What Does It Mean to Live Biblically?
First Reading
A READING FROM THE BOOK OF EXODUS
Then God spoke all these words: 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. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to neighbour. When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin."
EXODUS 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Sermon: The Rev. Dr. Maryann Amor
That was a trailer from a TV show that debuted in 2017, called Living Biblically....it didn’t last very long before it got cancelled, which is why you might not have heard of it. I always show this clip to my students when I teach Leviticus in my Intro Hebrew Bible class, because it illustrates how the biblical laws relate to our lives today.
As you saw, Chip decides he is going to live 100% by the Bible, and very quickly we see how complicated this becomes. In the Book of Leviticus, there is a prohibition against wearing clothes made of different kinds of fibres, which is why Chip appears dressed all in white cotton — no polyester-cotton blends for him. There is also a law stating that adulterers are to be put to death by stoning, so he throws a rock at his friend who is having an affair.
The Hebrew Bible contains hundreds of laws — traditionally, Jewish tradition counts 613 commandments in the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible. And living by all of them, literally and exactly as written, is simply not possible in our world unless we want to act like Chip.
What makes applying biblical laws so difficult is that they were written within a specific historical and cultural context. The ancient Israelites understood themselves as God’s holy people, chosen and set apart. Their laws helped shape a way of life that marked them as distinct from the nations around them, such as the Egyptians and Babylonians. They believed that they were called to live in a way that reflected the holiness of their God in their lives, and the laws made this clear.
But today’s world is so different from the world of Ancient Israel that applying their laws in our lives is not easy. All we have to do is look at the Ten Commandments in our first reading to see this. Of course, you shall not kill is a good commandment — it's a good idea not to kill people. You shall not steal — also a good thing not to do.
But then we come to some of the others.
Honour your father and your mother. What about if your parents were abusive? Do you still honour them?
Or keeping the Sabbath holy. Does it mean we shouldn't work on Sunday? What about people who have to work on Sundays? What about mowing the lawn, doing laundry, or going grocery shopping?
What about not bearing false witness, or lying? What if we lie to protect someone?
And then there is the commandment about not taking God's name in vain. Does that include the way many of us casually say “OMG, Oh my God”? Some people change “Oh my God” to “Oh my gosh” because they don't want to say God's name, but is saying “Oh my God” actually breaking a commandment? Little children say it — are they breaking commandments?
And “You shall not covet.” Does that mean it is wrong to look at your neighbour's beautiful new kitchen and wish you had one too? Is it wrong to want a nicer house, a better car, or more money? At what point does ordinary wanting become coveting?
Our world is different from the one in which biblical laws, such as the Ten Commandments, were originally given. We are living in 2026, in a modern Western world, with different languages, different ways of life, different cultures — and because of this and so much more, these ancient laws do not all translate easily into our lives.
But this doesn’t mean the laws have no importance. What the laws in the Bible — from the Ten Commandments to the hundreds of others in the Torah — make clear is that being God's people doesn't mean that we simply claim that identity and then live however we want to live.
Being God's people must impact our lives. It should change how we live, how we treat other people, how we make decisions. The laws remind us that being God's people means being set apart — living in a way that reflects something of who God is.
And in a way, this brings us back to the very first commandment we heard in today’s first reading: you shall have no other gods before God.
This commandment is saying that other things should not become central in our lives, become gods in our lives. Money, possessions, success, our careers, our own desires — any of these things can begin to take the place that belongs to God. But to be God’s holy people, God must be at the centre.
So maybe the question for us isn't, “Should I follow every biblical law exactly as it was written?” But “What is ruling my life?” What rules my heart, my mind, my choices, and the way I live? And as Christians, we have more than the laws of Torah to guide us. We have the life and ministry of Jesus, who shows us what it looks like to live according to God and in relationship with those around us.
So following God's commandments today doesn't mean being like Chip, trying to live the Bible literally and exactly. It means allowing Scripture to challenge us and shape us. It means looking honestly at our lives and asking: Is this the life God is calling me to live? Is this what holiness looks like in 2026 Grande Prairie? Because being God's people isn't just something we say we are; it is something we live. Amen.
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