? Who received it? Who is now claiming the credit or authority?
9. Do Not Bear False Witness: Preserve What Was Actually Said and Done
A small alteration can change an account’s direction. Jesus’ statement about raising the sanctuary of his body became an accusation that he would destroy the sanctuary. Changing the actor changed the charge. Read John 2:19–22 and Mark 14:55–59.
Reproof and rebuke require truthful examination. Disagreement does not establish that someone opposes YHWH (יהוה), and an institutional label does not prove an accusation.
Proverbs warns against answering before hearing and reminds us that the first account can seem right until it is examined. Read Proverbs 18:13, 17.
The Partiality study belongs here as well. Favoring our own group must not determine whose testimony we hear or whose mistreatment we excuse. Read James 2:1–9.
10. Do Not Covet: Desire Does Not Confer a Right
The final commandment required us to examine what we want before defending it as something we deserve.
We followed desire into taking, displacement, and harm. We also asked whether we had claimed a role or relationship because we had been taught to desire it.
The Torn Curtain study helped distinguish tearing, covering, recognition, and approach. Hebrews describes access through Christ while retaining his priestly role. Ephesians describes accomplished work in Christ alongside the household still growing and being built together. These details must remain visible. Read Hebrews 10:19–25 and Ephesians 2:14–22.
Receiving a benefit does not mean possessing every role involved in providing it.
Preserve the Person, the Burden, and the Action
Across these studies, another distinction repeatedly mattered:
The source, the vessel, the bearer, and the burden are not automatically the same.
The scapegoat bears iniquities placed upon it. Romans 7 distinguishes the desire to do good from sin dwelling within. These different accounts caution us to examine responsibility rather than simply assign guilt through association. Read Leviticus 16:20–22 and Romans 7:15–25.
Likewise, someone may inherit a mistaken teaching without originating its deception. Recognizing that calls for patience. Recognizing a mistake also brings responsibility for how we respond to correction.
We must discern what is practiced while remaining careful about whom we condemn.
Do Not Place Your Faith in This Study
The Bereans received what they heard eagerly and examined the Scriptures daily to determine whether it was so. Eagerness and examination worked together. Read Acts 17:11.
Please apply that same examination here.
A familiar belief should not be accepted merely because it is familiar. An unfamiliar connection should not be rejected merely because it is uncomfortable. Neither should it be accepted merely because it is new or compelling.
Ask what the passage states, who is speaking, who is acting, what precedes the statement, and what follows it. Compare the passages while preserving their details. Where this study follows a shadow or develops a comparison, examine the connection rather than treating its repetition as proof.
Take It to the Father
“Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart,
And lean not upon thine own understanding:
In all thy ways acknowledge him,
And he will direct thy paths.”
— Proverbs 3:5–6, ASV
The passage directs trust toward YHWH (יהוה). It does not invite us to replace our own unchecked understanding with someone else’s unchecked understanding.
Jesus directs requests to the Father in his name. Preserve the One approached and the one through whom we approach. Read John 16:23–27.
An inward conviction must also be examined. First John instructs readers to test the spirits rather than believe every spirit. Seeking direction and testing what we receive belong together. Read 1 John 4:1–6.
Let the Word Examine Our Hearts
Hebrews 4:11 calls for diligence in entering rest and warns against disobedience. Verse 12 describes the word as living and active, discerning the heart’s thoughts and intentions. Read Hebrews 4:11–12.
Our examination cannot always be directed outward. We must allow the word to question our own motives:
Am I seeking understanding, or seeking support for a conclusion I refuse to reconsider?
Does discomfort make me stop examining?
Am I protecting truth, or protecting my place within a group?
If I witnessed injustice, have I excused it because acknowledging it would require a difficult response?
Have I accepted a claim because someone speaks confidently, or because I have carefully examined it?
Human imperfection does not make harm unimportant. Correction should lead us toward truth, repentance, and care for those affected.
Knowing in Part Calls for Humility
First Corinthians 13:12 describes present understanding as partial and present sight as dim, contrasting it with fuller recognition. That should make us thoughtful about the limits of what we presently understand. Read 1 Corinthians 13:9–12.
An open heart is willing to examine. It does not have to agree with every claim, but it need not fear a careful reading of Scripture.
The same chapter makes love essential to speech, knowledge, faith, and sacrifice. Our confidence cannot make love optional. Read 1 Corinthians 13:1–7.
What Will We Do with What We Have Read?
The purpose of this study is not to gather agreement around a person. It is to bring the passages into view so that we can examine our allegiance, understanding, conduct, and desires before YHWH (יהוה).
Two questions remain:
Have I accepted this because someone said it—or have I examined the Scriptures and taken it to the Father for understanding, willing to be corrected?
Have I been taught to desire something—and am I unwilling to let it go even after learning that it is not mine to keep?
This closes the Ten Commandments Study. It does not close the Scriptures or end our responsibility to listen, examine, love, and obey.
Threads to Follow
Revisit the passages: Use the Bible Books pages to locate individual studies and their related examinations.
Life and transformation: Return to the Born Again Study and God’s Image Study.
Relationships and roles: Revisit the Bridegroom and Bride Study.
Continued correction: Bring further understanding back to the passages. Every study remains open to careful examination.
The books were opened…
🌿Studies by Maria Emilia ~ 🗺️Continue exploring: Visit Bible Books to find studies organized by book of the Bible, along with related studies and links.
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