The 10 Commandments

The 10 Commandments List, Short Form

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

I was reading an article the other day that suggested each of us should have a list of 10 commandments we use to guide our lives. Some basic principles by which we live our lives. It seemed to me to be a reasonable suggestion and got me wondering what I might identify as my core principles. It seemed like a good place to start would be with the 10 commandments from the Bible. They are listed in two places in the Bible and are not identical. I chose to use the list that expresses them to their simple essence. 

Since I am a godless heathen it allows me to eliminate commandments one, two and three. You could make the argument that I should include part of the first commandment. "No gods." Could be argued as a commandment for me but I think that statement serves no purpose in how to live a good and moral life. So, I strike the first three. 

Remember the sabbath day? Jews, Muslims and Christians all agree there is a sabbath day. Muslims- Friday, Jews-Saturday, Christians-Sunday. Since the three major religions can't agree on a day and since I eliminated the first three. Well folks, four has to go. 

Commandments five, seven and nine seem to me to be a guide to interpersonal relationships. I will say in regard to number five, I was very fortunate and grew up with parents who were deserving of my honor. Not all parents are deserving. Parents who abuse, mistreat, or abandon their children are not deserving of honor because they were simply biologically capable of producing offspring. Commandment seven admonishes us not to commit adultery. Commandment nine encourages honesty. It seems to me you could reduce these to a simple commandment that encourages us to be honest and faithful in our interpersonal relationships. 

Commandment six in the short list tells us not to murder. My recollection from my church days as a youth was the commandment was taught as thou shalt not kill. Since the Bible is full of other rules that tell you when "God" wants you to kill someone it appears this admonition is somewhat conditional. Being a man of peace I think I would stick with no killing. I cannot think of a circumstance where I could justify killing another human being. 

That leaves us with commandments eight and ten. These two again appear to me to be tied together. Don't covet and you won't steal. You only steal if you covet something. 

So really we have cut the 10 commandments down to three. Be honest and faithful. No killing. Don't steal. 

I am a simple man. Thinking about three commandments all the time is just too complicated. Seems to me it could all be boiled down to one. So what is my single commandment. 

DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE! 

We all know when someone is acting like an asshole. It is tougher to recognize when we are doing it ourselves. My goal is to recognize when I am being an asshole, stop being an asshole and apologize to the person who is having to tolerate my assholic behavior.