How to Live

the Way God Wants

Understanding and Obeying the Ten Commandments

William B. Girao

OMF Literature Inc.

Manila, Philippines

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 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY
BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978,
1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All
rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked

NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, copyright
© 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman
Foundation. Used by permission.

RSV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: REVISED STANDARD VERSION.
Old Testament section, copyright © 1952 by the Division of the Christian
Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United
States of the America. New Testament section, copyright © 1946 by the
Division of the Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of the America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.

TEV are taken from the GOOD NEWS BIBLE: TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION.
Old Testament section, copyright © 1976 by the American Bible Society.
New Testament section, copyright © 1966, 1971, 1976 by the American Bible
Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

TLB are taken from THE LIVING BIBLE. Copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

HOW TO LIVE THE WAY GOD WANTS:

Understanding and Obeying the Ten Commandments
Copyright © 2010 by William B. Girao

Cover design by Jonathan de Vera

Page design by Marianne Ventura

Published (2010) in the Philippines by

OMF Literature Inc.
776 Boni Avenue
Mendaluyong City, Metro Manila
www.OMFLit.com

ISBN 978-971-009-069-3

Printed in the Philippines

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 Table of Contents

Introduction 5

1one
Loyalty Is Exclusive 17
2two
Visible Representations Would Never Do 30
3
three
In a Class All by Himself 44
4four
Rest Is Not Optional 59
5 five
Every Day Should Be Parents’ Day 72
6 six
Killing Solves Nothing 87
7
seven
Marriage Breakups Lead to Social Breakdown 100
8
eight
It’s Not Just Money 114
9nine
Nothing but the Truth 134
10 ten
Greed Never Has Enough 148

Epilogue 166
Acknowledgments 169
Appendix: Exodus 20:1-17 171

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How to Live the Way God WantsBOOK.indd 4 9/30/2010 1:35:17 PM
 Introduction

We live in a dark new age. Having elevated the

individual as the measure of all things, modern
men and women are guided solely by their
own dark passions; they have nothing above
themselves to respect or obey, no principles
to live or die for. Personal advancement,
personal feeling, and personal autonomy are
the only shrines at which they worship.1

SO LAMENTED AND WARNED Charles Colson—part

of Richard Nixon’s notorious Watergate cast but who
later became a Christian—about American society in
particular, and the West in general. This worship of
the individual, thankfully, is not yet a dominant fea-
ture of Asian society. Nevertheless, with instant

______________________________________________________________________

1
Charles Colson with Ellen Santilli Vaughn, Against The Night—Living in
the New Dark Ages (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1989), p. 108.

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

global communications and borderless trade, what is

happening in the West will soon become a global
pattern.
Society is on its way to disintegration when men and
women “have nothing above themselves to respect or
obey, (and) no principles to live or die for.” We need
to go back to God’s original intent for man, society and
nature—to go back to the instructions from our Mak-
er. And nothing is clearer about our Maker’s intent for
man and society than what He has laid down in the Ten
Commandments.
In many of our churches today, the teaching of the
Ten Commandments has, regrettably, become neglect-
ed. This neglect has, among other things, resulted in the
neglect of church discipline. Church discipline is often
not imposed even when there is clear sinful conduct by
the leaders or the members. Consequently, the Church
has lost much of its spiritual vitality, moral authority and
mandate to be the conscience of society and a pillar of
righteousness for the nation. The way back to regaining
the Church’s spiritual vitality, moral authority and man-
date to proclaim righteousness to our nation is by going
back to God’s moral law as defined and summarized for
us in the Ten Commandments or the Decalogue.

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 Introduction

An objection to the use of the Decalogue

The term decalogue comes from DEKA which means
“ten” and LOGOS which means “word” or “statement”
or “proposition.” Decalogue, literally, means, “The
Ten Words” or the “Ten Commandments.” The terms
“Decalogue” and “Ten Commandments” are used inter-
changeably in this book.
There are some who object to giving emphasis to
the Ten Commandments because of its supposed nega-
tive approach to morality. Of the Ten Commandments,
only the 4th and the 5th are not stated in the negative. All
the other commands define what we are not allowed to
do. Modern psychology, they say, indicates that chil-
dren, even adults, tend to do exactly what you tell them
not to do. The Ten Commandments then, they say, is
counter-productive in that it encourages precisely the
behavior that it prohibits.
The apostle Paul answered this objection to the Law
in his lengthy letter to the Romans. In this letter, we
read that the negatives of the Decalogue actually give
us the freedom to fulfill the positives of Christian love.
When we neglect to observe the negatives of the Law,
we destroy the very arena where we may fulfill the pos-
itives of Christian behavior.

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

“Do not murder,” the Decalogue commands—for

how could you love your neighbor if you have already
killed him? “Do not commit adultery”—for how could
you love your wife, as Christ loved the Church, if you
have already destroyed your marriage? “Do not steal”—
for how could you feed the hungry if you have already
undermined society by your lack of respect of private
property? The divine law sets clear boundaries inside of
which we have complete freedom to act out Christian
love. Crossing the boundaries of the divine law would
expose us to the chaos of humanism, secularism, pagan-
ism and relative morality.
Without God’s clear “don’t do this” or “don’t do
that,” people would be at a loss as to what they are al-
lowed to do. They would be like minors left alone in the
house without clear instructions on what they shouldn’t
do. Without knowing what they are not supposed to do,
they wouldn’t know what they are allowed to do. But
if parents left their young children with clear instruc-
tions such as: “Never play with the match; never open
the gate to strangers; don’t use the gas stove; never touch
electrical sockets”—the children would then know ex-
actly what they are free to do on their own. And so
would the negatives of God’s Law, similarly, do for us.

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 Introduction

The Law is our Maker’s instruction manual

By instinct, we react to rules and regulations in a nega-
tive way. But have you noticed that whenever we buy
household appliances—like a refrigerator, microwave
oven or TV—printed instructions on how to operate
these would always go with the purchase? Similarly,
in God’s Law we find instructions from the Creator on
how to live our lives and how to care and preserve natu-
ral creation.
Many of us regard rules and regulations as something
that stops us from having a good time. But to disregard
God’s Law is to disregard instructions from our all-wise
Maker. Without God’s Law, life will be like tinkering
with a complicated machine. Having God’s Law is hav-
ing God’s instruction manual on how we should live.
The Ten Commandments are not mere suggestions
or advice—that we may take or ignore. The instruc-
tions are absolute and allow no exceptions. They are not
optional; they are, in fact, demands—the demands of
the One who made all things and who, therefore, owns
everything. We either submit to the Owner’s demands;
or we ignore them. To ignore the Ten Commandments
is, in fact, to disobey them and displease the Owner of
our very lives.

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

To disregard God’s instructions is not to be “free” or

to be “mature” or to “come of age.” It is, rather, to invite
destruction of the human person in its internal or spiri-
tual malfunction, and subsequently, spur collision with
other persons similarly mismanaged and out of control.
The Law is “good,” the apostle Paul declares.2 It
is in the misunderstanding or misinterpretation and,
consequently, in the misapplication of the Law where
problems come in. The Law is good but some people
misappropriate it by making obedience to the Law the
ground for their approval by God or the basis of their
“righteousness” before God. Our obedience to God’s
Law is not the basis of our being accepted as God’s peo-
ple. Our obedience, rather, is the visible manifestation
of our being the people of God. Our submission to God’s
Law is simply our response to who God is.
In contrast with the gods of pagans whose demands
are capricious, Yahweh Elohim of Israel, the true God,
the Maker of heaven and earth, has not left us groping
in the dark about what He wants. He tells us in His Law
what pleases Him and what displeases Him. The Deca-
logue, we should note, is a statement of principles, not a
listing of specific responses to particular situations. The
______________________________________________________________________

2
See Romans 7:12, 16

10

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 Introduction

divine law is not a handbook that sets out what is proper

behavior in each and every conceivable situation. The
divine law, in reality, is a definition of the character of
the Lawgiver. And because of God’s unchanging nature
and character, the prohibitions of the Law are, there-
fore, absolute and unchanging.

The prohibitions of the Law are absolute

The Decalogue was given originally in Hebrew. In
Hebrew language there were two words used to express
the negative: AL and LO. AL was used to express a present
prohibition (You are not allowed to do this now) or to
express a conditional prohibition (If this happens, then
don’t do this). While LO was used to express an absolute
prohibition without conditions and without exceptions.
It was a prohibition of permanent validity. It applied to
all situations, at all times.
The Decalogue uses the absolute LO in all its prohibi-
tions, never the conditional AL. AL would translate “DO
NOT”; whereas, LO would translate, “NEVER.” All the
negatives in the Decalogue use LO, the unconditional
prohibition: Never have another God; never worship a
graven image; never take God’s name in vain; never
bear false witness; never commit adultery; never steal;
never murder; never covet.

11

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

The Decalogue is absolute and unchanging because

it defines what our relationship with God and with our
fellow men should be—namely, reverence towards God
and respect towards our fellowmen. This required atti-
tude towards God and towards our fellowmen accepts
no exceptions.

God’s Law defines our relationship with

God and with our fellow men
Our Lord Jesus summarized the Law as “(loving) God
with all your strength, with all your soul, with all your
mind, and with all your heart”; and “(loving) your neigh-
bor as you love yourself.” Reverence for God and respect
for man are inseparable. As William Barclay, a respected
New Testament scholar, puts it:
No man dare say that he loves God, unless he also
loves his fellowmen; and no man can really and truly
love his fellowmen, unless he sees that the true value
of man lies in the fact that he is a child of God.

Worship of God without responsible concern for man is

remote and detached mysticism. Looking at man, on the
other hand, without relating him to God is to reduce
man into a thing, or an economic entity as it is in totali-
tarianism. One cannot love God the Creator without
loving His creatures; and one cannot respect his fellow
12

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 Introduction

creatures unless one has reverence for the Creator. The

divine law defines our relationship with God and our
relationship with our fellowmen. God’s Law, moreover,
is for all of life.

God’s Law is for all of life

There are some whose Christianity is only for Sundays.
Religion, they believe, should not impinge on our secu-
lar employments and our behavior during Mondays to
Saturdays. This compartmentalized behavior is not bib-
lical Christianity. True Christianity covers all of life.
God’s Law is for all of life. God is not just concerned
with our worship. He is also concerned with our homes,
our economics, our Law courts, and our marriages. True
piety is not like paganism where for as long as you
observe the proper rites and rituals, it does not then
matter how you live your personal or social life. In God’s
eyes, on the contrary, there is no delineation between
the sacred and the secular; or between the holy and the
ordinary. All of life is to be lived in obedience to God.
Christianity is a way of life, not mere assent to a particu-
lar creed; and not the mere observance of rituals.
God’s Law is for all of life and for everyone. No
one is exempted from the demands of God’s Law.

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

The demands of the divine law applies to everyone

God’s Law is universal. It applies to all nations, all cul-
tures, and all times. And it applies to all regardless of
their station in life. The sanctions of the divine law are
not to be mitigated because of the privileged position of
the wrongdoer nor should they be withheld because of
the lowly social standing of the offender. The demands
of the divine law are the same for all—whether rich or
poor; powerful or powerless; educated or ignorant.
“If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done
must be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for
eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so
he is to be injured . . . . You are to have the same
law for the alien and the native-born. I am the Lord
your God.”
Leviticus 24:19-22

The punishment of the wrongdoer should be based on

the wrong he did, not on who he had wronged, thus
declared God in the Mosaic Law. In contrast, the Baby-
lon King, Hammurabi, who was more or less a contem-
porary of Moses provided in his Code that:
If one of citizen status has struck the cheek of his
equal, he shall pay one mina of silver. (Code #203)
If the serf of a citizen has struck the cheek of one of
citizen status, they shall cut off his ear. (Code #205)

14

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 Introduction

In the Code of Hammurabi, the punishments were

dependent on the status of the one who committed the
wrongdoing. There is nothing of this kind of discrimina-
tion in the divine law. Before God, in fact, those in
positions of high privilege and power are to be more
severely treated when they disregard the divine law.
This was what Christ our Lord partly meant when He
declared: “From everyone who has been given much,
much will be required” (Luke 12:48 NASB).

Obedience to the Law is a personal response

While the Divine Law is universal, it is also personal. It
is addressed to the nations as well as to individuals. Per-
sonal obedience to the Law is not predicated on the state
of popular morality at a given time. No one may rightly
say, “I will tell the truth provided others also tell the
truth,” nor may anyone validly say, “It is OK to be sexu-
ally immoral since many are doing it anyway.” The call
to obey the divine law has no preconditions. Obedience
is required regardless of whether the demands of the
Law are popularly accepted or popularly rejected. Be-
cause of the absolute nature of God’s Law, William Penn
was correct to declare:
Right is right, even if everyone is against it;
and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.

15

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 How to Live the Way God Wants

The Law calls for our personal response regardless of

our neighbor’s response. And no matter how rebel-
lious our culture may be, the Law still demands our
personal submission.
God’s moral law proceeds from God’s perfect,
holy and righteous nature and is valid for all time
and will continue forever. It is comprehensive—it
covers all of life. It is good—obedience to it brings
true freedom, peace of heart and peace of mind, and
hence, true happiness. It is necessary—without it
community life will be impossible. It is universal—
its demands are for everyone. It is absolute—it allows
no exceptions.
The Divine Law tells us how to live the way God
wants. May this book help you to better understand
and fully obey God’s Law.

16

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