Dabbling in the Lie? – The Ninth Commandment

Dabbling in the Lie?

The Ninth Commandment

Leviticus 18:24-30

“Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

Paul says that those who will not relate to God on the basis of truth will turn to “the Lie” instead, and worship created things, which is the same as worshiping themselves (Rom. 1:18-25). The Lie insists either that God does not exist or He is not relevant to our lives in any meaningful way. In the place of God, as the supreme object of our devotion and obedience, those who follow the Lie set up other “gods” and focus their attention, expend their energies, and deposit all their hopes on achieving this false deity. Whether their god be an idol sitting on the mantel at home or the more fashionable gods of our materialistic age—wealth, sensuality, fame—all who turn to this path turn away from truth.

God resolved that His people should not walk this path. This statute shows us both the proscriptive and prescriptive aspects of God’s Law. He told the people what they must not do, and He commanded them clearly concerning what they must do in order to fulfill the terms of their covenant relationship.

There is no wiggle room here; Israel was not even to dabble in the pagan practices of the people they were to displace. How much of what passes for Christianity today is an unhappy admixture of Biblical teaching and mere pragmatism, subjectivism, and sentimentality? To the extent the Lie of this age is given room within the practice of the faith, to precisely that extent we deprive ourselves of all the good God intends for us. By preferring the Lie over the truth of God we incur His discipline until we find our way back to the path of truth and righteousness (Heb. 12:3-11).

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.