The Summary of "D.L. Moody on the Ten Commandments"

King Belshazzar was weighed in the balances and was found wanting. Would you be if you were weighed against the ten commandments?

The first commandment says “Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3).” Every person has a natural tendency to worship some kind of God. We read in scriptures how the Israelites were worshipers of idols. Gods of wood and stone are not the only gods there are. Moody tells us that there are gods of pleasure, of fashion, of money etc1. We must not let these or others come into the place that only belongs to God. He must have our “wholehearted allegiance2”. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).”

In the second commandment we are told not to make any graven images. Moody feels that if one uses images of Christ to think about who He is that we are breaking this command. “If Christ is in our hearts, why need we to set Him before our eyes?3”

The third commandment forbids us in taking the name of the Lord in vain. The Jews held God's names very, very respectfully. Now a days we have lost this. God's names is used lightly as well as in profanity. One man said that that his swearing was okay, because he didn't mean anything by it. Moody says that one would laugh at him if he said that he “did not mean an by it” after stealing ones watch and selling it to get the money4. “If God puts His love into your heart, you will have no desire to curse Him5”.

“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).” One way to follow this command is to rest from secular work. Ministers and missionaries still need to take a day off as well6. We need this day for our health.7 This “does not me...

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...as fairly easy to read. It seems to be written more in sermon form then a good literately work, but I do like his layout. Also Moody knew a lot about his subject so I suppose that would give it a scholarly approach. I had never thought of the second commandment like he did before. There are some things that I could learn from it even though there was somethings that Moody seemed extra hard on. Some of the places may have been because I wasn't use to thinking that way. Never the less it was interesting to look at the ten commandments more in depth. I think that it is a good thing to read something like this every once in a while to help us think about the way we live our lives. This is definitely a good book to read if you want to look specifically at the ten commandments.

Works Cited

Moody, D. L., D. L. Moody on the 10 Commandments. Chicago: Moody Press, 1977.