"God's law, called also simply THE COMMANDMENTS,
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, or THE DECALOGUE
(Gr. deka, ten, and logos, a word), the Ten Words of Sayings,
the latter name generally applied by the Greek Fathers.
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The 10 Commandments |
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| 1. You shall have no other gods. (God - We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.) |
Jesus replied:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37 |
| 2. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord
your God. (God’s Name - We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.) |
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| 3. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (God’s Word - We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.) |
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| 4. Honor your father and mother. (God’s Representatives - We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.) |
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| 5. You shall not murder. (God’s Gift of Life - We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.) |
“And the second
is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39 |
| 6. You shall not commit adultery. (God’s Gift of Marriage - 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.) |
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| 7. You shall not steal. (God’s Gift of Possessions - We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.) |
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| 8. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
(God’s Gift of a Good Reputation - We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.) |
"...You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Romans 13:9-10 |
| 9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. (God’s Gift of Contentment - We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.) |
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| 10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant
or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (God’s Gift of Contentment - We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor’s wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and do their duty.) |
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Here is a little bit of history about the
10 commandments: "God's law, called also simply THE COMMANDMENTS, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, or THE DECALOGUE (Gr. deka, ten, and logos, a word), the Ten Words of Sayings, the latter name generally applied by the Greek Fathers. |
| The Ten Commandments are precepts bearing on the fundamental obligations of religion and morality and embodying the revealed expression of the Creator's will in relation to man's whole duty to God and to his fellow-creatures. They are found twice recorded in the Pentateuch, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, but are given in an abridged form in the catechism. Written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, this Divine code was received from the Almighty by Moses amid the thunders of Mount Sinai, and by him made the ground-work of the Mosaic Law. Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity--love of God and of the neighbor; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He also simplified or interpreted them, e.g. by declaring unnecessary oaths equally unlawful with false, by condemning hatred and calumny as well as murder, by enjoining even love of enemies, and by condemning indulgence of evil desires as fraught with the same malice as adultery (Matthew 5). The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians. | |
| There is no numerical division of the Commandments in the Books of Moses, but the injunctions are distinctly tenfold, and are found almost identical in both sources. The order, too, is the same except for the final prohibitions pronounced against concupiscence, that of Deuteronomy being adopted in preference to Exodus. A confusion, however, exists in the numbering, which is due to a difference of opinion concerning the initial precept on Divine worship. The system of numeration found in Luther's Small Catechism is based on the Hebrew text, was made by St. Augustine (fifth century) in his book of "Questions of Exodus" ("Quæstionum in Heptateuchum libri VII", Bk. II, Question lxxi), and was adopted by the Council of Trent. It is followed also by the German Lutherans, except those of the school of Bucer. This arrangement makes the First Commandment relate to false worship and to the worship of false gods as to a single subject and a single class of sins to be guarded against--the reference to idols being regarded as mere application of the precept to adore but one God and the prohibition as directed against the particular offense of idolatry alone. According to this manner of reckoning, the injunction forbidding the use of the Lord's Name in vain comes second in order; and the decimal number is safeguarded by making a division of the final precept on concupiscence--the Ninth pointing to sins of the flesh and the Tenth to desires for unlawful possession of goods. Another division has been adopted by the English and Helvetian Protestant churches on the authority of Philo Judæus, Josephus Origen, and others, whereby two Commandments are made to cover the matter of worship, and thus the numbering of the rest is advanced one higher; and the Tenth embraces both the Ninth and Tenth of the Catholic and Lutheran division. It seems, however, as logical to separate at the end as to group at the beginning, for while one single object is aimed at under worship, two specifically different sins are forbidden under covetousness; if adultery and theft belong to two distinct species of moral wrong, the same must be said of the desire to commit these evils" | |
