St. John Studies

When I began this series about the Ten Commandments on October 14, 2021, I did not envision how involved the discussions would be.  I knew that John R. W. Stott felt that the Commandments were important enough to include them in his book Basic Christianity.  I knew I could not just gloss over them.  However, since I have discussed commandment one through eight, I have been amazed at the complex feelings that people have regarding God’s standards for Christian living.  I guess I am naïve. In each post I have put on “St. John Studies,” I have encountered endless interpretations of each standard.

My wife has teased me over the years about my “obsessive compulsive” nature but like all jokes or teases, there is an element of truth to her comments.  I tend to be “all in” or “all out” on many aspects of life.  I go “overboard” on gardening or I don’t garden at all.  I like a particular sport a lot and become too interested in it or I won’t allow myself to have anything to do with it.  I exercise to the max or I sit on the couch to the max.  There is no middle ground.

My obsession compulsion reminds me of how Christians seems to approach The Commandments.  Stott is very strict in his interpretation of the Ninth Commandment; carefully attend to his words.  Not bearing  false witness against your neighbor includes  “the lawcourts. It does include perjury.  But it also includes all forms of scandal, slander, idle talk and tittle-tattle, all lies and deliberate exaggerations or distortions of the truth.  We can bear false witness by listening to unkind rumors as well as by passing them on, by making jokes at somebody’s expense, by creating false impressions, by not correcting untrue statements, and by silence as well as by our speech.”

Needless to say, on the Ninth Commandment Stott is “all in.”

Then we have Christians like John Killinger who seems to go the opposite direction.  “The Ten Commandments … do not stand alone as a great implacable law code suddenly delivered out of the blue for all mankind, becoming thus the inflexible standard and inevitable judge to condemn every man who doesn’t fulfill them….the commandments came as a necessity to an almost haplessly disorganized and undisciplined people trying to make a go of it in a wild, nomadic situation.  In this sense, the commandments were an act of grace on God’s part, not of sullen legalism!” [Killinger, 90].*

So what is it?  

“All in” or “all out”…

“Sins of the tongue” seem to be so common today.  When I hear the phrase “bear false witness,” I immediately think of lying and certainly lying has become commonplace in society today.  My wife and I watch crime documentaries and when an alleged criminal is caught, they explain their position regarding the act that some think they have committed.  I am always bemused that their version is different from other versions.  Someone has been killed, raped, assaulted or robbed.  Who did it?  It seems that no one did the act with any malice whatsoever or literally no one will take the blame for anything.  Yet we have a victim; something happened!  Then you throw in slander which for many has become a sport, as people try to figure how they can impugn the good name of another.  Harsh words are also included as well as insults and ridicule.  Pastor Jerry Bridges** says that we lump bearing false witness into the bucket with “any speech that tends to tear down another person”.

Stott seems to think that the first five commandments are all about how the Chosen People were to approach their Holy God.  The last five commandments are about how man is supposed to respect other men.  His contention is if you cannot respect other people, you certainly cannot love them. 

That is a good point.

The problem with this commandment is that “sins of the tongue” are so common and so many of us break the commandment as it expands to whispering about others, tale bearing, backbiting, slandering, gossip, insinuations and evil suggestions.  When confronted by the broadened definition of “bearing false witness” we may all find it hard to be sinless.

We find ourselves condemning ourselves and others frequently if we are “all in.”  We excuse ourselves and others if we say that this commandment is not relevant anymore.   We are “all out.”  Maybe today it is the “wild wild west” of the sins of the tongue.  Maybe this Ninth Commandment is outdated!

Why did God give Moses a commandment that was so hard to enforce in the first place?  First of all, God’s people were to reflect God’s character.  It says in Numbers 23: 19 that “God is not man, that He should lie, nor a Son of man, that He should change His mind.  Does He not speak and then not act?  Does He promise and then not fulfill?”  The people who were called God’s people needed to be His representatives in a heathen world.  Lying brought reproach to the Holy Name of God and God could not tolerate that.  Secondly, bearing false witness against other men was very destructive to the victims of the lie.  A victim suffered a loss of credibility and a blow to their reputation and possibly loss of trade and business.   Leviticus 19:18 makes the point clearly in the words “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”  Thirdly, bearing false witness is harmful to an orderly society.  In courts of law, witnesses would be called in ancient days like they are today.  They should be trusted to tell the truth.  Eyewitness testimony from reliable truthful witnesses is necessary to avoid the breakdown of law and order. “When this happens, chaos ensues and the innocent suffer.”***

Now that we know why Commandment Nine was given, we may have an appreciation of the need for the commandment but it does not make it any easier to parse.  When I am passing along information from a friend to another friend and I stray off into criticism or inaccuracy, am I bearing false witness!  Some say yes and some say no [give yourself a break].  When I comment on the behavior of a famous person [someone I really do not know] am I bearing false witness!  Some say yes and some say no [again, give yourself a break].   When I am stuck in the grocery line and I engage in idle talk about another just to kill time, John Stott writes that I am is bearing false witness!  Some say he is right and some say this man is too legalistic. 

Maybe, just maybe the way around all this complexity is to focus on lying. Some say that lying is not advocated anywhere in the Bible but some point to the Hebrew midwives who lied to Pharaoh when they were supposed to kill Israelite newborns [they were blessed] and Rehab’s lie to protect the Israelite spies [this certainly helped the Israelites].  Others think of instances when a lie is a small evil compared to some great evil that will be committed if the lie is not told.****

I guess it is best to admit that control of the tongue is a constant battle and maybe the best guidance for any human is to turn to the man who sinned big and repented big.  His life and words put a very human touch on the Bible as we watch him be “a man after God’s own heart”.  His simple prayer is possibly our only hope:  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer” [Psalm 19: 14].

*John Killinger  For God’s Sake Be Human

**Jerry Bridges Respectable Sins

***Information accessed from the gotquestions.org website “Commandment Nine”

****e.g. Corrie Ten Boom who lied to keep Nazis from capturing Jews she was trying to protect in WWII.

As I have discussed commandments one through seven, I have been amazed at how strictly they have been interpreted.  Let me refer to two recent posts as examples:  thou shalt not kill includes not only murder, but also the expression of “cutting words” which one can say about another, being angry with someone without cause, hating your brother, losing your temper, uncontrolled passion, sullen rage, bitter resentment and desire for revenge are considered killing.  You can kill by neglect.  You can feel spite and jealousy and “kill” another.  Committing adultery is not only sexual activity outside marriage but also flirting, sexual experimenting of any kind, self-satisfying sex [masturbation I assume] , perverted heterosexual sex, selfish sex practices within a marriage, and even divorce.

So do we have the same strict interpretation “for thou shalt not steal?”

Yes we do.

I have always considered the eighth commandment to just be about taking the property of another.  Certainly that is clearly within the commandment but like other commandments, it goes much further.  When one considers how the commandment is interpreted, it turns out that many of us may have committed the act of stealing. 

According to John Stott,* tax evasion is robbery.  Many try to avoid customs charges when bringing products into the country [also considered by him as“robbery”].  Working less at work when you could be giving your employer one hundred percent is stealing.  Conversely, when you have employees and you underpay them, that is theft.  Stott writes what “the world calls scrounging God calls stealing” [68].    As I have described comments on commandment six and commandment seven as “strict”, Stott describes them as “negative.”  “These negative commandments [six and seven] also imply a positive counterpart.  In order to truly abstain from killing, one must do all in one’s power to foster the health and preserve the life of others.  To refrain from adultery is insufficient…the commandment requires the right healthy and honorable attitude of each sex toward the other” [Stott, 68].

To not steal from another is one of those commandments that has a positive counterpart.  We should do all that we can to foster a feeling that we are living in a stable society and that includes respecting the property of others.  I have seen recent coverage of “smash and grab” robberies in some locations in the United States.  When I see CCTV footage of a robbery mob entering a jewelry store and quickly stripping the store of expensive valuables, I am shocked by the act itself, but mostly I am shocked by the idea that fifteen or twenty people would find it acceptable to steal all at the same time.  I like to think that stealing from someone is a rare act that is done by one person who is suffering some mental weakness or some dire financial emergency, not a large number of people stealing all at once.  This kind of thievery makes me wonder about the stability of our society.  When do people begin to justify their thievery as ok?

This may support the idea that some have that the Ten Commandments are outdated; that they are part of the Old Covenant, but if you have ever had anything stolen from you, you know the feeling of being a victim is very real.  I have had something stolen from me and I hated the idea of feeling vulnerable.  The more precious the item is, the more it hurts.  You may want revenge.  You don’t feel safe anymore when someone invades your property and takes possessions. 

Jesus referred to this commandment when He was conversing with the rich young ruler in Matthew so that makes me think the commandment was not just of the “Old Covenant.”   He referred to commandment eight directly in Matthew 19: 18.  One might recall that the rich young ruler’s problem with following Jesus was accumulating so much wealth that he could not let go of it and become a true follower.   The fact that Jesus spoke this commandment means it is not in the category of ceremonial and sacrificial laws of the Old Testament which were given to Israel.  This commandment is meant to apply to all men in all ages.  We should respect the possessions of others but we also should not let our possessions possess us [another message for another post].

The apostle Paul, when discussing God’s commandments, sums up the entire law in the same way as our Lord Jesus did, with “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31; Romans 13:9). And, again like Jesus, he states that this is the fulfilment of the “Law” (Matthew 22:39-40). So, we know from such instructions that “Do not steal,” as with all of the Ten Commandments, is about “loving one another” (John 13:34-35).  The Apostle Paul went so far as to say that abstaining from thievery was not enough; Paul felt that people should start working.  Stott writes that Paul’s attitude could be summed up as “[man] should continue in honest labor until he found himself in a position to give to those in need” [68].

There was a time in my life when I was never worried about tithing.  Akin to the rich young ruler, I was blessed with material possessions and a nice paycheck.  I did not even attend church.  Then my life changed when I realized that a relationship with God is what I needed.  The problem is that I still did not understand tithing.  I became a member of a church but I could not part with some of my riches that I truly owed to God.  I did not understand that everything that I had was a gift from God.  When we withhold our time, talent, possessions and finances from God we are really withholding the things that are rightly His.  In essence we are stealing from Him.  Then I made up my mind that I needed to begin giving to my church.  I began to tithe and I discovered something.  I discovered that I could give a portion of my wealth to God and still have plenty to live on.  In fact, I found that He blessed me with more than I ever expected.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it’” [Malachi 3:8-10].

Stott defines commandment eight as “to steal is to rob a person of anything which belongs to him or is due to him.”

One day we will be judged by God and expected to give an account of what we did with the gifts God has so generously bestowed on us. 

None of us want to be judged by God as lacking. 

As He has so generously given to us, we should give back to Him.**

*from his book Basic Christianity

**supplemental material for this post comes from the “gotquestions.org” website on commandment eight.

“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” [Matthew 5: 27-28].

November 1976, Playboy Magazine, interview with presidential candidate Jimmy Carter:

“I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”

Playboy rushed this issue to the newsstands one month early and when people opened the pages, these words became headline news in that 1976 world.

I open with this historical episode to introduce the Seventh Commandment which says “You shall not commit adultery” [Exodus 20: 14].  Moses gave this law to the Israelites with no explanation, which could possibly mean that they understood what it meant at that time.

Times have changed…

Just as I wrote in comments on Commandment Six regarding “Thou shall not kill,” this commandment is also much more complex today than in Old Testament times.  Polygamy was allowed by God in the Old Testament, but never endorsed by God [for example, King Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines].   Some people practice polygamy today with the justification that added spouses are legally included in the marriage [ e.g. fundamentalist groups of Latter Day Saints].  Divorce has muddied the waters today, with adultery outside of marriage prohibited but divorce and remarriage is legal.   Jesus is very clear in Luke 16:18 that “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.”  The marriage bond is supposed to last a lifetime, so modern divorce does not really release one from the responsibility to be faithful to the original spouse.

And then we have Matthew 5:27-28.

I know I am dating myself but when Carter came out with his statement in 1976, many did not know what he meant.  I find it interesting that he never tried to “clean up” his comments, “walk them back” or retract them.  He just let them stand as they were.  But what did he mean when he said “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust?”

For many, the Seventh Commandment seems to rest on that word. 

John Stott in his book Basic Christianity has very strict boundaries for sexuality.  Avoid situations where lust can occur.  [Adultery] “includes any sort of sex outside the marriage relationship for which it was designed.  It includes flirting, experimenting, and solitary sexual experience.  It also includes sexual perversions, for although men and women are not responsible for a perverted instinct, they are for its indulgence.  It includes selfish demands within wedlock, and many, if not all divorces.  It includes the deliberated reading of pornographic literature and giving into impure fantasies” [Stott, 67-68].

It seems to me that President Carter may be in trouble in  John Stott’s view.

Maybe many of us are…

Today in our much more sexualized world, temptation seems to be everywhere.  It is so easy to find temptation within easy reach [a pick on a streaming movie service, a video on a computer screen].  Literally I could quit writing this blog and see pornographic material in seconds.   Considering Stott’s very strict advice above, it is hard to avoid sexual material altogether, so what are we supposed to do?

The Bible acknowledges the pleasure of sex in the sexiest book of the Old Testament, Song of Solomon.  So let’s not say that we should avoid sex altogether.  One can turn to many places in that book and see evidence that God does not hate sex between a man and a woman; after all, He created sex. Before we take Stott’s words totally to heart and say that all sex is bad, we should address God’s feelings toward human sexuality further.  Some feel that the author of Song of Solomon* is expressing God’s love for the Israelite people or that the book is an expression of God’s love for people in general.  Others take it for what it is: the poems celebrate desire, physical beauty, depict sexual scenes, and talk about the glory of sex.  In short, it is sex from a Holy point of view.  It is not lust.

How can we have that point of view?

The answer is to confine sexual activity within a marriage.

Even though sexual temptations in this world abound, it is worthwhile to fight them.  Sex within the boundaries of marriage can be joyful, desirable and downright pleasurable if the element of guilt is removed.  Individuals with open sex lives are aware of the serious jeopardy that can occur: “Lust not after her (a loose women) neither let her capture you with her eyelids…Can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” [Proverbs 6: 25, 27].  This is only one of many times when the Bible warns us about sex that goes out of bounds.

But why is God so intent on encouraging joyful sex within a marriage?

God has a vested interest in promoting the institution of marriage.  It is a building block of His creation and His society.  One can turn to Genesis and see that God made man and woman to complement one another.   Marriage is the vehicle to preserve the human race.  It is obvious that all the admonitions against adultery center on the sacred nature of marriage.

Another reason for the sacred nature of sex within marriage can be found in the attitude that God had toward the Israelites.  These chosen people were to be God’s holy examples.  God did not want His people to copy the adulterous practices of every culture that the Israelites encountered.  It is true that in the lands where the Israelites lived, sexual practices were not confined to marriage. 

Now let’s be reasonable.  With the nature or men and women, is it highly probable that we will win all the battles for sexual temptation all the time?

The answer is no.

Maybe that is what Jimmy Carter was admitting when he said he looked on a lot of women with lust.  I am sure that Rosalynn Carter was not pleased to hear that her husband committed adultery in his heart.  Maybe he was admitting that it is hard to keep watch over his eyes and other senses.  Maybe he was saying it is hard to have self-control.  Being a public figure, maybe he was admitting that he found himself with people who had very different attitudes toward sexuality and it was hard to always push them away. 

I am sure that his controversial interview in 1976 shocked many self-righteous people.  After all, Carter has been a Sunday school teacher in his Baptist Church for many years [he certainly was in 1976].  

But maybe it was a breath of fresh air for many, an honesty that many people probably need to admit.  Matthew 5: 27-28 is a high bar for anyone to reach and if many would make a totally honest admission, it is hard to reach that standard one hundred percent of the time. It is hard to be a “perfect” Christian and maybe Carter was trying to say I try to be perfect but I am not perfect all the time.  Too often Christians get so caught up in the façade of perfection and they never let people see who they are, warts and all.

And Christians do have warts…

Carter knows that he is washed in the blood of Christ and by admitting to shortcomings he was not saying that I am unrepentant.  Unrepentant adultery is the sin that can drag one down permanently.  Any sin that a Christian commits can be forgiven when a Christian repents.  Sexual temptation is all around us in this world today and to fight it is to be in constant combat.  No soldier wins every battle every time.

I once had a wise man tell me this about sexual temptation.  “Sexual temptation will occur and the human response is inevitable.  The key is to think of these instances as birds flying over your head.  Just because a bird flies over your head don’t despair.  Despair comes when you invite the bird to nest on top of your head and he decides to take up permanent residence.”

*Most theologians do not attribute an author to this book.

September 16, 2021 is when I began commenting on Chapter Five of John Stott’s book Basic Christianity.  The Chapter concerns itself with the “Fact and Nature of Sin” and several pages are devoted to the Ten Commandments.  As I have navigated through the first five commandments [described by some as laws about how we are supposed to approach God], we are now in the part of the commandments where we were given laws about how to live with other human beings.

Commandment number six seems very straightforward: “You shall not kill.”

What could be simpler than that?  If you kill, you break God’s law.  If you do not, you are ok with that law.

I would caution anyone to assume that any commandment is really that simple.  Killing is a very complex act.  Google “thou shall not kill” and you can see the complexity very quickly:  Is thou shall not kill the same as thou shall not murder?  God kills so much in the Bible; does that mean that He is breaking His own commandment?  Why does God refer to capital punishment in Genesis 9: 6; is it ok to kill in this circumstance?  What about soldiers who go into war?  The government asks them to kill.  Is that ok?  Is it wrong to kill spiders?  What about bugs and snakes?  And then the most complex, divisive issue in the world today:  Is abortion killing?  If it is, that breaks the sixth commandment doesn’t it?  I have just exposed the “tip of the iceberg;” the topic of killing is discussed ad nauseam in this world today.

Then I turn to Stott’s comments on killing.  He brings up the subject of looking at people as if you want to kill them.  Murder can be committed with “cutting words” alone.  Jesus says that to be angry with someone without cause is just as serious as killing.  The Disciple John states “Any one who hates his brother is a murderer”.  Temper, uncontrolled passion, sullen rage, bitter resentment and desire for revenge can be considered murder.  You can kill with “malicious gossip.”  You can kill by neglect and cruelty.  Spite and jealousy can kill.

Wow, I always thought the sixth commandment merely meant the unjustified taking of human life. 

It is obviously so much more.  To begin, I have used both words “kill” and “murder” in the writing above.  That is complicated in itself, for some Bible translations refer to the commandment as “thou shalt not kill” and other refer to it as “thou shalt not murder.”  For many, killing is a physical act but murder is a physical act reflective of one’s heart toward another.

Why do we murder one another?  In the beginning, God created us to live in harmony with one another; after all, we were created in God’s image.  After going beyond the first two chapter of Genesis, we see that sin enters the picture and then people found themselves capable of acting violently against one another.  Of course Cain killed his brother Abel.    Cain, the firstborn, was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. Both brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel’s sacrifice instead of Cain’s. Cain then murdered Abel out of jealousy, whereupon God punished Cain by condemning him to a life of wandering.  From the start of murder in Genesis 4: 8, taking the life of another has been commonplace.  

How does this fit in with a Christian worldview that advocates that every human life is valuable?  It does not fit.  That’s why God introduced the sixth commandment, to seek to curb man’s appetite to murder others.  Without something, man’s sinful nature could run rampant and murder could become too prevalent.  First John 3: 4 states “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”  I harken back to my post on October 20^th where I discuss “guardrails” which protect us from danger as we drive down the road.  God’s commandments can be seen as guardrails.  Commandment number six keeps us from eradicating humanity [although there have been numerous examples of efforts at mass killing e.g. Nazi Germany, Mao Zedong’s Regime in China and Stalin’s Communist Regime in Russia]. 

If mankind is conflicted on the topic of killing, the Bible seems to be also.  Paul talks about the right of the government to take the lives of evil people in some versions of Romans 13: 1-7.  Matthew 5: 21 says “You have heard what was said to people who lived long ago. They were told, ‘Do not commit murder’.  Anyone who murders will be judged for it.”  Scripture is full of instances when God endorses the taking of other’s lives [see 1 Samuel 11 and Judges 6-7].  The unintentional killing of another is also addressed in Scripture as manslaughter.  Unintentional killers can flee to refuge cities where they can escape punishment [see Exodus 21: 13].  

Premeditation seems to be the key regarding the taking of another’s life.  Premeditation does not line up with God’s will.  Murder stems from a hatred for another, a deep hatred.  When we harbor hatred in our hearts, that is a grievous sin.  As Christians we know that unjustified killing of another human is not right and will result in extremely negative consequences on Judgement Day.

One can turn to news of the day and see obvious examples of people who commit murder.  Today is November 25, 2021 and Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted for taking the life of two people on November 19.  The Ahmaud Arbery trial verdict occurred yesterday, the young man was killed by men who claimed self-defense.  The jury convicted the perpetrator and two others riding in his vehicle.  Those are just the instances that make it into the news.  Many examples of killing don’t get national coverage, yet people die anyway and when it occurs, it is never simple: If you kill, you break God’s law.  If you do not, you are ok with that law.

Extenuating circumstances always come into play, but as I have watched countless crime documentaries with my wife and I hear the conflicting versions of the act of killing, I often ask myself what is true?  I consider the power of God and His all-knowing nature. 

In closing, think about these words from First Samuel 16:7:  “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God knows the truth…

From David and Susan Carter to anyone who happens on to St. John Studies…

Have a Happy Thanksgiving…

It is a holiday but it is also a day when I post. I will be commenting on commandment six of the Ten Commandments.

Later…

Enjoy the day…

John Stott* states that the Fifth Commandment is categorized as one of the commandments that concerns our duty to God [the first five].  Some people may wonder about that since “Honor Your Father and Mother” seems to be about our parents and not really about God.  However he writes that “while we are children [our parents] stand toward us in loco Dei,” meaning in the place of God.  In essence, they represent God’s authority; therefore honoring parents is akin to honoring God.

He further comments that young people may find it “easy to be ungrateful and neglectful, and fail to show their parents due respect and affection.  In their own homes, people (young people especially) are at their most selfish and inconsiderate” [Stott, 67].

My teenage years were stormy, for my parents and I clashed over my efforts to have a serious relationship with my girlfriend, my clothing and very long hair and my attitude toward the Vietnam War.  My son’s teenage years were also stormy as we clashed over his need to have freedom to party, his inability to keep his room fit for human habitation and his obsession with his cool car and his fashionable clothes.  Despite all the battles we had, my wife and I tried to remain firm in asking him to respect us as parents.  We realized that his behavior was partly due to changes in his physical makeup [i.e. hormones] and also to his desire for independence before he really had any idea about what “independent” truly meant. 

Strain in the home between parents and children is a common story, yet we have that Fifth Commandment requiring children to “honor” their parents.  This idea occurs many other places in the Bible: in Ephesians it says “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” [6: 1].   Proverbs 1:8, 13:1 and 30:17 are all verses which urge children to respect their parents.  Colossians 3: 20 says “Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

So what does it mean to “honor” your parents?  How do we “honor” them?  What if our parents are “ungodly;” do we still honor them?  Is there ever a time when we outgrow honoring our parents?

First of all what does honor mean?  To honor means to be respectful in word and action to the position of parenthood.  The “position” deserves honor even though children may disagree with their parents.  The Greek word for honor means “to revere, prize and value.”  Honor has more to do woth attitude than anything else.  A child may not like a parent’s decision but they still should obey out of respect for the parental role.  Jesus submitted Himself to His earthly parents: “Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart” [Luke 2: 51].  He also submitted Himself to His heavenly Father in the Garden at Gethsemane: “Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will’” [Matthew 26: 39]. 

How are we supposed to honor our parents?  We do this with our actions and our attitudes.  Lip service is not enough.  Grudging obedience is not enough.  If a parent expresses their wishes and those wishes are within the bounds of reasonable parental requests, children should obey. For the young child, obeying parents goes along with honoring them since young children are hardly ready to make life decisions on their own.  Honoring in this context means listening to parents, heeding their advice and submitting to their authority.  In Matthew 15: 3-9 Jesus reminded the Pharisees that God says to obey fathers and mothers.  The Fifth Commandment is part of “the Law” but the Pharisees were adding in their own traditions which essentially overruled the Fifth Commandment.  “He  answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?’ For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’  But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, He need not honor his Father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.  You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”  Certainly Jesus knew that honoring meant honor with word and attitude.  The child who does not honor their parents with his or her heart does not honor them in a sincere manner.

Are there any circumstances when a child should not obey their parents?  The answer is yes.  Ezekiel 20: 18-19 states “I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not follow the statutes of your parents or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols.  I am the Lord your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”  Parents are human and they may make bad decisions and children can be led astray.  Parents have a responsibility to instruct their children in the ways of God.  Ephesians 6: 4 states “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”  Even poor decisions can be forgiven as every parent in every situation cannot be right one hundred percent of the time.  Younger children should obey their parents even if the request is faulty.  But if a parental request goes against God’s law and a child [or especially a young person] knows that, following God law overrides following parents [see Acts 5: 29]. 

When does honoring parents change?  Do we ever outgrow honoring our parents?  As children grow up and move out of the house, they can show honor and respect by keeping in touch with their parents when at all possible. As parents age, their needs may increase. Adult children should stay aware of those needs and try to help meet those needs as a way of showing honor.  Parents who may not be the best deserve respect because they brought the child into the world and Christians feel that God can use anyone to accomplish His good plan [that includes parents of course].  Godly people are also supposed to show respect for all people and that includes parents.   As adults we are not bound to obey our parents every request but we can still respect them.

Truly honoring our parents is not an “easy” commandment.  I know it is not always fun and at times, it requires God’s strength to submit to parents [especially if a child is strong-willed].  However, the commandment is practical in that people who obey it can be more prepared to be good citizens.  As they mature, they have less trouble obeying governmental authorities, law enforcement authorities and employers.  Not only are they pleasing God, but they may have an easier time functioning in the world. 

I end with the idea that the Fifth Commandment is the only commandment that has promises associated with it.  “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.   ‘Honor your father and mother—which is the first commandment with a promise— so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’” [Ephesians 6: 1-3].

Certainly at times home life can be stormy but there is benefit to honoring one’s father and mother: we can gain wisdom, we can learn to respect authority, we can live a life much more at ease which can lead to longevity but most of all, as we can obey our parents we please our Lord.**

*From his book Basic Christianity

**Supplemental material for this post came from research from Gotquestions.org material related to the Fifth Commandment.

“Sunday is a ‘holy’ day, set apart for God.  It is the Lord’s day, not our day.  It is therefore to be spent in His way, not in ours, for His worship and service and not just for our selfish pleasure.”  John R. W. Stott, from his book Basic Christianity

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Commandment Number Four…

Before I began this post, I did not know Stott would have the words “not just for our selfish pleasure” in his comments about the Sabbath and the fourth commandment, and that those words elicit a response from me.  You see, for many years I looked at Sunday Christian Sabbath as a day entirely for my selfish pleasure.  

I disregarded the fourth commandment almost completely.

I grew up in a Christian home which meant that one day a week was set aside for church attendance.  The day that was set aside at my church was Sunday.  Many Christians on Sunday go to church to praise God through song, pastoral preaching and scripture study.

Stott writes “To set one day in seven apart is not just a human arrangement or a social convenience.  It is God’s plan” [66].  This fourth commandment is in the first half of The Ten Commandments which concerns our duty toward God.

In the Old Testament, God made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that are in them and He rested on the seventh day.  He blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.  It was His day.  He forbade people to work on the Sabbath and the penalty for desecrating the Sabbath was death [Exodus 31: 14].  It is notable that this commandment begins with the word “remember.”  This is the only commandment that begins with that word, possibly because the Sabbath was mentioned earlier in the Bible before Moses gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments.  The sanctity of the Sabbath was spelled out by Moses in Exodus 16:  “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord’” followed by specific instructions to not do any work on the Sabbath.  The commandment follows with the other nine in two later places, Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21. 

The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word “day of rest.”  The Israelites felt this day of rest began on the seventh day, sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.  The pattern for this day of rest is based on God’s cessation from the work of creation in Genesis 2: 2. 

Another aspect of the command that is unique are the words “to keep it holy.”  Those words mean to consecrate, to set the day apart, or to sanctify.  For the Israelites the seventh day was distinctive from the other days of the week.  Keeping it holy was a sign of the covenant between Israel and the Lord.  Exodus 31:13 says “You must observe my Sabbaths.  This will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come.”

Most of my comments on the Sabbath to this point have been about the day and its importance for Israel, but I was raised in a Christian home and I went to a church that was under the New Covenant.

Are there any hard and fast rules regarding the Sabbath for Christians?  Traditionally Christians have held most worship services on Sunday, the first day of the week in celebration of Christ’s resurrection [which occurred on Sunday, see Matthew, 28: 1; Mark 16: 2; Luke 24: 1 and John 20: 1].  However it is important to understand that unlike the Jewish people, Christians are not commanded in the New Testament to worship either on a Saturday or Sunday.   The Christian church is not under Mosaic Law.

Nevertheless the Sabbath was on Jesus’ mind when He clashed with the Pharisees over the special day.  The Pharisees were so keen on enforcing the Jewish Sabbath that they were constantly watching for Jesus to break the hard and fast Sabbath rules.  In the book of Luke, the disciples were accused of breaking the Sabbath by picking grain as they walked through the fields.  Jesus was condemned for healing people on the Sabbath.  Jesus stated when the ox is in the ditch it should be pulled out because it is an emergency [despite this symbolic incident occurring on the Sabbath].   At one time Jesus said to the Pharisees “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath” [Mark 2:24-28].  On the whole, Jesus seemed to have the attitude that God gave man the Sabbath to encourage man to love Him and to love others.  Jesus never felt that the Sabbath was a day where someone could not help someone else.  The Pharisees acted as if God had created people so that He would have someone to keep the Sabbath, but Jesus felt the Sabbath was given as a gift to the people He had created.    Stott writes “Man’s body and mind need rest, and man’s spirit needs the opportunity to worship.  The Sabbath is therefore a day of rest and a day of worship” [66].

Something has happened to me regarding the Sabbath.  I did get taken to church on a regular basis almost every Sunday as a child [I don’t remember Dad and Mom missing hardly any worship service].  Like many young people, my Sabbath observances were spotty at best in college, but I did attend every so often.  Some Christians only make it to church at Christmas and Easter but I was better than that.  When I got married I attended church from time to time but when my job got more demanding and I began to pursue an advanced degree, I quit going to church altogether.  For many years I did not “darken the door” of a church. 

As I reflect back on those times not going hurt me quite a lot.  I needed to be around other Christians, I needed to worship God and I needed the foundation that the church affords all of us who will attend. 

Now my week revolves around church.  I teach an adult Sunday school class and I sing in the chancel choir on Sunday.  When asked. I read from the Old Testament and pray a congregational invocation as part of Sunday worship.  On Tuesday morning, I work with a team of intercessors to pray for the church, our pastor and staff and many others.  On Thursdays,  I like to think that this blog is my way of spreading a little of God’s word out to the world.  I have grown to like the regularity of the things I do for the church but of all the things I do, Sunday worship is the most important.

Do I get up on Sunday morning and sometimes moan and complain that I don’t feel like going to church?  Of course I do and I won’t go if I am really ill, but if it is just tiredness or a bad mood or even overwork from Saturday, I will go on to church.  No one “commands” me to go but it is surprising the number of times I feel positive feelings after I have gone.

It is surprising the number of times when I turn to my wife and simply say…

“I am glad I went to church”…

Yahweh is a precious word to the Hebrews.

Yahweh is the Hebrew word that means God and is often spelled YHWH [without the vowels].  This is meant to discourage man from saying God’s name which was an act of respect, a sign of highest regard, a use of language to mean an appreciation of God beyond anything we can understand.

Yet why do I often hear God’s name used today when a character on a television show or a movie gets angry?  Recently, I heard a politician use God’s name when he was addressing people at his rallies.  Why is it becoming so common to hear people exclaim “Oh My ___!” when they are surprised at something that happens in life?  I hear these and other instances and wonder what the Hebrew people would think about the misuse of their special word?

The Third Commandment is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

What does “taking God’s name in vain” mean?  With our loose use of God’s name in the world today, is this commandment even relevant anymore?

John Stott* seems to think so.  He writes that the name of God represents the nature of God and God’s nature should be respected.  “There is much in the Bible which commands us to reverence His name, and in the Lord’s Prayer we are taught to pray that His name be hallowed” [66].  Psalm 8: 1 provides evidence that Stott is correct:  “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory in the heavens.”  Psalm 111:9 says “He provided redemption for His people; He ordained His covenant forever—holy and awesome is His name.”   Exodus 20: 7 warns “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.”

Why today do we not heed the words of James in Chapter 3, verses 9-10: “With it [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.   From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so.”  The book of Proverbs alone contains sixty warnings against sins of the tongue.  According to James the tongue can be like a small fire that sets the whole forest ablaze and stains the whole body.  We read of all these cautions and yet today there are frequent examples of people using the Lord’s name in the act of cursing.

Before we go too far with this topic, language use is often rooted in habit.  I have known individuals who use profane language on a daily basis.  I have also seen some of those people give their life to Christ and the profane language does not stop automatically.  Strong habits are hard to break.  What should happen over time is the realization that to represent Christ, language habits should change.  Poor language use can undermine any witness that a person can have with others who don’t know Jesus. 

Sometimes use of God’s name in vain is not just a “bad habit.”   It is a symptom of a deeper “heart issue.”  When someone uses God’s name in vain, it shows a heart that does know to have a proper fear of God [“fear” meaning respect].   Christians should know that they are to be held to a higher standard.  They should know better than to curse others using the name of the Lord.  They should know to take the Third Commandment seriously.

This emphasis on language can lead to “legalism” which means that some Christians can get “self-righteous” over their personal language use.  My wife and I had a conversation about the use of the word “geez.”  She said that words like gosh, or the use of abbreviations like OMG may help some people  steer clear of using more profane language even though they may be substitute words for saying God’s name in vain.  Some Christians may indulge in “nitpicking” others’ language, condemning all efforts to improve expression.  Condemnation or exoneration really depends on a person’s intent.  Some folks do not have a disrespectful intent in their language use whereas others may indeed knowingly disrespect God by their use of substitute words.  “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” [1 Corinthians 2:11].  Whatever your means of expression, if we use our language as a way to give thanks to God the Father, this stands as the basis for evaluating borderline terms like geez, gosh and OMG.  Over time we may become more aware of terms that can bring dishonor to God and when that awareness happens, we should work hard to remove those words from our conversation and writings in order to honor God in word and deed.

Stott writes that the use of God’s name in vain is not just the use of words.  It is indicative of a person’s thoughts and deeds.  We need to have consistent behavior in order to have a positive impact on the world.  “Whenever our behavior is inconsistent with our belief or our practice contradicts our preaching, we take God’s name in vain” [66].   As Christians we are declaring God as our Lord so our language should reflect that declaration.  If you pray in His name, take His name as part of your identity but disobey the third commandment, you run the risk of Christ saying “I never knew you.  Away from Me” on judgement day [Matthew, 7: 21-23]. 

“To take God’s name in vain is to talk one way and act another. This is hypocrisy” [Stott, 66].

I agree and I suspect those Hebrews would too…

*from his book Basic Christianity

“I am the Lord your God, you shall not make for yourself a graven image.”

“I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me.”

The first statement is commandment number two; the second statement is commandment number one.

What is the difference between the two?  Aren’t they both about worshipping gods other than the Lord?  They seem so similar.

In my post “Guardrail Number One” written on St. John Studies on October 20, 2021, I tried to explain that the first commandment is all about putting “things” as worship items before the worship of God.  Some people put the accumulation of money as their number one concern.  For others it may be dedicating their life to their career.  Maybe it is a possession like a nice car, a nice home or a beautiful ring on your finger.  The point is that people sometimes forget to put God as number one in their life.  My simple definition of breaking this commandment was “Anytime a Christian strays into thinking about someone or something so much that they are forgetting God.”  They don’t worship God; they worship things as their god.

Ok, that explains number one but what makes number two different?

For insight, let’s turn to Matthew 22: 26-28 when Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment:  “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”  Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment”.

This Scripture is so familiar to many Christians and when we break it down, it shows what God is really asking of us.  John Stott* feels that the Second Commandment is about the way we worship God, whereas the First Commandment is about the objects of our worship.

My relationship with God seems to be changing right now.  I have spent countless hours lately trying to understand what it means to dedicate more of myself to God.  For the most part, I have to acknowledge that I have mostly learned that I have little true dedication of heart, soul and mind to Him.  There is a lot of work still to be done. 

Why is this really a concern?  Besides In Matthew, Second Corinthians 10: 5  says that “we [should] take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  People who study the mind report that the average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day: that’s a lot of thought to control. Most of those thoughts are the result of countless bits of information we all have to deal with every day [most of it inconsequential]. 

Let me be personal [I think some of you may be able to relate].  I begin my day with a dark roast cup of coffee in a chair in the front bedroom of my home.  My wife does not awaken as early as I do, so I know I have a guaranteed amount of early morning time to be with God [without interruption].  I have a bit of a ritual, with prayer, Bible reading and lately meditation [yes I said meditation].  Lately I have been meditating on Psalm 139 which is about the ever-present support of God.  I am not sure I do this well but I turn to this Psalm and read it aloud three times, eventually finding a single verse that stands out to me.  I think about that verse, turning the meaning over and over in my mind.  What does it mean?  What does it say about God?  Then I pray through that verse.  I ask God to show me what He wants me to see in that verse.  Finally, I end my meditation time with silence.**

Let me be honest, the practice of meditation for me is based on mindfulness.  Too many of my thoughts throughout the day are mindless [which is of course the opposite of mindful].  I try to focus my attention on the Holy Father and other things intrude [I forgot to feed the cat, I have to mow the yard, the doctor’s appointment is in two hours, the car is not starting properly etc. etc.].  Those other things literally take my mind away as I wander into the future and revisit the past.  Some would say that this is merely being human and it is but when I intend to worship, I don’t want to be mentally “all over the place” [if I can help it].  

The Bible says in Romans 8: 5 “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”  As a practicing Christian, I want to hear from The Holy Spirit because I need guidance, comfort, power, love and self-discipline.  The concerns of the world work against the Spirit and those concerns affect the manner in which I connect with God.  Sometimes competing thoughts keep me from connecting with God entirely.

Not only in private study, prayer and meditation, how many times do we find ourselves participating in public worship and we are doing so mindlessly?  We know the pastor’s message only partly because we find ourselves drifting in and out of a serious attention pattern.   Sometimes the message is on our minds, we are relating it to our experience, successfully decoding it and making an effort to reconstruct a personal representation in our minds.  Then comes a distracting thought and the pastor’s message becomes partially meaningful as we attend to other ideas.  The competing thoughts might get so strong that the pastor’s message can become background sound as we begin to think of our personal concerns instead of the message.   Add to this, certain aspects of the service may mean very little as we know the Lord’s Prayer and we recite it mindlessly.  In my church, we say The Apostle’s Creed every Sunday.  Do we really take the time to wonder what each word means or is it done mindlessly also?

When one considers the First Commandment, Stott writes that we may not have manufactured some “gruesome metal image” with our hands but what “hideous mental image do we hold in our minds?” [the concern of the Second commandment].   The Second Commandment is not focused on external forms of worship but raises the question that if God is not in our heart, mind and soul, then worship can become useless.  Stott writes “We may have attended church; have we really worshipped God?  We have said prayers; have we really prayed?  We may have read the Bible; have we ever let God speak to us through it and done what He said?”

Mindful worship is an admirable goal but it is so hard today because there are so many distractions.

Let’s go back to my early morning routine.  I don’t stay in my chair all day.  I usually get up and begin my ritual around 6:30.  Eventually I run out of coffee, I develop hunger and I leave my “sanctuary” to eat breakfast around 9:00.  If I am able to use the time well and I don’t get distracted, I feel good about the start of the day.  Distractions are always imminent; Stott encourages us to fight them with the words “it is no good to approach God with our lips if our hearts are far from Him” [66].

I try to conclude around nine o’clock for another reason.  The two cell phones in our home begin to ring around nine o’clock as telemarketers begin their workday.  Thank goodness I can see the words “scam likely” and I slide the bar to the right and stop the ringing and then I tap the button to terminate the call.  Distractions, distractions, distractions…

Taking each thought captive becomes more difficult…

Concerns of the world are calling…***

*from his book Basic Christianity

**my meditation is based on Lectio Divina, a traditional monastic practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God’s word.

***This post is dedicated to Mr. Bob Dooley, who first spoke to me about the power of Lectio Divina.  Bob is a friend, a prayer warrior, an inspiration to me.

One of the “elder statesmen” in my adult Sunday school class has touted the idea recently that human beings need guardrails.  He has borrowed this idea from Pastor Andy Stanley [founder and senior pastor of North Point Ministries in Georgia and son of well-known television evangelist Charles Stanley]. 

Stanley has a sermon series called “Guardrails.”* He explains that drivers need a system designed to keep vehicles from straying off into dangerous or off-limit areas. They are designed to offer direction and protection.  In this world today, do we need guardrails?  Of course anyone driving down a stretch of highway will see these safety features and most of us admit that they are probably necessary.  They keep us from danger by directing us down the road in the safe zone. 

But what does the idea of guardrails mean beyond automobile safety?  My elder statesman is implying that we need guardrails to help keep us living a righteous life.

This post begins a series on what some would consider God’s guardrails: the Ten Commandments.  In his book Basic Christianity, John Stott discusses the Ten Commandments as standards by which we measure our behavior.  His contention is that humans need standards [does that sound a bit like guardrails?].  

The First Commandment is You shall have no other gods before me.  Since this is the first commandment, some see the other nine commandments as being built on this first command.  This commandment [being in the first five] is in the section that lists the duties that man owes to God.  When one turns to Deuteronomy 5: 6-7 and reads some of the bigger context of this commandment, you see that God not only commands but God also gives His reasons for prohibiting idolatry: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.”  It does sound like He is telling the Israelite nation you owe me this because of what I did for you.  I alone had the power to rescue you from your Egyptian captors.  I chose you as My people, I protected you and delivered you so you need to worship Me alone.

Sounds clear doesn’t it?  We think of the Hebrew people who strayed while Moses went on to Mount Sinai.  They forgot about God and decided to worship a golden calf in His place.  Read the Old Testament and see the number of times that Asherah poles** became the center of Hebrew worship.  Israelite kings built them and tore them down over and over again.  These people were also influenced by cultures that worshipped Baal***  Baal seemed important because he “controlled” the fertility of crops and fertility in child-bearing. 

The main point is that these are all false gods and idols taking the place of the true God.

Now, let’s stop…

What does this have to do with today’s person who really has no strange god to worship or no idol constructed to represent that god?

Here is the connection.  Anytime a Christian strays into thinking about someone or something so much that they are forgetting God, they are going away from the safe zone and heading into the danger zone.  There was a time in my life when I went to church and if anyone asked me to identify my religion, I would say “I am a Christian.”  However, I did not have a very close relationship with Jesus Christ.  These were years when I thought too much about the love I had for a sport, golf.  I watched every golf tournament on television I could, I became a student of the game [trying to improve my game and buy the best equipment], I played as many rounds of golf as I could afford.  When I was not on a golf course, I was thinking about being on a golf course.

I went overboard; I worshipped golf.  God was way down on the list of concerns that I had in my life.  I lost my perspective, my sense of priorities.

Idol worship occurs in many forms today.  Some people worship fame; they want to be well-known in the world.  Everyone should know who they are; the white hot light of the daily news media should be on them every day.  If that is not possible, others want to worship those who are in that light, so they come to worship celebrities.  Other people worship money.  They really work hard to be rich, putting in enormous effort to make as much money as they can [hint: the rich never seem to have enough money].  Others are wowed by material possessions, expensive cars, homes, clothing etc.  For many, the more ostentatious the possession the louder the message “I AM SPECIAL; I AM RICH; I AM SUCCESSFUL!”

We could go on and on with idolatry examples in our world today but before I go too far, it is not wrong to be famous, rich or possess things.  It becomes wrong when our “idols” become so important in our lives that we put fame, fortune and things before God. 

We turn to the Old Testament for many examples of false gods and idols but we can also turn to the New Testament for admonitions about idol worship.  Jesus says in Matthew 6: 24 “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money.”  Matthew 19 tells the story of the rich young ruler who turned away from Christ because he could not part from his wealth.

At the base of a lot of idol worship is the idea of pride:  even though Second Chronicles 26: 5 [in the OT] says “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” we see this echoed in 1 Peter 5:5 “Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Anyone who worships other gods needs to heed the words from Acts 17: 24-25, 29:  “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  And He is not served by human hands as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. …Therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skills.”

One of my favorite scriptures occurs in Matthew 22: 37 when Jesus is questioned about the greatest commandment and He replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  The focus of life is on God—nothing else.  Is this bar too high?  It is.  Only one man was able to do this and that was Jesus Christ.  John Stott writes that this Scripture and the First Commandment is all about deciding to make God our guide, “putt[ing] Him first in our thought, word and deed; in business and leisure; in friendships and career; in the use of our money, time and talents; at work and at home.”

This is the meaning of the First Commandment: guardrail number one…

*accessed on YouTube “Guardrails”, October 20, 2021.

**An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother goddess Asherah.

*** Baal appears about 90 times in the Hebrew Bible, most prominently in the First Book of Kings.