The Sixth Commandment: Freed To Be Faithful! Exodus 20:1-17
The Sixth Sunday after Trinity
“Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17–26). God demands nothing less than perfection and holiness from you in regard to His commandments (Exodus 20:1–17). Your only hope, then, is not in your own goodness but in the goodness of Christ, who did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them for you. In Christ your righteousness does indeed exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. For you have been baptized into Christ’s death and your sinful nature crucified. Therefore, he who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:1–11). You are now raised with Christ to walk in newness of life and to share in His resurrection on the Last Day. Christ has brought you through the baptismal sea “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Therefore, “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Introit: (Psalm 28:1-2, 7; antiphon: Psalm 28:8-9)
Pastor: The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
Congregation: Save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.
P: To you, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
C: Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help,
when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
P: The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, Is now, and will be forever. Amen.
P: The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
C: Save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Collect of the Day
Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, graft into our hearts the love of Your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Your great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
- Exodus 20:1-17 +
And God spoke all these words, saying, (2) “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (3) “You shall have no other gods before me. (4) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, (6) but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (7) “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (8) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. (11) For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (12) “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (13) “You shall not murder. (14) “You shall not commit adultery. (15) “You shall not steal. (16) “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (17) “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Gradual: (Psalm 90:13, 1, 2b)
Return, O Lord! | How long? * Have pity on your | servants!
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all gener- | ations. * From everlasting to everlasting | you are God.+ Romans 6:1-11 +
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? (2) By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (3) Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (6) We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (7) For one who has died has been set free from sin. (8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. (9) We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. (10) For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. (11) So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The Lutheran Confessions Responsive Reading: Luther’s Small Catechism (1529)
P: As the head of the family should teach them in a simple way to his household. What is the Sixth Commandment?
C: You shall not commit adultery.
P: What does this mean?
C: We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure
and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.
P: What is the summary of the second table of the Law (commandments 4-10)?
C: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”Mat 22:39
Verse: (Psalm 31:1)
P: Alleluia! In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame;
C: In your righteousness deliver me! Alleluia!
- Matthew 5:17-30 +
(17) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (18) For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (19) Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (20) For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (21) “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ (22) But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. (23) So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, (24) leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (25) Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. (26) Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. (27) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ (28) But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (29) If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. (30) And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
