Ten. Commandment 6.

TEN

You shall not kill.

You shall neither have the heart of a killer.

The cycles of attacks, counter attacks, preemptive attacks, revenge and all out war are obviously systemic, but are birthed in the individual. This is where we focus on ourselves, within our own groups, rather than idly chatting and trying to fix the world without dealing with our own.

Use the texts below to discuss God's kingdom and the way of Christ where anger and murder are concerned (Both literally, and as Jesus deals with it as an issue in the heart before a corpse is produced.) If the conversation slides into politics or is divisive, you will know that it has no longer become a Kingdom of God discussion, but one rooted in the kingdom of men.

Thaw

• Who is someone you know that never gets angry? Do you find them to be involved in life, or detached?
• What is something that makes you angry? Why does your anger make sense to you and what good does it accomplish? 
• Respond as a group to these two quotes:

"Everything you can do with anger you can do better without it."

“When Jesus says turn the other cheek, that does not dictate that you abandon your responsibility to make a judgment in that moment. In most occasions, in your pursuit of Jesus, you will turn the other cheek. But there will be occasions when you don’t. And when you don’t, the reason will be that love obliges you to do something different.” 

-Dallas Willard

Read

• Matt. 5:21-22
• Rom. 12:17-21
• Eph. 4:26 
• Eph. 4:31-32
• Ecclesiastes 7:9 
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• The first Issue Jesus spoke of in the sermon on the mount was anger. What are the implications of that  for a man trying to unite people in freedom and peace?
• Respond as a group to this, from Discovery.com :

During a tour around London’s Science Museum, Hawking responded to a question from 24-year-old teacher Adaeze Uyanwah from Palmdale, Calif. Uyanwah won an international contest to be his guest of honor.

During the tour, Uyanwah asked that if Hawking could change one shortcoming humanity has, what would it be?

“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,” said Hawking. “It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he focused on nuclear war being the trigger that “would be the end of civilization, and maybe the end of the human race.”

In an effort to counter human aggression, the 73-year-old said the quality he’d like to magnify is empathy, as “it brings us together in a peaceful, loving state.”

• Jonathan left a few thoughts at the end of the message pertaining to how an aggressive heart can grow. Discuss them and find ways to implement.

• The answer to contempt is love
• Learn to practice forgiveness 

Apply

How can this group help you to pause, reflect and see people better in order to reduce anger, aggression and the heart of one who seeks to hurt rather than bless?

Ten. Commandment 5.

TEN

Thaw

• What themes or overarching values are you gathering from the commandments thus far?
• What has most stuck with you from Sunday morning?

Read

• Exodus 20:12
• Ephesians 6:1-4

• What immediate pictures, feelings and thoughts come to you when you hear this? Where does that come from?
• What are the implications to you of this command being the only prescription, while the others are prohibitive? 
• How is this command enhanced by considering it's directed at the children of those who would worship a golden calf while this very law was being given?

Read

• Have someone read the Colossians 3:1-21, from the Message Translation, aloud for the whole group. Choose someone that can read slowly, with inflection, and see what stands out in Paul's words about what it means to be the people of Christ.

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God....
Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.
So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master.
Husbands, go all out in love for your wives. Don't take advantage of them.
Children, do what your parents tell you. This delights the Master no end.
Parents, don't come down too hard on your children or you'll crush their spirits.

• As Paul makes his way through these ideas, to the family, what thoughts come to mind?
• What words or sentences stood out the most?
• How does learning to honor parents, regardless of their earning it or their reciprocating it affect other relationships?

• Do you feel owed something other than what you got from your parents? Why?
• What do words like forgiveness, trust, demands, bitterness, maturity, and hope say to your situation?
• How has your relationship to your parents been mirrored in other relationships, and what do you sense you need to work on in both?

Additional Texts for Meditation

• Romans 5:6-8
• Matthew 7:12
• 1 John 4:13-21

Ten. Commandment 4.

TEN

Discuss as a group how to put better rhythm in life. Allow those who have good rhythm to share how they got there and how they handle it mentally.

Discuss the reality that sabbath says your work is done even if it isn't.

Discuss how the Spirit of sabbath is trying to get the slaves out of us.

Discuss how an inability to turn off, rhythmically, is a way of slowly dying. 

Key texts for discussion:

Exodus 3:1-4 NIV
Exodus 20:8-11
exodus 31:12-14
Mark 2:23-28
Mark 3:1-4

Colossians 2:16

Based on the content of the teaching/message:

What were the key points for you?

What was the "one thing" you took away?

What surprised you?

What bothered you? Why?

Have you ever heard or come across a similar teaching or idea? Have you ever been taught something that was contradictory?

What is/was already part of your thinking on this subject?

What did you learn that was new to you?

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes of thought are necessary in light of what you learned? 

What changes of action are needed?

How would life be different if you/we applied this teaching fully?

What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Ten. Commandment 3

TEN

Though not a justification, often times racism in a person stems from a negative encounter with a particular member of a so-called race early in life, or the impression they are given about that race by "one of their own." Sometimes people don't go to the doctor because of a horror story they heard at an impressionable age. And some kids won't eat any vegetables because of a vague memory of the texture of pureed carrots being force fed to them in a high chair.

One bad experience can unfairly, but powerfully, cast a shadow on a whole category.

And sometimes that experience is a person of faith, and the category is God.

Use this discussion to both wipe away the human fingerprints from God's love, and to help snap into realignment those of us that have gotten used to speaking comfortably and simplistically for God about the difficulties of real life.

Thaw

• What has been on your mind in the last week, and why do you think it has been in your thoughts?

• What has stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• Who did you think of during the message, and why do you think that is?

Read

• Micah 6:1-8
• Thoughts?

Leader note: The prophet Micah is largely constructed like court proceedings. Israel has a complaint, and so does YHWH. At this point in chapter 6, God is asking "how have I burdened you?". The implication is that his people are claiming they have a burden, and they may be telling the truth. It just wasn't given to them from God. God reminds them that he is the one that "un-burdened" them from slavery. (Jesus makes a similar point when he tells his followers about is yoke and burden being easy and light in that it all boils down to putting others first Matthew 11:30). A list of supposed wants and needs for a religion-protecting God follows in Micah: what does the Lord require of a person....gallons of this? tons of that? your children? various of your interests that make God out to be the taker, and not the giver? In verse 8, Micah is credited by the Talmud as actually summarizing the whole of Torah; be just, be loving, be humble in your ongoing journey with God.

Gently help people resist the urge to say "this applied to the Jews, but it's not enough because Jesus and becoming a Christian hasn't shown up yet". Jesus' message was identical, and in his Spirit this Micah 6:8 life is the life we live. 

• What does doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God mean?
• What do you feel like is missing from this list based on what you have come to believe about what God wants?

Read

• Exodus 20:8
• Literally: "You do not carry the name of YHWH God emptily, for YHWH clears not the name of him who carries the name emptily."
• Thoughts?

• If this command is so that people far from him, or even people not in leadership positions, would remain clear about the difference between God's heart and human religion, what does this tell you about the power of the lives and behaviors of religious people?

Discuss

• What is something you feel you're supposed to believe about God, but have trouble with?

• What is something you have said to others in a moment of attempting to be helpful, but realized you don't even believe for yourself?
• Where do we get the impulse to have answers and speak for God?
• Why do we often condemn the actions of others, referencing God's holiness, and yet think of ourselves in terms of our intentions, referencing God's grace?
• What does Micah 6:8 say to this?
• What does Galatians 5:21-22 say to this?

Apply

• How does this group apply all this?
• How will this group know it has successfully applied all this?
• What step are you taking now?