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Q 90: What sanction does the Lord threaten in the fifth commandment?
A 90: The Lord threatens that those who disobey the fifth commandment shall come under the judgment of God, even to the point of being separated from the community of the redeemed. (Deut. 18.19; Deut. 17.10-13).
The judgment of God takes various forms, and is active in the present, as Paul explains in Romans 1.18-32. Neglect of the fifth commandment and all the Law of God has the twofold effect of distancing people from God, Who gradually “gives them up” in their struggle to be “free” of Him and His influence, and of compromising and undermining the justice and neighbor-love essential to civil society. Where the commandments are neglected, Jesus explained, love grows cold (Matt. 24.12), with the result that society degenerates into a dance of mutual self-seeking, leading to irreligion, corruption, violence, and death.
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