What if we inverted all the Ten Commandments

A Jewish rabbi who survived Auschwitz summed up his treatment and experience in the camp as being one where all the Ten Commandments were practiced in reverse.

Stop for a minute and think about that. I’ll wait.

If you’re like me, when I imagined what our world would be if everyone behaved in the exact opposite way to God’s Law, I initially felt a little nauseous. But then I got to thinking — maybe we’ve already descended to a point where we’re experiencing that right now and just aren’t aware of it.

How about you take a quick tour with me where we invert each of the commandments and see if that’s the case?

You shall have other gods before me

The first commandment says: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

But we do. Big time.  

In his work, City of God, Augustine penned a refutation against the false, polytheistic religions of his day and argued that they helped groom a hostile society — one that’s an awful lot like ours now. He contrasted Christianity with its one sovereign, loving, and righteous God with polytheism’s concept of many gods who were always at odds and war with each other. 

Although aimed at polytheism, Augustine’s conclusions apply perfectly to our anti-God, secular worldview today where human beings think of themselves as their own little gods, also at odds and war with each other. In other words, the primary god we have before Him is usually ourselves.   

You shall make for yourself an idol

The 2nd commandment reads: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.”

Years ago, the former pastor of my church ran through each of the 10 commandments, asking us to consider which ones we’ve broken. When he got to #2, he joked, “Aren’t you glad this one’s in there?”

In some translations “idol” is rendered “graven image”, indicating an actual material object that a person would worship. However, idolatry is a bit trickier than that. As French philosopher Simone Weil pointed out: “One has only the choice between God and idolatry. There is no other possibility. For the faculty of worship is in us, and it is either directed somewhere into this world, or into another.”

In his sermon on idolatry, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones describes an idol as “anything in our lives that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone … Anything that holds a controlling position in my life is an idol.”

Given that definition, who among us hasn’t made for ourselves an idol?

You shall take the name of the Lord your God in vain

The third commandment declares: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain”.

Remember the good ol’ days when a song, movie, or show that used God’s name as a curse word would have that part bleeped out? Not today.

A recent article in the Guardian says, “Swearing has become more widely acceptable over the past two decades because it is increasingly used for other purposes than to insult people, linguistics experts have said.” The primary purpose of cursing, the “experts” say is to add emphasis to an argument being made. Bonus points if you can wedge God’s name in there.

But with this commandment, we’re talking about more than just swearing. The phrase “in vain” literally means to attach God’s name to emptiness; it’s the same Hebrew word used to describe all life as “meaningless” in Ecclesiastes (vs. 1:2). So, ask yourself, do people today (including Christians) use God’s name in an unthinking, careless way or make false attributions to Him?

You shall forget the sabbath day

The fourth commandment reads: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

This one opens a whole can of worms with some Christians being “Sabbatarians” who believe in ceasing from all activity on Saturday vs. others who say this commandment doesn’t carry forward to today. Many theologians, though, see it as John MacArthur does: “This is a day to be elevated above all other days as a memorial to remember the glory of God’s perfection in creation … The Sabbath was a reminder of creation.” When you read the full commandment, you’ll understand what he means.

But we have just the opposite today as Paul notes: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:20–22).

Dishonor your father and mother

The fifth commandment says: “Honor your father and your mother.”

But that’s currently not the case in many places. For example, the New York Daily News recently reported an “epidemic” of children killing their parents highlighting one case of a son beating his mother to death: “Garcia’s [the mother’s] death is part of an alarming trend. In the past year, there have been at least six cases of adult children killing their parents.”

Of course, you don’t need to kill your parents to dishonor them. But speaking of murder, let’s move on to the next commandment.     

You shall murder

The sixth commandment declares: “You shall not murder.”

I remember living in Detroit in the late 1980s when the city was the #1 murder capital of America for a couple of years running. Then Washington D.C. usurped Detroit’s place and the city became #2 for most-committed murders.

Astonishingly, the Detroit government officials actually celebrated the fact that the city wasn’t the #1 champ for homicides. Somehow being second in people killing each other was so much better than being first.  

That attitude reminds me a bit of how some spin the declining murder rate today since killings peaked in 2021. It’s good that the trend is now downward, but the overall numbers are still abysmal. And crazy guy that I am, I think we shouldn’t forget the unborn children aborted that those statistics leave out.  

What does Scripture say? “You shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land” (Num. 35:33).

You shall commit adultery

The seventh commandment states: “You shall not commit adultery.”

But Ashley Madison, a website that caters to those seeking extra-marital affairs, says “Life is short. Have an affair”. And it seems that many do; the company boasts 80 million subscribers.

But let’s go a bit further and remember that Jesus said, “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). And few, if any, businesses exacerbate this issue better than OnlyFans who recently said they’ve paid out $20 billion over the past eight years to their “content creators”.  

You shall steal

The eighth commandment proclaims: “You shall not steal.”

But in the past few years, many local governments have turned a blind eye to theft through lax laws. However, that tide may be turning.

A Wall Street Journal article recently reported that “A decade ago California launched a not-so-grand experiment in progressive criminal justice” that appears to have finally caught the attention of voters who are tired of watching their local stores go out of business due to theft. Prop 36, which is on the ballot, would charge shoplifters with two or more past theft convictions with felonies.

Will it help? Or have we passed the point of that return?

You shall lie

The ninth commandment reads: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Polling people on how often they lie is tough because, well, folks tend to lie about how much they lie. Statistics are all over the map with some studies concluding that people lie on average 1-2 times per day and others finding 4-15 lies per 24 hours.

And do you even want to get started on the rate of lying in politics? I didn’t think so; let’s move on.

You shall covet

The last commandment says: “You shall not covet”.

I think you’d agree that wanting what others have is deeply ingrained in our culture. But yet when pushed, few admit to it as an article in Forbes said: “Hardly anyone will openly admit to being envious. After all, we know from academic research into envy that anyone who admits to envy is acknowledging that someone else is superior in some domain”.

But it’s still there. How we should feel vs. what we do feel in this area is captured succinctly by Thomas Aquinas who wrote, “Charity rejoices in our neighbor’s good, while envy grieves over it”. How about you – grieved over anyone else’s accomplishments or possessions lately?

In the end

 All this isn’t a pretty picture, is it?

Some like to reminisce and think that earlier times in our country’s history were much better, and they may be right on a surface level, but not at the plane where things really matter. Hasn’t it always been this way, at least in our hearts?

In his message “The New Self,” Tim Keller asserts that America’s previous culture may have been less Auschwitz-like but that was only due to outward, societal pressure that was superficially Christianized. When that veneer was chipped away, it revealed what’s been on the inside the whole time.

As is always the case, the answer to these ills is the Gospel of Christ that changes hearts from the inside and then bears fruit to all who are outside. Only then can we reverse the anti-Ten Commandments and live out the summary of the Law which is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).