These are the Commandments that the Lord God of Hosts gave to the people through His chosen one and the prophet Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex. 20:2-17):

1. I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of anything that is in the sky above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water below the earth.

3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain.

4. Work six days and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days on earth may be long.

6. Don't kill.

7. Do not commit adultery.

8. Don't steal.

9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; neither his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

Truly, this law is short, but these commandments say a lot to anyone who knows how to think and who seeks the salvation of his soul.

Anyone who does not understand this main law of God in his heart will not be able to accept either Christ or His teachings. Whoever does not learn to swim in shallow water will not be able to swim in deep water, for he will drown. And whoever does not first learn to walk will not be able to run, for he will fall and be broken. And whoever does not first learn to count to ten will never be able to count thousands. And whoever does not first learn to read syllables will never be able to read fluently and speak eloquently. And whoever does not first lay the foundation of the house will try in vain to build a roof.

I repeat: whoever does not keep the commandments of the Lord given to Moses will knock in vain on the doors of Christ’s Kingdom.

And what the First Law of God says and what the Commandments of the Lord mean, we will understand if we take a closer look at them and think about them longer.

FIRST COMMANDMENT

I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me.

This means:

God is One, and there are no other gods besides Him. All creation comes from Him, thanks to Him they live and return to Him. In God resides all strength and might, and there is no power outside of God. And the power of light, and the power of water, and air, and stone is the power of God. If an ant crawls, a fish swims and a bird flies, then it is thanks to God. The ability of a seed to grow, of grass to breathe, of a person to live is the essence of God’s ability. All these abilities are the property of God, and every creation receives its ability to exist from God. The Lord gives to everyone as much as he sees fit, and takes back when he sees fit. Therefore, when you want to gain the ability to do anything, look only in God, for the Lord God is the source of life-giving and mighty power. There are no other sources besides Him. Pray to the Lord like this:

“Merciful God, inexhaustible, the only source of strength, strengthen me, weak, and give me greater strength so that I can better serve You. God, give me wisdom so that I do not use the power I have received from You for evil, but only for the good of myself and my neighbors for the magnification of Your glory. Amen".

In God is all wisdom, and outside of God there is neither wisdom nor a drop of knowledge. The Lord has endowed every creature with a piece of His wisdom. Therefore, my brother, if you think that God gave wisdom only to man, you will be mistaken. The bee and the fly, the swallow and the stork, the tree and the stone, the water and the air, the fire and the wind have wisdom.

The Wisdom of God abides in everything, and nothing could exist without a grain of wisdom. According to the wisdom of God, the animal senses danger in advance; and the bee builds a honeycomb; and the fly anticipates the rain; and the swallow makes a nest; and the stork nurses the chicks; and the tree knows how to grow; and the stone knows how to remain silent and keep its shape; and water can flow down from the mountain and soar in a cloud; and the fire, dormant in every thing, can warm and shine; and the wind knows where to blow, and brings purity to uncleanness and health to the sick. Indeed, no one and nothing has its own wisdom, which it itself created or gave birth to, but all wisdom flows from one single source of all kinds of wisdom. And this source is in God. Therefore, when you seek wisdom, seek it only in God, for the Lord is the Source of life-giving and great Wisdom. Apart from this Source there are no others. So pray to God like this:

“God, Almighty and All-Seeing, grant me, the foolish one, Your life-giving wisdom, so that I can better serve You. And guide me, Lord, so that I do not use the knowledge given to me for evil, like Satan, but only for the good of myself and my neighbors. great glory Yours. Amen".

All goodness is in God. Christ said about this: No one is good but God alone(Matt. 19:17). His goodness includes His mercy, patience, and forgiveness of sinners. The Lord has endowed all His creation with His goodness. Therefore, in every creature of God there is Divine goodness. Even the devil has God’s goodness, because of which he desires good for himself and not evil, but out of his stupidity he thinks to achieve good with evil, that is, he thinks that by causing evil to all of God’s creatures, he is doing good for himself. Oh, how much goodness of God is in every creation of God: in stone, in plant, in beast, in fire, in water, in air! All this goodness is borrowed from God - the inexhaustible, bottomless and great Source of all virtue. Therefore, when you seek goodness, do not look for it anywhere except in God. Only He has goodness in abundance. So, pray like this:

“All-merciful, all-merciful and long-suffering God, grant me, the wicked, your goodness, so that from your goodness I may rejoice and shine and be able to serve you even more and better. Guide me and support me, Lord, so that I do not turn Your kindness into evil, like Satan, but direct me only to joy and happiness for myself, so that I can glow with kindness and illuminate with it myself and all of Your creatures surrounding me.”

Let there be no other gods besides Me,- the Lord commanded. Why do you need other gods if there is the Lord God of Hosts? As soon as you have two gods, know: one of them is the devil. But you cannot serve both God and the devil at once, just as one ox cannot plow two fields at the same time, just as one candle cannot illuminate two houses at the same time. The ox does not need two masters, for they will tear it to pieces; and the forests do not need two suns, for they will burn; and the child does not need two mothers, for there will be a “child without an eye.” And you don’t need two gods, for you will become not richer, but poorer. So stay alone with your only Lord of hosts, in Whom is all power, all wisdom and all kindness, inseparable, inexhaustible, endless. Honor Him, the One, worship Him, only fear Him. And when you begin to pray to Him, pray like this:

“Lord, my God, countless creations belong to You, but Your creations cannot have more than one God - You, the Consubstantial One. Dispel, Lord, my bad thoughts and dreams about other gods, like a strong wind disperses an annoying swarm of flies. God, cleanse my soul, illuminate it, expand and settle in it, You, the Only One, like a King in Your palace. This will lift my spirit, strengthen me, educate me, correct me and renew me. Glory and praise to You, the One True God, standing above all false deities, like the top of a mountain above the reflection in a puddle. Amen".

SECOND COMMANDMENT

You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth.

It means:

Do not deify the creation instead of the Creator. If you climbed a high mountain, where you met the Lord God, why would you look back at the reflection in the puddle under the mountain? If a certain person longed to see the king and, after much effort, managed to appear before him, why would he then look left and right at the king’s servants? He can look around for two reasons: either because he does not dare to face the king alone, or because he thinks: the king alone cannot help him.

But why doesn’t a person dare to appear face to face before the King of God? Is this King not at the same time his Father? And who else was afraid to stand face to face with his father?

Wasn't it the Lord who thought about you, man, even before you were born? Wasn’t He silently touching you with His fingers in your sleep and in reality, but you didn’t even suspect about it and didn’t feel it? Doesn't He think more about you every day than you think about yourself? Why are you afraid of Him then? Verily, you fear God not as a man, but as a sinner. Sin always breeds fear. And he appears where there is no place for him or his offspring. It is sin that causes you to turn your eyes away from the King and towards your servants. Among servants sin is easy; this is his environment, where he rules and feasts. But you should know that the King is more merciful than his servants. Therefore, do not hide your eyes, but look boldly at the King, your Father. The glance of the King will burn away the sin in you. So the sun's ray destroys harmful microbes in the water, purifying it, and the water becomes clean and drinkable.

Or do you not believe that the King God can help you, and therefore rely on His servants?

But think for yourself: if the Lord God cannot help you, then all His servants are even less. Don't all of God's creatures expect help from God? So what kind of help from God's creatures do you hope for? If a thirsty person cannot drink from a gushing mountain spring, will he really get drunk by absorbing dew drop by drop from the meadow grass?

Who deifies a carved face or a painted image? Only those who do not know the carver and the painter. Anyone who does not believe in God or does not know about Him is forced to deify things, for a person must deify something. The Lord carved mountains and valleys, sculpted plants and animal bodies; He painted meadows and fields, clouds and lakes. The one who understands this gives praise to the Lord as the greatest Carver and Iconographer, and the one who does not know this gives praise to the carved faces and icons of God themselves.

But this is not the worst sin yet. The most terrible sin is when a person deifies what he himself has created, the work of his own hands and his mind. The savages carve an idol out of wood and pray and worship it. But for savages, this is forgivable. Their savagery serves as their justification. The True and Eternal Lord God is merciful and condescending to them. He accepts the prayers with which they address their wooden product as if they were directed to Him, and sends help and protection to His unenlightened children.

However, there are also enlightened people who create something with their minds or with their own hands, and consider their own creation to be a deity. There are artists who revere their paintings and worship them as if they were a real deity. There are writers who, having written a book, get it into their heads that their book is the pinnacle of heaven and earth, and they worship this book of theirs. There are rich people who accumulate goods like a hamster stores up for the winter, and begin to turn up their noses and look up, not noticing God and His light, worshiping their rotten, moth-eaten wealth. Where a person has all his thoughts and all his heart, there is his God.

If a person devotes all his thoughts and gives his whole soul to his family and does not know any other god, then his family is a deity for him. This is a disease of the soul of one kind.

If a man devotes all his thoughts and gives his whole heart to gold and silver and does not want to know another god, then gold and silver are for him a deity whom he worships day and night until the night of death overtakes him and envelops him in its darkness. This is a disease of the soul of a different kind.

If a certain person concentrates all his thoughts on rising above other people, tries at all costs to be the first, desires glory and praise, considers himself the best of people and all creatures in heaven and on earth, then such a person is himself himself a deity to whom he sacrifices everything. This is a disease of the soul of the third kind.

Truly, only sick souls do not know the true God. And healthy souls are healthy thanks to the knowledge and recognition of the true one Lord God, the Creator and Ruler of all carved faces and all images, all human families, all gold and silver, all mortal people on earth.

If someone writes the name of God on paper, or on wood, or on stone, or on snow, or in mud, then honor this paper, and this tree, and this stone, and snow, and mud for the sake of the Most Holy Name written on them. However, do not deify what is written on it holy name.

Or when someone depicts the face of God on anything, you bow down, but know that you are not worshiping the matter on which the Lord is written, but the Living Great God, of whom the image reminds.

Or when someone pronounces or chants the Name of God, you bow down, but know that you are not worshiping a human voice, but the Living and Mighty God, of whom human speech reminded you.

Or when you see at night the greatness of the stars of heaven, you bow low, but bow not to the creation of God’s hands, but to the Most High Lord, Who is above the stars, whose radiance reminds you of Him.

And when you kneel in the evening, pray like this:

"Oh my God! I know You alone, I recognize and praise always: and when the day reveals to me all Your Beauty through the beauty of Your deeds, and when the night covers everything with a dark mantle and leaves me alone with You. Amen".

THIRD COMMANDMENT

Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain.

What, are there really people who decide to commemorate, without reason or need, a name that awes - the name of the Lord God Almighty? When the name of God is pronounced in the sky, the heavens bow, the stars flash brighter, the Archangels and Angels sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts,” and the saints and saints of God fall on their faces. Then which mortal dares to remember the Most Holy Name of God without spiritual trembling and without deep sighing from longing for God?

If a person is dying, call him any name, and you will not be able to cheer him up or restore peace to his soul. But when you remember one single name - the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will encourage and calm him. And the one leaving for another world with his last glance will thank you for the balm of a great name for his soul.

If a person’s relatives turn away or his friends betray him, and he realizes that he is alone in this endless world, then remind him, tired of loneliness on the road, the name of God, and you will, as it were, give him a staff for his heavy arms and legs.

If evil neighbors take up arms against someone and, with false testimony, bring him to chains and prison, having won over the judges against the righteous, approach the sufferer and whisper in his ear the name of the Lord. And at that very moment tears will flow from his eyes, tears of hope and faith, and the heavy shackles will seem lighter to him.

If someone is drowning in the depths and at the last moment between life and death remembers the name of God, then his strength will double.

If a scientist strives to solve some difficult mystery of nature and, feeling that he has relied in vain on his limited mind, one day remembers the name of God, then a sudden insight will stir his soul, and the veil of mystery will be lifted.

Oh, wonderful name of God! How omnipotent you are, how wonderful, how sweet! May my lips be silent forever if they pronounce it carelessly, casually, in vain.

Listen to the parable of the blasphemer.

One goldsmith sat in his shop at the workbench and, while working, constantly took the name of God in vain: now as an oath, now as favorite word. A certain pilgrim, returning from holy places, passing by the shop, heard this, and his soul was indignant. Then he called out to the jeweler to go outside. And when the master left, the pilgrim hid. The jeweler, not seeing anyone, returned to the shop and continued working. The pilgrim called out to him again, and when the jeweler came out, he pretended to know nothing. The master, angry, returned to his room and began to work again. The pilgrim called out to him for the third time and, when the master came out again, he stood silently again, pretending that he had nothing to do with it. Then the jeweler furiously attacked the pilgrim:

- Why are you calling me in vain? What a joke! I'm full of work!

The pilgrim answered peacefully:

“Truly, the Lord God has even more work to do, but you call on Him much more often than I call on you.” Who has the right to be angry more: you or the Lord God?

The jeweler, ashamed, returned to the workshop and from then on kept his mouth shut.

So, brothers, let the name of the Lord, like an unquenchable lamp, constantly glow in the soul, in the thoughts and heart, let it be on the mind, but not leave the tongue without a significant and solemn reason.

Listen to another parable, the parable of the slave.

There lived in the house of a white master a black slave, a humble and pious Christian. The white owner used to curse and blaspheme the name of God in anger. And the white gentleman had a dog, which he loved very much. One day it happened that the owner became terribly angry and began to revile and blaspheme God. Then the black man was seized with mortal agony, he grabbed the owner’s dog and began to smear it with mud. Seeing this, the owner shouted:

- What are you doing with my beloved dog?!

“The same as you and the Lord God,” the slave answered peacefully.

There is another parable, a parable about foul language.

In Serbia, in one hospital, a doctor and a paramedic worked from morning to evening, visiting patients. The paramedic had an evil tongue, and he constantly, like a dirty rag, whipped anyone he thought of. His dirty language did not spare even the Lord God.

One day the doctor was visited by a friend who had come from afar. The doctor invited him to attend the operation. There was also a paramedic with the doctor.

The guest felt sick at the sight of the terrible wound, from which pus with a disgusting smell was flowing. And the paramedic kept cursing. Then the friend asked the doctor:

- How can you listen to such blasphemous language?

The doctor replied:

“My friend, I’m used to festering wounds.” Pus should flow out of purulent wounds. If pus accumulates in the body, it flows out of an open wound. If pus accumulates in the soul, it flows out through the mouth. My paramedic, scolding, only reveals the evil accumulated in the soul, and pours it out of his soul, like pus from a wound.

O Almighty, why does not even an ox scold You, but a man scolds You? Why did You create an ox with purer lips than a man?

O All-Merciful One, why do not even frogs revile You, but man does? Why did You create a frog with a nobler voice than a man?

O All-Patient One, why do not even snakes blaspheme You, but man does? Why did You create a snake more like an angel than a man?

O Most Beautiful One, why does not even the wind, rushing across the earth length and breadth, carry Your name on its wings without a reason, but man pronounces it in vain? Why is the wind more God-fearing than man?

Oh, wonderful name of God! How omnipotent you are, how wonderful, how sweet! May my lips be silent forever if they pronounce it carelessly, casually, in vain.

FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Work six days and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

This means:

The Creator created for six days, and on the seventh day He rested from His labors. Six days are temporary, vain and short-lived, but the seventh is eternal, peaceful and long-lasting. By creating the world, the Lord God entered time, but did not leave eternity. This mystery is great...(Eph. 5:32), and it is more fitting to think about it than to talk about it, for it is not accessible to everyone, but only to God’s chosen ones.

God's chosen ones, being in body in time, rise in spirit to the top of the world, where there is eternal peace and bliss.

And you, brother, work and rest. Work, for the Lord God also worked; rest, for the Lord also rested. And let your work be creative, for you are a child of the Creator. Don't destroy, but create!

Consider your work as cooperation with God. So you will not do evil, but only good. Before doing anything, think about whether the Lord would do this, because, basically, the Lord does everything, and we only help Him.

All of God's creatures are constantly working. May this give you strength in your work. When you get up early in the morning, look, the sun has already done a lot, and not only the sun, but also water, air, plants, and animals. Your idleness will be an insult to the world and a sin before God.

Your heart and lungs work day and night. Why not put some effort into your hands too? And your kidneys work day and night. Why not give your brain a workout?

The stars rush non-stop across the expanses of the universe, faster than a galloping horse. So why do you indulge in idleness and laziness?

There is a parable about wealth.

In one city there lived a rich merchant, and he had three sons. He was a good trader, resourceful and managed to make huge fortune. When they asked him why he needed such wealth and so much trouble, he answered: “I am all in work, trying to provide for my sons so that they do not suffer.” Hearing this, his sons became lazy and stopped working altogether, and after their father’s death they began to spend the wealth their father had accumulated. That's why my father wanted it. light to come see how his sons live without labor and worries. The Lord God let him go, he went down to hometown and walked up to his house.

But when he knocked on the gate, a stranger opened it for him. The merchant asked about his sons and heard in response that his sons were in hard labor. Idleness led them to a quarrel, and the quarrel led to the burning of the house and murder.

“Alas,” sighed the father, distraught with grief, “I wanted to create heaven for my children, but I myself prepared hell for them.”

And the unfortunate father began to walk throughout the city and teach all the parents:

- Don't be as crazy as I was. Because of my immense love for my children, I myself pushed them into hell. Do not leave your children, brothers, any property. Teach them to work, and leave this as an inheritance. Give all the rest of your wealth to the poor before your death.

Truly, there is nothing more dangerous and destructive for the soul than inheriting a large fortune. Be sure that the devil rejoices more at a rich inheritance than an angel, for the devil does not spoil people so easily and quickly as with a large inheritance.

Therefore, brother, work hard and teach your children to work. And when you work, do not look only for profit, benefit and success in your work. It is better to find in your work the beauty and pleasure that work itself gives.

For one chair that a carpenter makes, he can receive ten dinars, or fifty, or a hundred. But the beauty of the product and the pleasure from the work that the craftsman feels while gluing and polishing the wood with inspiration, does not pay off in any way. This pleasure is reminiscent of the highest pleasure that the Lord experienced at the creation of the world, when He inspiredly “planed, glued and polished” it. The whole of God's world could have its own certain price and could pay off, but its beauty and the Creator's pleasure during the Creation of the world has no price.

Know that you are degrading your work if you think only about the material benefits from it. Know that such work is not given to a person, he will not succeed, and will not bring him the expected profit. And the tree will be angry with you and resist you if you work on it not out of love, but for profit. And the land will hate you if you plow it without thinking about its beauty, but only about your profit from it. Iron will burn you, water will drown you, stone will crush you, if you do not look at them with love, but in everything you see only your ducats and dinars.

Work without selfishness, just as a nightingale unselfishly sings its songs. And so the Lord God will go ahead of you in His work, and you will follow Him. If you run past God and rush forward, leaving God behind, your work will bring you a curse, not a blessing.

And on the seventh day rest.

How to relax? Remember, rest can only be close to God and in God. In this world, true rest cannot be found anywhere else, for this light is seething like a whirlpool.

Dedicate the seventh day entirely to God, and then you will truly rest and be filled with new strength.

Throughout the seventh day, think about God, talk about God, read about God, listen about God and pray to God. This way you will truly rest and be filled with new strength.

There is a parable about labor on Sunday.

A certain person did not honor God’s commandment to celebrate Sunday and continued Saturday labors on Sunday. When the whole village was resting, he worked until he sweated in the field with his oxen, which he also did not allow to rest. However, the next week on Wednesday he became weak, and his oxen became weak; and when the whole village went out into the field, he remained at home, tired, gloomy and despairing.

Therefore, brothers, do not be like this man, so as not to lose strength, health and soul. But work for six days as companions of the Lord, with love, pleasure and reverence, and devote the seventh day entirely to the Lord God. I have seen from my own experience that spending Sunday correctly inspires, renews and makes a person happy.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days on earth may be long.

This means:

Before you knew the Lord God, your parents knew Him. This alone is enough for you to bow to them with respect and give praise. Bow down and give praise to everyone who knew the Highest Good in this world before you.

A rich young Indian was passing through the passes of the Hindu Kush with his retinue. In the mountains he met an old man grazing goats. The poor old man came down to the side of the road and bowed to the rich young man. And the young man jumped off his elephant and prostrated himself before the old man. The elder was amazed at this, and the people from his retinue were also amazed. And he said to the old man:

“I bow before your eyes, for they saw this world, the creation of the Almighty, before mine.” I bow before your lips, for they uttered His holy name before mine. I bow before your heart, for before mine it trembled with the joyful realization that the Father of all people on earth is the Lord, the Heavenly King.

Honor your father and your mother, for your path from birth to this day is watered with your mother’s tears and your father’s sweat. They loved you even when everyone else, weak and dirty, disgusted you. They will love you even when everyone else hates you. And when everyone throws stones at you, your mother will throw you immortelle and basil - symbols of holiness.

Your father loves you, although he knows all your shortcomings. And others will hate you, although they will only know your virtues.

Your parents love you with reverence, because they know that you are a gift from God, entrusted to them for their preservation and upbringing. No one except your parents is able to see the mystery of God in you. Their love for you has a holy root in eternity.

Through their tenderness towards you, your parents comprehend the tenderness of the Lord towards all His children.

Just as spurs remind a horse of a good trot, so your harshness towards your parents encourages them to care about you even more.

There is a parable about a father's love.

A certain son, spoiled and cruel, rushed at his father and plunged a knife into his chest. And the father, giving up the ghost, said to his son:

“Hurry up and wipe the blood off the knife so you don’t get caught and brought to justice.”

There is also a parable about maternal love.

In the Russian steppe, one immoral son tied his mother in front of a tent, and in the tent he drank with the walking women and his people. Then the Haiduks appeared and, seeing the mother tied up, decided to immediately avenge her. But then the bound mother shouted at the top of her voice and thereby gave a sign to her unfortunate son that he was in danger. And the son escaped, but the robbers killed the mother instead of the son.

And another parable about the father.

In Tehran, a Persian city, an old father and two daughters lived in the same house. The daughters did not listen to their father's advice and laughed at him. With their bad lives, they besmirched their honor and disgraced their father’s good name. The father interfered with them, like a silent reproach of conscience. One evening, the daughters, thinking that their father was sleeping, agreed to prepare poison and give it to him in the morning with tea. But my father heard everything and cried bitterly all night and prayed to God. In the morning, the daughter brought tea and placed it in front of him. Then the father said:

“I know about your intention and will leave you as you wish.” But I want to leave not with your sin in order to save your souls, but with my own.

Having said this, the father overturned the cup of poison and left the house.

Son, do not be proud of your knowledge before your uneducated father, for his love is worth more than your knowledge. Think that if it weren’t for him, there would be neither you nor your knowledge.

Daughter, do not be proud of your beauty in front of your hunched mother, for her heart is more beautiful than your face. Remember that both you and your beauty came from her exhausted body.

Day and night, develop in yourself, son, reverence for your mother, for only in this way will you learn to honor all other mothers on earth.

Truly, children, you do not do much if you honor your father and mother, and despise other fathers and mothers. Respect for your parents should become for you a school of respect for all men and all women who give birth in pain, raise them in the sweat of their brow, and love their children in suffering. Remember this and live according to this commandment, so that the Lord God will bless you on earth.

Truly, children, you do not do much if you honor only the personalities of your father and mother, but not their work, not their time, not their contemporaries. Think that by respecting your parents, you honor their work, their era, and their contemporaries. This way you will kill in yourself the fatal and stupid habit of despising the past. My children, believe that the days given to you are no more precious and no closer to the Lord than the days of those who lived before you. If you are proud of your time before the past, do not forget that before you even blink an eye, the grass will begin to grow over your graves, your era, your bodies and deeds, and others will begin to laugh at you as a backward past.

Any time is full of mothers and fathers, pain, sacrifices, love, hope and faith in God. Therefore, any time is worthy of respect.

The sage bows with respect to all past eras, as well as to future ones. For the wise man knows what the fool does not know, namely, that his time is only a minute on the clock. Look, children, at the clock; listen to how minute after minute passes and tell me which minute is better, longer and more important than others?

Get on your knees, children, and pray to God with me:

“Lord, Heavenly Father, glory to You that You commanded us to honor our father and mother on earth. Help us, O All-Merciful One, through this veneration to learn to respect all men and women on earth, Your precious children. And help us, O All-Wise One, through this to learn not to despise, but to honor previous eras and generations who saw Your glory before us and uttered Your holy name. Amen".

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

Dont kill.

This means:

God breathed life from His life into every created being. Life is the most precious wealth given by God. Therefore, the one who encroaches on any life on earth raises his hand against the most precious gift of God, moreover, against the life of God itself. All of us living today are only temporary carriers of the life of God within ourselves, guardians of the most precious gift that belongs to God. Therefore, we do not have the right and cannot take away the life borrowed from God, either from ourselves or from others.

And this means

- firstly, we have no right to kill;

- secondly, we cannot kill life.

If a clay pot happens to break at the market, the potter will become furious and demand compensation for the loss. In truth, man is also made from the same cheap material as a pot, but what is hidden in it is priceless. This is the soul that creates a person from the inside, and the Spirit of God that gives life to the soul.

Neither father nor mother have the right to take the life of their children, for it is not parents who give life, but God through parents. And since parents do not give life, they have no right to take it away.

But if parents who work so hard to put their children on their feet do not have the right to take their lives, how can those who accidentally encounter their children along the path of life have such a right?

If you happen to break a pot at the market, it will hurt not the pot, but the potter who made it. In the same way, if a person is killed, it is not the person killed who feels the pain, but the Lord God, Who created man, exalted and breathed His Spirit.

So if the one who broke the pot must compensate the loss to the potter, then even more so must the murderer compensate God for the life he took. Even if people do not demand restitution, God will. Murderer, do not deceive yourself: even if people forget about your crime, God cannot forget. Look, there are things that even the Lord cannot do. For example, He cannot forget about your crime. Always remember this, remember in your anger before you grab a knife or gun.

On the other hand, we cannot kill life. To kill life completely would be to kill God, for life belongs to God. Who can kill God? You can break a pot, but you cannot destroy the clay from which it was made. In the same way, you can crush a person’s body, but you cannot break, burn, scatter, or spill his soul and his spirit.

There is a parable about life.

A certain terrible, bloodthirsty vizier ruled in Constantinople, whose favorite pastime was to watch every day how the executioner cut off heads in front of his palace. And on the streets of Constantinople there lived one holy fool, a righteous man and a prophet, whom all people considered God's saint. One morning, when the executioner was executing another unfortunate man in front of the vizier, the holy fool stood under his windows and began swinging an iron hammer right and left.

- What are you doing? - asked the vizier.

“The same as you,” answered the holy fool.

- Like this? - the vizier asked again.

“Yes,” answered the holy fool. “I'm trying to kill the wind with this hammer.” And you are trying to kill life with a knife. My work is in vain, just like yours. You, vizier, cannot kill life, just as I cannot kill the wind.

The vizier silently retreated into the dark chambers of his palace and did not allow anyone to approach him. For three days he did not eat, drink, or see anyone. And on the fourth day he called his friends and said:

- Truly the man of God is right. I acted stupidly. Life cannot be destroyed, just as the wind cannot be killed.

In America, in the city of Chicago, two men lived next door. One of them was flattered by his neighbor’s wealth, sneaked into his house at night and cut off his head, then put the money in his bosom and went home. But as soon as he went out into the street, he saw a murdered neighbor who was walking towards him. Only on the neighbor’s shoulders was not his head, but his own head. In horror, the killer crossed to the other side of the street and started to run, but the neighbor again appeared in front of him and walked towards him, looking like him, like a reflection in a mirror. The killer broke out in a cold sweat. Somehow he made it to his home and barely survived that night. However, the next night his neighbor again appeared to him with his own head. And this happened every night. Then the killer took the stolen money and threw it into the river. But that didn't help either. The neighbor appeared to him night after night. The killer surrendered to the court, admitted his guilt and was sent to hard labor. But even in prison the killer could not sleep a wink, for every night he saw his neighbor with his own head on his shoulders. In the end, he began to ask an old priest to help him. I prayed to God for him, a sinner, and would give him communion. The priest replied that before prayer and communion he must make one confession. The convict replied that he had already confessed to the murder of his neighbor. “It’s not that,” the priest told him, “you must see, understand and admit that your neighbor’s life is your own life. And by killing him, you killed yourself. That's why you see your head on the body of the murdered man. By this God gives you a sign that your life, and the life of your neighbor, and the life of all people together, is one and the same life.”

The convict thought about it. After much thought, he understood everything. Then he prayed to God and took communion. And then the spirit of the murdered man stopped haunting him, and he began to spend days and nights in repentance and prayer, telling the rest of the condemned about the miracle that was revealed to him, namely, that a person cannot kill another without killing himself.

Ah, brothers, how terrible are the consequences of murder! If this could be described to all people, truly there would not be a madman who would encroach on someone else's life.

God awakens the murderer's conscience, and his own conscience begins to wear away at him from the inside, like a worm under the bark wears away at a tree. Conscience gnaws, and beats, and rumbles, and roars like a mad lioness, and the unfortunate criminal finds no peace either day or night, neither in the mountains, nor in the valleys, nor in this life, nor in the grave. It would be easier for a person if his skull were opened and a swarm of bees settled inside, than for an unclean, troubled conscience to settle in his head.

Therefore, brothers, God forbade people, for the sake of their own peace and happiness, from murder.

“Oh, Good Lord, how sweet and useful is every commandment of Yours! O Lord Almighty, save Your servant from evil deeds and a vengeful conscience, in order to glorify and praise You forever and ever. Amen".

SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

Don't commit adultery.

And this means:

Do not have an illicit relationship with a woman. Truly, in this, animals are more obedient to God than many people.

Adultery destroys a person physically and mentally. Adulterers are usually twisted like a bow before old age and end their lives in wounds, pain and madness. The most terrible and evil diseases known to medicine are diseases that multiply and spread among people through adultery. The body of an adulterer is constantly in illness, like a stinking puddle, from which everyone turns away in disgust and runs away with their nose pinched.

But if evil concerned only those who create this evil, the problem would not be so terrible. However, it is simply terrible when you think that the illnesses of their parents are inherited by the children of adulterers: sons and daughters, and even grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Truly, diseases from adultery are the scourge of humanity, like aphids on a vineyard. These diseases, more than any other, are dragging humanity back toward decline.

The picture is quite scary if we only bear in mind bodily pain and deformity, rotting and decay of the flesh from bad diseases. But the picture is complemented and becomes even more terrible when mental deformity is added to physical deformities, as a consequence of the sin of adultery. Because of this evil, a person’s spiritual strength weakens and becomes upset. The patient loses the sharpness, depth and height of thought that he had before the illness. He is confused, forgetful and constantly tired. He is no longer capable of any serious work. His character changes completely, and he indulges in all sorts of vices: drunkenness, gossip, lies, theft, and so on. He develops a terrible hatred for everything that is good, decent, honest, bright, prayerful, spiritual, and divine. He hates good people and tries with all his might to harm them, to denigrate them, to slander them, to harm them. Like a true misanthrope, he is also a hater of God. He hates any laws, both human and God's, and therefore hates all legislators and keepers of the law. He becomes a persecutor of order, goodness, will, holiness and ideal. He is like a fetid puddle for society, which rots and stinks, infecting everything around. His body is pus, and his soul is also pus.

This is why, brothers, God, who knows everything and foresees everything, has imposed a ban on adultery, fornication, and extramarital affairs between people.

Young people especially need to beware of this evil and avoid it like a poisonous viper. The people where young people indulge in promiscuity and “free love” have no future. Such a nation will, over time, have increasingly crippled, stupid and feeble generations, until finally it is captured by a healthier people who will come to subjugate it.

Anyone who knows how to read the past of mankind can find out what terrible punishments befell the adulterous tribes and peoples. The Holy Scripture speaks of the fall of two cities - Sodom and Gomorrah, in which it was impossible to find even ten righteous people and virgins. For this, the Lord God rained fire and brimstone on them, and both cities immediately found themselves buried, as if in a grave.

May the Lord Almighty help you, brothers, not to slip into the dangerous path of adultery. May your Guardian Angel keep peace and love in your home.

May the Mother of God inspire your sons and daughters with Her Divine chastity, so that their bodies and souls are not stained by sin, but they are pure and bright, so that the Holy Spirit can fit into them and breathe into them what is divine, what is from God. Amen.

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

Don't steal.

And this means:

Do not upset your neighbor by disrespecting his property rights. Don't do what foxes and mice do if you think you are better than the fox and the mouse. The fox steals without knowing the law on theft; and the mouse gnaws at the barn, not realizing that it is harming anyone. Both the fox and the mouse understand only their own needs, but not the loss of others. They are not given to understand, but you are given. Therefore, you cannot be forgiven for what is forgiven for a fox and a mouse. Your benefit must always be legal, it must not be to the detriment of your neighbor.

Brothers, only the ignorant steal, that is, those who do not know the two main truths of this life.

The first truth is that a person cannot steal without being noticed.

The second truth is that a person cannot profit from stealing.

"Like this?" - many nations will ask and many ignorant people will be surprised.

That's how.

Our Universe is many-eyed. All of it is strewn with an abundance of eyes, like a plum tree in spring sometimes completely covered with white flowers. Some of these eyes people see and feel their gaze on them, but a significant part they neither see nor feel. An ant swarming in the grass does not feel the gaze of a sheep grazing above it, nor the gaze of a person watching it. In the same way, people do not feel the gaze of an innumerable number of higher beings who watch us at every step of our life's journey. There are millions and millions of spirits who closely monitor what is happening on every inch of the earth. How then can a thief steal without being noticed? How then can a thief steal without it being discovered? It is impossible to put your hand in your pocket without millions of witnesses seeing it. Moreover, it is impossible to put your hand in someone else’s pocket without millions of higher powers raising the alarm. One who understands this argues that a person cannot steal unnoticed and with impunity. This is the first truth.

Another truth is that a person cannot profit from theft, for how can he use stolen goods if the invisible eyes saw everything and pointed to it? And if they pointed to him, then the secret will become clear, and the name “thief” will stick to him until his death. The powers of heaven can point out a thief in a thousand ways.

There is a parable about fishermen.

On the banks of one river lived two fishermen with their families. One had many children, and the other was childless. Every evening both fishermen cast their nets and went to bed. For some time now, it has become so that a fisherman with many children always had two or three fish in his nets, while a fisherman without children always had an abundance. A childless fisherman, out of mercy, pulled out several fish from his full net and gave them to his neighbor. This went on for quite a long time, perhaps a whole year. While one of them grew rich by trading fish, the other barely made ends meet, sometimes not even being able to buy bread for his children.

“What’s the matter?” - thought the unfortunate poor man. But then one day, while he was sleeping, the truth was revealed to him. A certain man appeared to him in a dream in a dazzling radiance, like an angel of God, and said: “Get up quickly and go to the river. There you will see why you are poor. But when you see it, don’t give in to your anger.”

Then the fisherman woke up and jumped out of bed. Having crossed himself, he went out to the river and saw his neighbor throwing fish after fish from his net into his. The poor fisherman's blood boiled with indignation, but he remembered the warning and humbled his anger. Having cooled down a little, he calmly said to the thief: “Neighbor, maybe I can help you? Well, why are you suffering alone!

Caught red-handed, the neighbor was simply numb with fear. When he came to his senses, he threw himself at the feet of the poor fisherman and exclaimed: “Truly, the Lord has pointed out to you my crime. It’s hard for me, a sinner!” And then he gave half of his wealth to the poor fisherman so that he would not tell people about him and would not send him to prison.

There is a parable about a merchant.

In one Arab city there lived a merchant Ishmael. Whenever he released goods to customers, he always shortchanged them by a few drachmas. And his fortune greatly increased. However, his children were sick, and he spent a lot of money on doctors and medicine. And the more he spent on treating children, the more he deceived his customers. But the more he deceived customers, the more sick his children became.

One day, when Ishmael was sitting alone in his shop, full of worries about his children, it seemed to him that for a moment the heavens opened. He raised his eyes to the sky to see what was happening there. And he sees: angels are standing at huge scales, measuring out all the benefits that the Lord bestows on people. And now it’s the turn of Izmayal’s family. When the angels began to measure the health of his children, they threw less weights on the scale of health than there were weights on the scales. Ishmael became angry and wanted to shout at the angels, but then one of them turned to him and said: “The measure is right. Why are you angry? We don’t give your children exactly as much as you don’t give to your customers. And this is how we fulfill God’s righteousness.”

Ishmael jerked as if he had been pierced with a sword. And he began to bitterly repent of his grave sin. From then on, Ishmael began to not only weigh correctly, but always added extra. And his children returned to health.

Moreover, brothers, a stolen thing constantly reminds a person that it is stolen and that it is not his property.

There is a parable about a clock.

One guy stole a pocket watch and wore it for a month. After that, he returned the watch to the owner, admitted his offense and said:

“Whenever I took my watch out of my pocket and looked at it, I heard it say: “We are not yours; you're a thief!"

The Lord God knew that theft would make both of them unhappy: the one who stole and the one from whom it was stolen. And so that people, His sons, would not be unhappy, the Wise Lord gave us this commandment: do not steal.

“We thank You, Lord our God, for this commandment, which we really need for the sake of our spiritual peace and happiness. Command, O Lord, Thy fire, let it burn our hands if they reach out to steal. Command, O Lord, Thy serpents, let them wrap themselves around our feet if they go out to steal. But, most importantly, we pray to You, Almighty, cleanse our hearts from thieves’ thoughts and our spirit from thieves' thoughts. Amen".

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

A this means:

Do not be deceitful, either to yourself or to others. If you lie about yourself, you know you are lying. But if you slander someone else, that other person knows that you are slandering him.

When you praise yourself and brag to people, people do not know that you are falsely testifying about yourself, but you yourself know it. But if you repeat these lies about yourself, people will eventually realize that you are deceiving them. However, if you constantly repeat the same lies about yourself, people will know that you are lying, but then you yourself will begin to believe your own lies. So the lie will become the truth for you, and you will get used to the lie, like a blind man gets used to darkness.

When you slander another person, that person knows that you are lying. This is the first witness against you. And you know that you are slandering him. So you are a second witness against yourself. And the Lord God is the third witness. Therefore, whenever you bear false witness against your neighbor, know that three witnesses will testify against you: God, your neighbor, and yourself. And rest assured, one of these three witnesses will expose you to the whole world.

This is how the Lord God can expose false testimony against one's neighbor.

There is a parable about a slanderer.

In one village lived two neighbors, Luka and Ilya. Luka could not stand Ilya, because Ilya was a correct, hard-working person, and Luka was a drunkard and a lazy man. In a fit of hatred, Luke went to court and reported that Ilya had spoken abusive words to the king. Ilya defended himself as best he could, and in the end, turning to Luke, he said: “God willing, the Lord Himself will reveal your lies against me.” However, the court sent Ilya to prison, and Luke returned home.

As he approached his house, he heard crying in the house. From a terrible premonition, the blood froze in his veins, for Luke remembered Elijah’s curse. Entering the house, he was horrified. His old father fell into the fire and burned his entire face and eyes. When Luke saw this, he was speechless and could neither speak nor cry. At dawn the next day, he went to court and admitted that he had slandered Ilya. The judge immediately released Ilya, and punished Luka for perjury. So Luke suffered two punishments for one sin: both from God and from people.

Here is an example of how your neighbor can expose your false testimony.

In Nice there lived a butcher named Anatole. A certain rich but dishonest merchant bribed him to give false testimony against his neighbor Emil, that he, Anatole, saw how Emil poured kerosene and set fire to the house of this merchant. And Anatole testified to this in court and swore an oath. Emil was convicted. But he swore that when he served his sentence, he would live only to prove that Anatole had perjured himself.

Coming out of prison, Emil, being a efficient man, soon accumulated a thousand Napoleons. He decided that he would give this entire thousand to force Anatole to admit to witnesses his slander. First of all, Emil found people who knew Anatole and made such a plan. They were supposed to invite Anatole to dinner, give him a good drink and then tell him that they needed a witness who would testify under oath at the trial that a certain innkeeper was sheltering the robbers.

The plan was a great success. Anatole was told the essence of the matter, laid out a thousand gold Napoleons in front of him and asked if he could find a reliable person who would show what they needed at the trial. Anatole's eyes lit up when he saw a pile of gold in front of him, and he immediately declared that he would take on this matter himself. Then his friends pretended to doubt whether he would be able to do everything right, whether he would be afraid, whether he would not be confused at the trial. Anatole began to ardently convince them that he could do it. And then they asked him if he had ever done such things and how successfully? Unaware of the trap, Anatole admitted that there was a case when he was paid for false testimony against Emil, who as a result was sent to hard labor.

Having heard everything they needed, the friends went to Emil and told him everything. The next morning, Emil filed a complaint with the court. Anatole was tried and sent to hard labor. Thus, the inevitable punishment of God overtook the slanderer and restored the good name of a decent person.

Here is an example of how a false witness himself confessed to his crime.

In one town there lived two guys, two friends, Georgy and Nikola. Both were unmarried. And both fell in love with the same girl, the daughter of a poor artisan who had seven daughters, all unmarried. The eldest was named Flora. It was this Flora that both friends were looking at. But Georgy turned out to be faster. He wooed Flora and asked his friend to be the best man. Nikola was overcome with such envy that he decided to prevent their wedding at all costs. And he began to dissuade George from marrying Flora, because, according to him, she was a dishonest girl and went out with many people. His friend’s words struck George like a sharp knife, and he began to assure Nikola that this could not be true. Then Nikola said that he himself had a relationship with Flora. George believed his friend, went to her parents and refused to marry. Soon the whole city knew about it. A shameful stain fell on the whole family. The sisters began to reproach Flora. And she, in despair, unable to justify herself, threw herself into the sea and drowned.

About a year later, Nikola went to church on Maundy Thursday and heard the priest calling parishioners to communion. “But let thieves, liars, oathbreakers and those who besmirched the honor of an innocent girl not approach the Chalice. It would be better for them to take fire into themselves than the Blood of the pure and innocent Jesus Christ,” he concluded.

Hearing such words, Nikola trembled like an aspen leaf. Immediately after the service, he asked the priest to confess him, which the priest did. Nikola confessed everything and asked what he should do to save himself from the reproaches of a bad conscience, which was gnawing at him like a hungry lioness. The priest advised him, if he was truly ashamed of his sin and afraid of punishment, to tell about his offense publicly, through the newspaper.

Nikola did not sleep the whole night, gathering all his courage to repent publicly. The next morning he wrote about everything he had done, namely, how he had cast a disgrace on the venerable family of a decent artisan and how he had lied to his friend. At the end of the letter he wrote: “I will not go to trial. The court will not condemn me to Death, but I only deserve death. Therefore, I sentence myself to death.” And the next day he hanged himself.

“Oh, Lord, Righteous God, how miserable are people who do not follow Your holy commandment and do not bridle their sinful heart and their tongue with an iron bridle. God, help me, a sinner, not to sin against the truth. Make me wise with Your truth, Jesus, Son of God, burn away all the lies in my heart, like a gardener burns the nests of caterpillars on the fruit trees in the garden. Amen".

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; neither his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

And this means:

As soon as you desire something that belongs to someone else, you have already fallen into sin. Now the question is, will you come to your senses, will you come to your senses, or will you continue to roll down the inclined plane, where the desire of someone else is taking you?

Desire is the seed of sin. A sinful act is already a harvest from the seed sown and grown.

Pay attention to the differences between this, the tenth commandment of the Lord, and the previous nine. In the previous nine commandments, the Lord God prevents your sinful actions, that is, does not allow the harvest to grow from the seed of sin. And in this tenth commandment, the Lord looks at the root of sin and does not allow you to sin in your thoughts. This commandment serves as a bridge between the Old Testament, given by God through the prophet Moses, and the New Testament, given by God through Jesus Christ, because when you read the New Testament, you will see that the Lord no longer commands people not to kill with their hands, not to commit adultery with the flesh, not to steal with your hands, don't lie with your tongue. On the contrary, He descends into the depths of the human soul and obliges us not to kill even in our thoughts, not to imagine adultery even in our thoughts, not to steal even in our thoughts, not to lie in silence.

So, the tenth commandment serves as a transition to the Law of Christ, which is more moral, higher and more important than the Law of Moses.

Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. For as soon as you desired something that belongs to someone else, you have already sown the seed of evil in your heart, and the seed will grow, and grow, and grow, and become stronger, and branch out, causing your hands, and your feet, and your eyes, and your tongue to sin. , and your whole body. For the body, brothers, is the executive organ of the soul. The body only carries out the orders given by the soul. What the soul wants, the body must fulfill, and what the soul does not want, the body cannot fulfill.

Which plant, brothers, grows the fastest? Fern, isn't it? But a desire sown in the human heart grows faster than a fern. Today it will grow just a little, tomorrow - twice as much, the day after tomorrow - four times, the day after tomorrow - sixteen times, and so on.

If today you are envious of your neighbor’s house, tomorrow you will begin to make plans to appropriate it, the day after tomorrow you will demand that he give you his house, and after the day after tomorrow you will take his house away or set it on fire.

If today you looked at his wife with lust, tomorrow you will begin to figure out how to kidnap her, the day after tomorrow you will enter into an illegal relationship with her, and the day after tomorrow you will plan, together with her, to kill your neighbor and possess his wife.

If today you desired your neighbor’s ox, tomorrow you will want that ox twice as much, the day after tomorrow four times as much, and the day after tomorrow you will steal his ox. And if your neighbor accuses you of stealing his ox, you will swear in court that the ox is yours.

This is how sinful deeds grow from sinful thoughts. And also, note that the one who tramples this tenth commandment will break the other nine commandments one after another.

Listen to my advice: try to fulfill this last commandment of God, and it will be easier for you to fulfill all the others. Trust me that the one whose heart is filled with evil desires darkens his soul so much that he becomes unable to believe in the Lord God, and to work at a certain time, and to observe Sunday, and to honor his parents. In truth, it is true for all commandments: if you break even one, you will break all ten.

There is a parable about sinful thoughts.

One righteous man named Laurus left his village and went to the mountains, eradicating all his desires in his soul, except the desire to devote himself to God and get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Laurus spent several years in fasting and prayer, thinking only about God. When he returned to the village again, all his fellow villagers marveled at his holiness. And everyone revered him as a true man of God. And there lived in that village someone named Thaddeus, who envied Laurus and told his fellow villagers that he too could become the same as Laurus. Then Thaddeus retired to the mountains and began to exhaust himself with fasting alone. However, a month later Thaddeus returned. And when fellow villagers asked what he had been doing all this time, he replied:

“I killed, I stole, I lied, I slandered people, I extolled myself, I committed adultery, I set houses on fire.

- How can this be if you were there alone?

“Yes, I was alone in body, but in soul and heart I was always among people, and what I could not do with my hands, feet, tongue and body, I did mentally in my soul.”

This is how, brothers, a person can sin even alone. Despite the fact that a bad person leaves the society of people, his sinful desires, his dirty soul and unclean thoughts will not leave him.

Therefore, brothers, let us pray to God that He will help us fulfill this last commandment of His and thereby prepare to listen, understand and accept God’s New Testament, that is, the Testament of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

“Lord God, Great and Terrible Lord, Great in His deeds, Terrible in His inevitable truth! Give us a little of Your strength, Your wisdom and Your good will to live according to this holy and great commandment of Yours. Choke, O God, every sinful desire in our hearts before it begins to choke us.

O Lord of the world, saturate our souls and bodies with Your power, for with our strength we cannot do anything; and nourish with Your wisdom, for our wisdom is stupidity and darkness of mind; and nourish with Your will, for our will, without Your good will, always serves evil. Come closer to us, Lord, so that we too may come closer to You. Bend down to us, O God, so that we may rise to You.

Sow, Lord, Your holy Law into our hearts, sow, plant, water, and let it grow, branch, blossom and bear fruit, for if You leave us alone with Your Law, without You we will not be able to get closer to it.

May Your name be glorified, O Lord, and may we honor Moses, Your chosen one and prophet, through whom You gave us that clear and powerful Testament.

Help us, Lord, to learn word for word that First Testament, in order through it to prepare for the great and glorious Testament of Your Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, our Savior, to Whom, together with You and with the Life-giving Holy Spirit, eternal glory, and song, and worship from generation to generation per generation, from century to century, until the end of time, until the Last Judgment, until the separation of unrepentant sinners from the righteous, until the victory over Satan, until the destruction of his kingdom of darkness and the reign of Your Eternal Kingdom over all kingdoms known to the mind and visible to the eye human. Amen".

God gave the Ten Old Testament Commandments (Decalogue) on Mount Sinai through Moses to the Jewish people when he was returning from Egypt to the land of Canaan, on two stone tablets (or tablets). The first four commandments contain the duties of love for God, the last six contain the duties of love for one's neighbor (i.e., all people).

Book of Exodus, chapter 20, 10 commandments of Moses.

(see also: Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 5)

1 And God spoke all these words, saying:

1. 2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

2.4 You shall not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 Do not worship them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, 6 and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. 7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain.

4. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy; 9 Six days thou shalt work and do all thy work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: on it thou shalt not do any work, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger who is in your gates; 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

5. 12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6. 13 Do not kill.

7. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. 15 Thou shalt not steal.

9. 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

Gospel of Mark, chapter 12

28 One of the scribes... came and asked Him, “What is the first of all the commandments?” 29 Jesus answered him: The first of all commandments is: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength—this is the first commandment! 31 The second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other greater commandment than these. 32 The scribe said to Him: Well done, Teacher! You have spoken the truth, that there is only God and there is no other besides Him; 33 And to love Him with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is greater than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 Jesus, seeing that he answered wisely, said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE COMMANDMENTS

The commandments of God are an external law given by God in addition to the weakened, as a result of a sinful life, the internal guideline of a person - his conscience.

The first commandment given at Sinai reads: “I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt have no god other than Me” (I am the Lord thy God... thou shalt have no other gods before Me).

This first commandment is the basis of all ten commandments of Sinai. It says that there is only one God - living and true, Who must be worshiped and Who must be loved with all our heart and with all our soul.

Could we, Orthodox Christians, really have “other gods?” Yes, it can be. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself said: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). This means that any treasure can become our idol, which we will begin to worship and love. For every treasure to which our heart is attached comes between God and us and becomes an idol for us.

If the first commandment speaks about the one living God and worshiping only Him, then the second commandment speaks about how to worship God.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness, such as the tree in heaven, the tree below, or the tree in the waters under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them, nor serve them.” , and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth. Do not worship them and do not serve them - Ex. 20, 4 - 5).

In order for us to correctly understand the words of the commandment, let us recall the words of St. ap. Paul, what he said in Athens: “We, therefore, being the race of God, should not think that the Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone, which received its image from the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29).

The Second Commandment prohibits idolatry and calls all believers to worship God. in spirit and truth (see John 4:21 - 24).

Idolatry is when people, instead of worshiping God, worship nature or things made by man himself.

In addition to gross idolatry, there is also subtle idolatry, such as covetousness, gluttony, or delicacy, gluttony and drunkenness, pride, vanity, and hypocrisy.

The question involuntarily arises: is it not prohibited by the second commandment to have sacred images in general?

This is the answer we find in the Orthodox Catechism of Metropolitan Philaret:

“Not at all. This is clearly evident from the fact that the same Moses, through whom God gave the commandment prohibiting idols, at the same time received from God a command to place in the Tabernacle... golden sacred images of Cherubim, and, moreover, in that inner part of the temple in which the people turned to worship God" (see Exodus 25, 17-22).

The veneration of holy icons, the cross, and sacred images in general is not idolatry because the respect shown by them relates to the one whom they remind us of...

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” - Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave without punishment the one who takes His name in vain (Ex. 20:7).

We can safely say about this commandment that it is violated more than all other commandments of God in our lives.

What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? This means: to pronounce it at every trifle, in small, insignificant circumstances, to pronounce it at every step... Who among us is not guilty of this sin?...

Taking the name of God in vain is also the so-called deification. We know how common it is among people to deify, that is, calling God as a witness in necessary and unnecessary cases. And how often God is called as a witness in cases of obvious lies, in cases of obvious untruth... We know that even the apostle committed this sin. Peter (see Matthew 26:74)...

There should be no place for God among Christians, for this is a clear violation of God’s commandments!

Let us always remember that if we are guilty of violating one commandment, then we are guilty of violating the law of God, the will of God in general (see James 2, 10), for the will of God is indivisible.

The fourth commandment reads:

“Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy: do it six days, and do (in them) all your work; on the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord your God. - Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Work six days and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God” (see Exodus 20:8-11).

To understand the fourth commandment given by God at Sinai, we must know that the word “Saturday” is not a Russian word, but comes from the Hebrew word “Sabbath”, which means; peace. This means that in Hebrew the fourth commandment exactly says: “Remember the day of rest... six days you shall work and do all your work; and the seventh day is a day of rest for the Lord your God.”

Why did the Church of Christ in the New Testament begin to sanctify the first day of the week, that is, Sunday as a day of rest? Because the resurrection of the Lord took place on the first day of the week (see Luke 24: 1 - 3). And this day, Sunday, has become a day of rest for all the faithful children of God of the New Testament since the birth of the Church of Christ on earth (see John 20, 19-24; Acts 20, 7-12; 1 Cor. 16, 1-2; Rev. 1, 10).

Following the example of the holy apostles and ancient Christians, we honor and sanctify the first day of the week, that is, Sunday - in memory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which gave us justification and liberation from sinful slavery.

What does it mean to remember and sacred the day of rest? - On the day of rest we should not do things that can be done at another time. But this does not mean that we should not do things that are impossible or difficult to do without on the day of rest. What are the things that cannot be done without on the day of rest - this must be decided personally by everyone.

The New Testament does not list things that can and cannot be done on the day of rest, as we see, for example, in the Old Testament regarding the Sabbath. However, church tradition clearly tells us what can and should be done on the day of rest.

First of all, we must be “in the spirit” on the day of rest, as the apostle was in the spirit. John on Sunday on the island of Patmos.

Being in the spirit on the day of rest means focusing on your inner spirit man. This means giving our soul good spiritual food. This food is given in our St. churches, so attending services on the day of rest is the best remedy to show care for our inner man.

If we were unable to be in church on Sundays and holidays, then we will give our soul spiritual food at home - by reading the Word of God and spiritual literature.

But the Day of Rest does not mean a day of inactivity. To sanctify the day of rest means to fill it with holy deeds (see Luke 13:10-16; John 5:5-16)- deeds of love and mercy. Many bedridden patients await visits and consolation. Let us go to them with feelings of love and compassion and with words of consolation and encouragement. And this will be the best observance of our days of rest.

When we look at the first four commandments, we see what they say about our relationship to God. Starting with the fifth commandment, God tells us about our attitude towards people.

“Honor your father and your mother, may you be well, and may you live long on earth.” - Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you (Ex. 20:12).

He who does not honor his father or mother in the broadest sense of the word cannot be a good Christian or a good Christian woman.

We may be surprised by the promise of God associated with the fifth commandment... The longevity that God associates with the fulfillment of the fifth commandment will become understandable to us if we remember that the violation of this commandment was punishable by death among the people of Israel. In Exodus 21:17 we read: “Whoever curses his father or his mother must be put to death.” Solomon speaks very clearly in his parables about the result of breaking the fifth commandment: “Whoever curses his father and his mother, his sanctuary will go out in the midst of deep darkness” (Proverbs 20:20).

In order for us to better understand the meaning of the fifth commandment about honoring parents, it is necessary to note that the concept of father and mother cannot be limited only to the father and mother from whom we were born... It must include every person who is older than us in physical or spiritual age, who above us in knowledge or experience, who occupies a commanding position in the church or people. Then only we will understand the greatest significance of the fifth commandment both for the believing people and for all humanity.

The sixth commandment says: “Thou shalt not kill!” - Do not kill (Ex. 20, 13).

The word “kill” is well understood by all of us. But we must penetrate even deeper into its meaning. Killing means; to deprive a living being of the most precious thing it possesses, that is, life. Between birth and death, life manifests itself in the most complex phenomena - in processes occurring in the body, and in humans, in the soul. Having created man, God breathed into him “breath of life”, after which only the man became “with a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). When creating plants and animals, God did not endow them with His “breath.” This suggests that man received from God many Divine properties that plants and animals do not possess. And the sixth commandment was given by God to protect life, as the highest good that a person possesses.

The Word of God says that murder is not only the taking of oneself or another person's life, but also the destruction of life, leading to premature death.

What destroys human life? Alcohol slowly but surely leads the alcoholic to an early grave. Smoking, slowly but surely, poisons a person with the strongest poison of nicotine. Both the alcoholic and the smoker are definitely breaking the sixth commandment, which is: “Thou shalt not kill!” Excesses in food and drink definitely destroy the digestive organs and disrupt cardiac activity, thereby shortening a person’s life. May the Lord preserve us from gluttony, which is slow suicide.

Neglect of medicine can also lead to premature death of human life... But vice versa: drug abuse can also lead to a shortening of life.

But what is especially surprising: the Word of God equates hatred with murder. Thus, in the first conciliar letter of St. ap. John the Theologian we read: “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer” (3:15).

Hatred is a feeling of intense enmity that is inextricably linked to wishing the worst for the person we hate. And if we analyze the feeling of hatred even more deeply, then we will see that hatred carries within itself the desire for the death of the one we hate. This desire for the death of the one we hate may be hidden deep in our hearts, but it accompanies every feeling of hatred, whether we like it or not. That is why everyone who hates his neighbor is a potential murderer, that is, a hidden murderer who has not shown himself in practice, but wants the destruction and disappearance of the person he hates.

The Word of God speaks of one weapon, which also carries death within itself and which is also capable of killing. This is the language of man. St. ap. Jacob writes:

“No one can tame the tongue: it is an uncontrollable evil; it is filled with deadly poison” (3, 8). What serious words about the lethality of our language! They say that a person can be killed with the tongue, that is, with the word... Such sins of our tongue as slander and slander can truly deeply and mortally wound the heart of our neighbor.

And slander is especially deadly. It really destroys the slandered person: it destroys his dignity, his authority. Slander can turn the purest angel into the dirtiest creature in the eyes of others... Let the words of the sixth commandment warn us with regard to our tongue: “Thou shalt not kill!”

The seventh commandment says: “You shall not commit adultery.” - You shall not commit adultery (Ex. 20:14).

This great commandment is quite clear to all humanity, and only one thing is necessary - that there be a burning desire in the heart to always fulfill it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ in His Sermon on the Mount expanded the seventh commandment of the Old Testament. He tells us that, in addition to physical adultery, there is also spiritual adultery, adultery in the heart, adultery in the thoughts... And in His eyes, our unclean thoughts are as sinful as our unclean deeds.

The seventh commandment - the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” - calls us to absolute chastity, to chastity not only of the flesh, but also of the spirit, to chastity of heart and thoughts. And such chastity will be our property if we constantly abide in Christ, and He in us.

The eighth commandment is short and clear: “Thou shalt not steal.” - Don't steal. (Ex. 20, 15).

Many thefts, many thefts, seemingly harmless, are committed on our earthly planet, and how necessary for humanity is the commandment of God: “Thou shalt not steal.” For most people, this commandment is forgotten or deliberately violated. We often don't care about the appropriation of any little thing. One mother severely punished her boy son for taking someone else's spool of thread. The neighbor tells her: “Well, is it really possible to punish a boy for a reel like he took gold?” The mother replied: “Today he took the reel, and tomorrow he will take the gold.” Of course, human law will not punish a spool of thread as severely as gold. But God's law is strict also in relation to so-called little things. for petty thefts are a sure path to big thefts, and most importantly, they are, like big thefts, a violation of the eighth commandment.

The ninth commandment is: “You shall not listen to false testimony against your friend.” - Do not bear false witness against your neighbor (Ex. 20:16).

Some interpreters of God's Word limit the ninth commandment to testimony in the courts. The institution of witnesses in courts exists in all countries of the world, and evasion of testimony is punishable by the laws of each country. Unfortunately, there are witnesses who testify in court with lies.

Since false testimony in courts is punishable by law, not all witnesses dare to give false testimony there. False witnesses bear their false testimony where they are not threatened with punishment. Thus, the ninth commandment is much broader in scope: it embraces a person’s entire life...

We all know that there are two sides to every person: good and bad. Every person has pros and cons, good, positive qualities, and bad, negative qualities. If we draw a person only from the bad side, if we only emphasize him bad qualities, then we definitely bear false testimony against him, that is, we portray him untruthfully. We know the property of flies - to look for wounds and ulcers on the human body and sit on them. This is exactly what those who say only bad things about people do. They say that Tsar Peter the Great allegedly interrupted every person who told him only bad things about someone, with these words: “Don’t just tell me about the bad sides of this person - he also has good qualities, so tell me about them too.” "

But a false witness never talks about good qualities man, he carries only black paints with him. False testimony against a person is the spreading of unverified and unkind rumors about him. The effect of this kind of false testimony is extremely powerful. It is like a ignited fire that spreads with lightning speed, grabbing more and more new objects.

Exaggerating the shortcomings of our neighbors is also false evidence... But exaggerating the shortcomings and mistakes of our neighbors can result in reproach. How many believers are guilty of this sin!

But the most terrible false testimony against one’s neighbor is slander.

Slander is the utterance of a deliberate lie with the aim of defaming a person. Slander is the attribution of some kind of impurity, some kind of fictitious sin to a pure and innocent person. Slander is throwing dirt at a person who does not deserve it.

The worst thing about the sin of bearing false witness against our neighbor is that the spoken word can never be taken back. Never! You can regret what you said, you can cry and sob... You can repent before God and ask for forgiveness from the person whom we denigrated with our false testimony, but what we said about him is said forever and irrevocably.

Counterfeit money in circulation can be gradually caught and destroyed. But how to catch slander and how to heal the souls poisoned by it? How great this sin is in the eyes of God can be seen from the Book of Revelation, where it is said that the fate “all liars... in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone” (21, 8).

The tenth commandment reads: “You shall not covet your true wife, you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his village, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor any of his livestock, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” . - Do not covet your neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s (Ex. 20:17).

The tenth commandment given by God at Sinai is directed against a very common vice - covetousness. Covetousness is greed, the desire to have more than is necessary: ​​to have beyond what is necessary... The covetous person himself will never call covetousness a sin. He thinks, rather, that this is a virtue, that this is special wisdom, care and forethought regarding one’s future.

The sin of covetousness made Judas Iscariot first a thief, and subsequently a traitor to his Teacher Christ, because thirty pieces of silver turned out to be more valuable to him than the Savior of the world. What did these pieces of silver give to Judas? Nothing but terrifying remorse, to get rid of which he threw them at the feet of the enemies of Christ, and he himself went and hanged himself.

Let's listen to what the ap. writes. Paul to Timothy about covetousness and the love of money: “The root of all evil is the love of money, to which some have abandoned the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows. But you, a man of God, flee from these things, and advance in righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Tim. 6:10-11). Ap. Paul in these words contrasts earthly treasures with heavenly treasures.

Covetousness and love of money are truly the root of all evil. The most friendly families were broken up when dividing the inheritance left after the death of the parents, and disputes about the inheritance led and continue to lead to enmity between siblings. Covetousness has generated and continues to generate thousands of arranged marriages, which, apart from tears, give nothing to those entering into such a marriage.

It was covetousness and the love of money that were the cause of all thefts and thefts, that is, the violation of the eighth commandment “Thou shalt not steal.”

Covetousness has given rise to most of the bloodiest wars in human history. And this same sin was the reason for the enslavement of black blacks, the horrors of whose slavery the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” tells so well.

St. ap. Paul calls covetousness “idolatry” (Col. 3:5). And indeed: mammon easily turns into an idol, into “another god” and chains the heart of the covetous to herself.

Modesty in everything - in clothing, in food, in our daily life - this is the way to overcome covetousness, thirst for profit, greed, in a word, to overcome the search for more than we need. Ap writes well about this. Pavel in 1 Tim. 6, 6-9: “It is a great gain to be pious and content. For we have brought nothing into the world; It’s obvious that we can’t take anything out of it. Having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts that plunge people into disaster and destruction.”.

Let us remember the parable of Christ about one covetous man: “A certain rich man had a good harvest in his field; and he reasoned with himself: what should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits. And he said: “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will gather all my grain and all my goods.” And I will say to my soul: “Soul! You have a lot of good things for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him: “You fool! This night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves and are not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

We must always remember the words of Christ: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26).

May the Lord help us to always fulfill the tenth commandment and not to cleave our hearts to the idols of earthly treasures, so that we do not simultaneously become violators of the first commandment, which says: “I am the Lord your God... you shall have no other gods!”

We cited the ten commandments of God according to the text of the Bible and their accepted division in the Orthodox Catechism.

Reading the second division of God's commandments according to the tradition of some Christian churches, we seem to notice a difference, but this difference is only apparent, since the content of all ten commandments is fully explained, both in the first division and in the second.

The fact that for salvation it is absolutely necessary to fulfill the ten Old Testament commandments follows from the answer of our Lord Jesus Christ to the man who asked Him what he needs to do in order to inherit eternal life? The answer was: “If you want to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments”. Undoubtedly, the Lord had the Ten Commandments in mind, since He directly cited some of them. (Matthew 19:16-19).

A truly good Christian life can only be had by someone who has the faith of Christ in himself and tries to live according to this faith, that is, fulfills the will of God through good deeds.
So that people knew how to live and what to do, God gave them His commandments - the Law of God. The Prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments from God approximately 1500 years before the birth of Christ. This happened when the Jews emerged from slavery in Egypt and approached Mount Sinai in the desert.
God Himself wrote the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets (slabs). The first four commandments outlined man's duties towards God. The remaining six commandments outlined man's duties towards his fellowmen. People at that time were not yet accustomed to living according to the will of God and easily committed serious crimes. Therefore, for violating many commandments, such as: for idolatry, bad words against God, for bad words against parents, for murder and for violation of marital fidelity, the death penalty was imposed. The Old Testament was dominated by a spirit of severity and punishment. But this severity was useful for people, as it restrained their bad habits, and people little by little began to improve.
The other Nine Commandments (the Beatitudes) are also known, which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave to people at the very beginning of His preaching. The Lord ascended a low mountain near Lake Galilee. The apostles and many people gathered around Him. The Beatitudes are dominated by love and humility. They set out how a person can gradually achieve perfection. The basis of virtue is humility (spiritual poverty). Repentance cleanses the soul, then meekness and love for God’s truth appear in the soul. After this, a person becomes compassionate and merciful and his heart is so purified that he becomes able to see God (feel His presence in his soul).
But the Lord saw that most people choose evil and that evil people will hate and persecute true Christians. Therefore, in the last two beatitudes, the Lord teaches us to patiently endure all injustices and persecution from bad people.
We should focus our attention not on the fleeting trials that are inevitable in this temporary life, but on the eternal bliss that God has prepared for people who love Him.
Most of the commandments of the Old Testament tell us what we should not do, but the commandments of the New Testament teach us how to act and what to strive for.
The content of all the commandments of both the Old and New Testaments can be summarized in two commandments of love given by Christ: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The second is similar to it—thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. " And the Lord also gave us the right guidance on how to act: “As you want people to do to you, do so to them.”

Ten Commandments of the Old Testament.

An explanation of the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament.

The first commandment of the Old Testament.

“I am the Lord your God; let you have no other Gods besides Me.”

With the first commandment, the Lord God points man to Himself and inspires us to honor His one true God, and besides Him, we should not render Divine veneration to anyone. With the first commandment, God teaches us correct knowledge of God and correct worship of God.
Knowing God means knowing God correctly. Knowledge of God is the most important of all knowledge. This is our first and most important duty.
To acquire the knowledge of God we must:
1. Read and study the Holy Scriptures (and children: the book of God’s Law).
2. Regularly visit God’s temple and delve into the content church services and listen to the priest's sermon.
3. Think about God and the purpose of our earthly life.
Worship of God means that in all our actions we must express our faith in God, hope for His help and love for Him as our Creator and Savior.
When we go to church, pray at home, observe fasts and honor church holidays, obey our parents, help them in any way we can, study hard and do homework, when we are quiet, do not quarrel, when we help our neighbors, when we constantly think about God and recognize His presence with us - then we truly honor God, that is, we express our worship of God.
Thus, the first commandment to a certain extent contains the remaining commandments. Or the remaining commandments explain how to fulfill the first commandment.
Sins against the first commandment are:
Atheism (atheism) - when a person denies the existence of God (for example: communists).
Polytheism: worship of many gods or idols (wild tribes of Africa, South America and etc.).
Unbelief: doubt about Divine help.
Heresy: a distortion of the faith that God gave us. There are many sects in the world whose teachings were invented by people.
Apostasy: renunciation of faith in God or Christianity due to fear or hopes of receiving a reward.
Despair is when people, forgetting that God arranges everything for the better, begin to grumble dissatisfiedly or even attempt to commit suicide.
Superstition: belief in various signs, stars, fortune telling.

The second commandment of the Old Testament.

“Do not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, what is on the earth below, or what is in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down or serve them.”

Jews revere the golden calf, which they themselves made.
This commandment was written when people were very inclined to revere various idols and deify the forces of nature: the sun, stars, fire, etc. Idol worshipers built idols for themselves representing their false gods and worshiped these idols.
These days such gross idolatry is almost non-existent in developed countries.
However, if people give all their time and energy, all their worries to something earthly, forgetting family and even God, such behavior is also a kind of idolatry, which is prohibited by this commandment.
Idolatry is excessive attachment to money and wealth. Idolatry is constant gluttony, i.e. when a person only thinks about that, and does only that, to eat a lot and tasty. Drug addiction and drunkenness also fall under this sin of idolatry. Proud people who always want to be the center of attention, want everyone to honor them and obey them unquestioningly also violate the second commandment.
At the same time, the second commandment does not prohibit the correct veneration of the Holy Cross and holy icons. It does not prohibit it because, by honoring a cross or an icon where the true God is depicted, a person gives honor not to the wood or paint from which these objects are made, but to Jesus Christ or the saints who are depicted on them.
Icons remind us of God, icons help us pray, because our soul is structured in such a way that what we look at is what we think about.
When we honor the saints depicted on icons, we do not give them equal veneration as equals to God, but we pray to them as our patrons and prayer books before God. Saints are our older brothers. They see our difficulties, see our weakness and inexperience and help us.
God Himself shows us that He does not prohibit the correct veneration of holy icons; on the contrary, God shows help to people through holy icons. There are many miraculous icons, for example: the Kursk Mother of God, weeping icons in different parts of the world, many renewed icons in Russia, China and other countries.
In the Old Testament, God Himself commanded Moses to make golden images of cherubim (Angels) and place these images on the lid of the Ark, where the tablets with the commandments written on them were kept.
Since ancient times, images of the Savior have been revered in Christian Church. One of these images is the image of the Savior, called “Not Made by Hands.” Jesus Christ put a towel to his face, and the image of the Savior’s face miraculously remained on this towel. The sick king Abgar, as soon as he touched this towel, was healed of leprosy.

The third commandment of the Old Testament.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

The third commandment is forbidden to pronounce the name of God in vain, without due reverence. The name of God is pronounced in vain when it is used in empty conversations, jokes, and games.
This commandment generally prohibits a frivolous and irreverent attitude towards the name of God.
Sins against this commandment are:
Bozhba: frivolous use of an oath with the mention of the name of God in ordinary conversations.
Blasphemy: bold words against God.
Blasphemy: disrespectful treatment of sacred objects.
It is also prohibited here to break vows - promises made to God.
The Name of God should be pronounced with fear and reverence only in prayer or when studying the Holy Scriptures.
We must avoid distraction in prayer in every possible way. To do this, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the prayers that we say at home or in church. Before saying a prayer, we must calm down even a little, think that we are going to talk with the eternal and omnipotent Lord God, before whom even the angels stand in awe; and finally, say our prayers slowly, trying to ensure that our prayer is sincere - coming straight from our mind and heart. Such reverent prayer pleases God, and the Lord, according to our faith, will give us the benefits that we ask.

The fourth commandment of the Old Testament.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall work and do all your work in them, but the seventh day is a day of rest, dedicated to the Lord your God."

The word "Sabbath" in Hebrew means rest. This day of the week was called this because on this day it was forbidden to work or engage in everyday affairs.
With the fourth commandment, the Lord God commands us to work and attend to our duties for six days, and to devote the seventh day to God, i.e. on the seventh day to perform holy and pleasing deeds to Him.
Holy and pleasing to God deeds are: caring for the salvation of one’s soul, prayer in the temple of God and at home, studying the Holy Scriptures and the Law of God, thinking about God and the purpose of one’s life, pious conversations about subjects Christian faith, helping the poor, visiting the sick and other good deeds.
In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was celebrated in memory of the end of God's creation of the world. In the New Testament from the time of St. The apostles began to celebrate the first day after Saturday, Sunday - in remembrance of the Resurrection of Christ.
On Sunday, Christians gathered for prayer. They read the Holy Scriptures, sang psalms and received communion at the liturgy. Unfortunately, now many Christians are not as zealous as in the first centuries of Christianity, and many have become less likely to receive communion. However, we must never forget that Sunday should belong to God.
Those who are lazy and do not work or do not fulfill their duties on weekdays violate the fourth commandment. Those who continue to work on Sundays and do not go to church violate this commandment. This commandment is also violated by those who, although they do not work, spend Sunday in nothing but fun and games, without thinking about God, good deeds and the salvation of their souls.
In addition to Sundays, Christians dedicate to God some other days of the year on which the Church celebrates great events. These are the so-called church holidays.
Our greatest holiday is Easter - the day of the Resurrection of Christ. It is "the celebration of celebrations and the celebration of celebrations."
There are 12 great holidays, called the twelve. Some of them are dedicated to God and are called the Lord's feasts, others of them are dedicated to the Mother of God and are called the Theotokos feasts.
The Lord's holidays: (1) Nativity of Christ, (2) Baptism of the Lord, (3) Presentation of the Lord, (4) Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, (5) Resurrection of Christ, (6) Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles (Trinity), (7) Transfiguration of the Lord and (8) Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord. Mother of God holidays: (1) Nativity of the Mother of God, (2) Entry into the Temple Holy Mother of God, (3) Annunciation and (4) Dormition of the Mother of God.

The fifth commandment of the Old Testament.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that it may go well with you and may you live long on earth.”

With the fifth commandment, the Lord God commands us to honor our parents and for this he promises a prosperous and long life.
To honor parents means: to love them, to be respectful to them, not to insult them either by words or deeds, to obey them, to help them in daily labors, to take care of them when they are in need, and especially during their illness and old age, also pray to God for them both during their life and after death.
The sin of disrespect for parents is a great sin. In the Old Testament, anyone who spoke bad words to their father or mother was punished by death.
Along with our parents, we must honor those who in some respect replace our parents. These persons include: bishops and priests who care about our salvation; civil authorities: the president of the country, the governor of the state, the police and everyone in general from those who have the responsibility to maintain order and normal life in the country. Therefore, we also need to honor teachers and all people older than us who have experience in life and can give us good advice.
Those who sin against this commandment are those who do not respect elders, especially old people, who are distrustful of their comments and instructions, considering them “backward” people and their concepts “outdated.” God said: “Rise up before the face of the gray-haired man and honor the face of the old man” (Lev. 19:32).
When a younger person meets an older one, the younger one should be the first to say hello. When the teacher enters the classroom, students must stand up. If an elderly person or a woman with a child enters a bus or train, the young person must stand up and give up his seat. When a blind person wants to cross the street, you need to help him.
Only when elders or superiors require us to do something against our faith and law should we not obey them. God's law and obedience to God are the supreme law for all people.
In totalitarian countries, leaders sometimes make laws and give orders that are contrary to God's Law. Sometimes they demand that a Christian renounce his faith or do something against his faith. In this case, a Christian must be ready to suffer for his faith and for the name of Christ. God promises eternal bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven as a reward for these sufferings. “He who endures to the end will be saved...Whoever gives his life for Me and for the Gospel will find it again” (Matt. 10th chapter).

The sixth commandment of the Old Testament.

"Don't kill."

The sixth commandment of the Lord God prohibits murder, i.e. taking life from other people, as well as from oneself (suicide) in any way.
Life is the greatest gift of God, therefore no one has the right to take this gift away.
Suicide is the most terrible sin because this sin consists of despair and murmuring against God. And besides, after death there is no opportunity to repent and make amends for your sin. A suicide condemns his soul to eternal torment in hell. In order not to despair, we must always remember that God loves us. He is our Father, He sees our difficulties and has enough strength to help us even in the most difficult situation. God, according to His wise plans, sometimes allows us to suffer from illness or some kind of trouble. But we must firmly know that God arranges everything for the better, and He turns the sorrows that befall us to our benefit and salvation.
Unjust judges violate the sixth commandment if they condemn a defendant whose innocence they know. Anyone who helps others commit murder or helps a murderer escape punishment also violates this commandment. This commandment is also violated by the one who did nothing to save his neighbor from death, when he could well have done so. Also the one who exhausts his workers with hard work and cruel punishments and thereby hastens their death.
He who wishes the death of another person also sins against the sixth commandment, hates his neighbors and causes them grief with his anger and words.
Besides physical murder, there is another terrible murder: spiritual murder. When a person tempts another to sin, he spiritually kills his neighbor, because sin is death for the eternal soul. Therefore, all those who distribute drugs, seductive magazines and films, who teach others how to do evil, or who set a bad example, violate the sixth commandment. Those who spread atheism, unbelief, witchcraft and superstition among people also violate this commandment; Those who sin are those who preach various exotic beliefs that contradict Christian teaching.
Unfortunately, in some exceptional cases it is necessary to allow murder to stop an inevitable evil. For example, if the enemy attacked a peaceful country, warriors must defend their homeland and their families. In this case, the warrior not only kills out of necessity to save his loved ones, but also puts his life in danger and sacrifices himself to save his loved ones.
Also, judges sometimes have to sentence incorrigible criminals to death in order to save society from their further crimes against people.

The seventh commandment of the Old Testament.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

By the seventh commandment, the Lord God forbids adultery and all illegal and unclean relationships.
The married husband and wife made a promise to live together all their lives and share both joys and sorrows together. Therefore, with this commandment God forbids divorce. If a husband and wife have different characters and tastes, they should make every effort to smooth out their differences and put family unity above personal gain. Divorce is not only a violation of the seventh commandment, but also a crime against children, who are left without a family and after a divorce are often forced to live in conditions alien to them.
God commands unmarried people to maintain purity of thoughts and desires. We must avoid everything that can arouse unclean feelings in the heart: bad words, immodest jokes, shameless jokes and songs, violent and exciting music and dances. Seductive magazines and films should be avoided, as well as reading immoral books.
The Word of God commands us to keep our bodies clean, because our bodies “are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.”
The most terrible sin against this commandment is unnatural relations with persons of the same sex. Nowadays, they even register a kind of “families” between men or between women. Such people often die from incurable and terrible diseases. For this terrible sin, God completely destroyed the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as the Bible tells us about (chapter 19).

Eighth commandment of the Old Testament.

"Don't steal."

By the eighth commandment, God prohibits theft, that is, the appropriation in any way of what belongs to others.
Sins against this commandment can be:
Deception (i.e. appropriation of someone else's thing by cunning), for example: when they evade paying a debt, hide what they found without looking for the owner of the found thing; when they weigh you down during a sale or give the wrong change; when they do not give the worker the required wages.
Theft is the theft of someone else's property.
Robbery is the taking of someone else's property by force or with a weapon.
This commandment is also violated by those who take bribes, that is, take money for what they should have done as part of their duties. Those who violate this commandment are those who pretend to be sick in order to receive money without working. Also, those who work dishonestly do things for show in front of their superiors, and when they are not there, they do nothing.
With this commandment, God teaches us to work honestly, to be satisfied with what we have, and not to strive for great wealth.
A Christian should be merciful: donate part of his money to the church and poor people. Everything that a person has in this life does not belong to him forever, but is given to him by God for temporary use. Therefore, we need to share with others what we have.

The ninth commandment of the Old Testament.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against another."

By the ninth commandment, the Lord God forbids telling lies about another person and forbids all lies in general.
The ninth commandment is broken by those who:
Gossiping - retelling to others the shortcomings of his acquaintances.
Slanders - deliberately tells lies about other people with the aim of harming them.
Condemns - makes a strict assessment of a person, classifying him as a bad person. The Gospel does not forbid us to evaluate actions themselves in terms of how good or bad they are. We must distinguish evil from good, we must distance ourselves from all sin and injustice. But we should not take on the role of a judge and say that such and such our acquaintance is a drunkard, or a thief, or a dissolute person, and so on. By this we condemn not so much evil as the person himself. This right to condemn belongs only to God. Very often we see only external actions, but do not know about a person’s mood. Often, sinners themselves are then burdened by their shortcomings, ask God for forgiveness of sins, and with God’s help overcome their shortcomings.
The ninth commandment teaches us to bridle our tongue and watch what we say. Most of our sins come from unnecessary words, from idle talk. The Savior said that man would have to give an answer to God for every word he spoke.

Tenth commandment of the Old Testament.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, you shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his field... nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

With the tenth commandment, the Lord God forbids not only doing anything bad to others, those around us, but also forbids bad desires and even bad thoughts towards them.
The sin against this commandment is called envy.
Anyone who envyes, who in his thoughts desires the things of others, can easily lead from bad thoughts and desires to bad deeds.
But envy itself defiles the soul, making it unclean before God. The Holy Scripture says: “Evil thoughts are an abomination to God” (Prov. 15:26).
One of the main tasks of a true Christian is to cleanse his soul from all internal impurity.
To avoid sin against the tenth commandment, it is necessary to keep the heart pure from any excessive attachment to earthly objects. We must be content with what we have and thank God.
Students in school should not be jealous of other students when others are doing very well and doing well. Everyone should try to study as best as possible and attribute their success not only to themselves, but to the Lord, who gave us reason, the opportunity to learn and everything necessary for the development of abilities. A true Christian rejoices when he sees others succeed.
If we sincerely ask God, He will help us become true Christians.

Why should a person fulfill the 10 commandments of God? Why are the 7 sins called mortal sins if life goes on? Read more about the essence of the 10 commandments and the 7 deadly sins in this article!

Do people really need the rules that the Orthodox Church calls for? Maybe it’s better to live as you want and not fool yourself with theological “tales”? And, in general, what do I care about God, and what does He care about me?

Why is a person given an inquisitive mind?

Only a person with intelligence asks questions and seeks answers. A wise person will find meaning in life, know why he was born, who God is, why he should believe in Him, fulfill the commandments, and fight sins. It is not difficult to make sure that the world was created by the Logos - this is an indisputable fact (you can verify personal experience), since opposing theories do not stand up to the criticism of believing pundits. The monkey won’t think; for some reason he doesn’t need it.

We are given an inquisitive mind. By whom? Of course, by the One in whose Image the first man was created. We are the descendants and heirs not only of external similarity (we walk upright, have arms, legs, we speak), but also of spiritual, and even the damage to the soul acquired by it. We are a “computer” whose memory contains not only progressive, but also “viral” programs.

What did we inherit from Adam and Eve?

The fact that humanity has lost Paradise is not so bad. The worst thing is that instead of eternal life, where there was no suffering, no illness, no sorrow, no hunger, no cold, they acquired as an inheritance:

• mortality- sooner or later life will be taken away: from someone in infancy or even from an unborn;
• passion– anger, irritability, the need to eat, dress, conquer space, work hard at work, live indulging in suffering and sins;
• perishability– strength and youth melt away quickly, old age and illness, weakness are the result of our existence.

This is what we inherited from our forefathers. Can the lot of human life be called a victory or a triumph of reason, when for violating the only commandment: “Do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” you came to such a pitiful state? To return the lost Paradise, having chosen the Christian path of life, you will inevitably come to the fight against sin.

Decalogue or 10 Commandments of God

And the question immediately arises: Why did God give Adam and Eve one commandment, and us 10? The answer lies in the fall of Cain, who killed Abel out of envy. Essentially being a proud man, he laid the foundation for the Cainite line. The Gospel of Mark lists the lineage of Christ down to the tribe of the first man. The clan of the Virgin Mary is also not Cainite. Ham became the successor of his works. What kind of a field are we, who can tell now?

Over time, people completely “lost their edges.” They stopped distinguishing between what is good and what is bad. Remember the wild tribes. Eating your enemy was considered valor. Lying for profit is a wise trick. Rape is the norm. Worshiping idols is a vital need. Not to mention Sodom and other perversions. Man, destined to inherit the qualities of God, without knowledge of the Truth, is entangled in his own delusions.

Ten Commandments of God's Law:

1. I am the Lord your God; Let you have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth; do not worship them or serve them.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; Six days you shall work and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days on earth may be long.
6. Dont kill.
7. Don't commit adultery.
8. Don't steal.
9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

The flood did not cleanse humanity of sinful depravity, which brings eternal torment, for long. How can we be saved so that we can regain the state lost by Adam? First, God gave 10 commandments to distinguish good from evil, truth from lies, goodness from destruction. Then He sent His Son, so that through repentance and union with Him (sanctification) they could get out of the trap into which they had driven themselves. Therefore, without Christ, nothing good shines for us, only eternal darkness and torment.

Note: Through the commandments, a person recognizes sin and sees that he is infected with it. If he wants to fulfill it, he will understand that he does not have such willpower. Only Christ conquers sin. It is necessary like air. The grace-filled union with Him occurs through the Sacraments of the Church.

7 deadly sins - what are they?

In Orthodoxy there are not seven, but eight so-called main passions, inherited by us from Adam. And they become deadly because they interrupt the connection with the Lord. Grace is lost - a ticket to the heavenly abodes. There is no sin that the Lord will not forgive a sincerely repentant person, except:

• Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit– conscious renunciation of God, heresy, connection with unclean spirits, leading other people to destruction.
• Suicide- the way of Judas. This is an act of renunciation of God, unbelief, or the highest degree of such passion as despondency.

Here it’s time to remember the Sacraments of the Church and the teachings of the Holy Fathers on the fight against passions or, in other words, mortal sins. Although this expression is very conditional. In ancient times, some of them were stoned, hence the name. Now, when they say this, they mean spiritual mortality or a state of godlessness.

Most holy fathers speak of eight passions:

1. Gluttony;
2. Fornication;
3. Love of money;
4. Anger;
5. Sadness;
6. Dejection;
7. Vanity;
8. Pride .

Particularly serious sins

These are the ones that destroy both the soul and the body. Or those about whom it is said that they cry out to God for vengeance. Accept them not as a dogmatic statement, but as an experience. It is difficult to wash away from such violations of God’s Law without incurring punishment in the form of suffering.

If the scoundrel prospers (enduring illness and sorrow cleanses the soul), then the Lord is still waiting and suffering, since the posthumous fate of such people is very terrible. They gain full measure, deserving hellish retribution. The most serious sins include:

• Killing or humiliating (bullying) parents.
• Fornication, adultery, corruption, seducing others.
• Withholding the worker's legal wages.

But through repentance, penance, and deeds that atone for guilt, everything can be corrected while a person is alive. As Zacchaeus did, he promised that he would reward those deceived four times more than he took.

What are passions and how to overcome them

In fact, the frequently encountered concept of “7 (8) deadly sins” is the main passions that enslaved a person. They are derivatives of all other sins. For example:

• Love of money: It’s normal to be thrifty and economical. If, like Kashchei, you languish over gold, dream of wealth, envy, use unrighteous methods for excessive accumulation, excess, it means becoming a slave to passion. These include: unbelief in God, fear of old age, hard-heartedness towards the poor, greed, lack of mercy, theft, deception, etc.
• Gluttony- the mother of such sins: drunkenness, drug addiction, voluptuousness, gluttony, selfishness, intolerance, breaking fasts, etc.
• Dejection, depression is a plague modern world. In the United States, there are about 20 million people suffering from this disease. It ranks first, ahead of cardiovascular and oncological diseases. These include the following sins: neglect of duties, petrified insensitivity to matters of salvation, despair, driving oneself to suicide.

Major vices can be curbed if a person controls them. When he is unable to control himself, to say “no,” he is a slave to sin. You can have passions, but not act on them. This state is called dispassion; ascetics and saints of God strive for it. Saints achieve this, but none of them will say about themselves that they are sinless.

How to overcome passions?

It is wrong to believe that dispassion is the lot of monks and hermits. The commandments are given to all people. Whether they are in the world or have renounced it. To win, one must fight not only against sins, but against their derivative, that is, against the “parent”. Having defeated him, the “children” themselves will disappear. What weapon to use:

• Repentance.
• Participle.
• Fasting and prayer.
• Opposite virtues.

For example, non-covetousness, generosity, alms are opposite to the love of money. There is no clear distinction between passions. Having nurtured one, over time you will attract the other. Gluttony will give birth to fornication, fornication will lead to the love of money, etc. To get the fastest result, you need to start with the most outstanding, inherent in your nature.

Note: When you are rich in all 8 passions, the main evil is pride, vanity. They are opposed - love and humility. If you can acquire these virtues, consider that you have conquered sins and become saints.

One of the strongest regulators of people's actions, actions and thoughts is religion. She gave us simple rules of life that anyone, even a non-religious person, can follow.

The commandments of God are not just 10 rules that the Christian religion once accepted as a basis. You don't have to go to church every day for God to give you happiness. To do this, it is enough to show respect for his covenants and for the people around him. This is useful even from an energetic point of view, because positive and “pure” people always have more friends and fewer problems in their lives. This is evidenced by the philosophy of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and most religions.

10 commandments

First commandment: May you have no other Gods besides me. This is a purely Christian commandment, but it also tells everyone without exception that there can only be one truth. There are no exceptions.

Commandment two: Do not make yourself an idol. There is no need to look up to anyone other than God. This is disrespect for higher powers and to ourselves. We are all unique and worthy to go through life path to be an example for future generations. You can learn good things from others, but do not listen to them unquestioningly in everything, for people do not always advise and say what is pleasing to our Lord.

Commandment three: The name of the Lord should be uttered only when there is a compelling reason to do so. Try to talk less about Jesus Christ in simple conversations, and especially when your words are negative and dark.

Commandment four: Sunday is a day off. If you do not work on Sunday, then dedicate this day to proper rest. Always leave household chores for Saturday or weekdays. This is correct from any point of view, because from the point of view of bioenergy, one day a week should be a fasting day. Rest will increase your energy and give you good luck.

Fifth commandment: respect your parents. When children behave incorrectly towards their parents, this indicates that they are capable of causing pain to any person. They gave you life, therefore they are worthy of respect or at least gratitude, because they do not require anything from you in return.

Sixth Commandment: dont kill. Comments are unnecessary here, because taking the life of another person, even within the framework of the law, is disputed in many countries. The only reason to take a life is a threat to your life. Even in cases of self-defense, people do not tolerate such “gifts” of fate well.

Seventh Commandment: do not commit adultery. Don't cheat on your partner and don't get divorced. Because of this, you yourself and your children, if you have them, suffer. Look for ways to create, not destroy. Don't damage yourself and your marriage with cheating. This looks like real disrespect.

Eighth Commandment: don't steal. Here, comments are also unnecessary, because the appropriation of what belongs to another is an extreme form of immorality.

Ninth Commandment: do not lie. Lies are the main enemy of purity. A lie uttered by a child may be harmless, but an adult who lies for his own benefit cannot be happy, because the mask he puts on can become his true face.

Tenth Commandment: do not envy . The Bible says that you must not covet your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's house, or anything that he has. Be content with what you have and pursue your own happiness. This is self-confidence, which is immaculate and pure. Bioenergetics experts say that envy destroys a person from the inside, not giving him a chance at happiness. It blocks the exchange of energy with the Universe, which helps us to be luckier and happier.

Keep it simple and respect everyone around you. Let happiness pulsate within you with love and understanding, and not with envy and anger. Believe in yourself and your humanity. Fulfilling the covenants of Christianity will help you with this.

Live in such a way that your actions do not harm other people. Open your mind, for all thoughts are material. You can achieve happiness only by thinking about it and letting it into your life and into your consciousness. Good luck and don't forget to press the buttons and

08.11.2016 03:20

Prayers addressed to God and the saints will help you heal your soul and body from various...