The Ten Commandments (No. CB17)

God the Father (Eloah) alone always existed. He knew the end from the beginning. At some point God decided to create a family. He knew His family would need guidelines to have a happy and productive life. The Bible shows us that God and His Law are holy, righteous, goodness, perfect and truth and when we follow God's Laws we will be blessed. God and His Law always existed. For more information see Who is God? (No. CB1) and The Creation of the Family of God (CB4).

When we see a red traffic light, what do we do? We stop. Why do we stop? Because it is a law. Why is that law in effect? To save lives.

All parents have rules/guidelines for their children, don’t they? We all know the rules our parents have for us, even though we might sometimes forget them. Why do they make these rules? Because parents want to keep their children safe. All of these rules and guidelines are for our protection. That is exactly why our loving heavenly Father has given us laws -- for our protection. God gave us His Ten Commandments for the same reason that our parents give us rules to obey, because He loves us and wants to protect us and keep us from harming others and ourselves.

God’s law was in place in the Garden of Eden, otherwise sin would not have existed. Many people don’t realize that the commandments were in existence prior to God giving the stones to Moses on Mount Sinai. Before God gave the Commandments, He told Israel in Exodus 19 verse 5:

Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine (NKJV).

We see in Exodus 34:28 that God referred to the Ten Commandments as the “words of the covenant”.

Exodus 34:28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

If we, today, will obey Him fully and keep His Covenant, He will bless and protect us just as He promised to do back then.

Although God gave many laws, judgments and statutes in the Bible, the Ten Commandments are at the heart of them all because they show love, first to God, and then to our fellow human beings. They are so important to God that He not only had the Angel of the Presence (Jesus Christ) speak them to the people, but He also had the angel write them with his own finger, not once, but twice (Ex 31:18, 34:1). If they are so important to God, then they must become important to us as well.

How many of us can recite the Ten Commandments? We cannot expect to follow God’s command to obey them if we do not know them.

We will now read each of the Commandments and see what it is that God commands all people everywhere, through all the ages, young and old alike, to do. Then we will discuss them and see how they apply to our lives. They are found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

(Have the children take turns reading each of the Commandments.)

Exodus 20:1-17

1 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 bondage.

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 nor 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 fourth generations of those who hate Me,

6 but showing mercy to thousands, to 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 the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which 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, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

The first four Commandments show us how to love God. The last six, beginning with the Fifth Commandment, tell us how to love others. All are summed up in Matthew 22:37-40.

Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

This above text is the answer Christ gave when He was asked which was the great commandment in the Law. So we can see that these two summarize the entire Law. For more information see Lesson: Law at our Doorposts (No. CB80).

Let us now look at each Commandment individually and see exactly what God is telling us.

I. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

The first commandment shows us we are not to worship anyone except God the Father. This includes prayer. This is different from other religions that pray to multiple gods (including Jesus Christ), or even Mary. We understand that the Bible teaches there is only one true God and Him alone do we worship. In Matthew 4:10, Jesus Christ reinforces this point.

Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" (RSV)

Other gods can be anything that we put first in our lives, so God is telling us to be sure to put Him first, and to care more about what He says than what anyone else says. He tells us in many places in the Bible that if we love Him, we will keep His Commandments (Jn 14:15). Keeping them shows our love for Him, and makes us His people, and for our obedience He will bless and protect us.

II. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—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; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The second commandment builds on the first and absolutely rules out worshipping or bowing down to any statues, or crucifixes (crosses), Stars of David, animals, or using any kinds of images or pictures in our worship of God. We cannot worship anything or anyone, except God.

In the New Testament, this is further explained in Romans to worship only God and not the creation.

Romans 1:20-25 Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; ²¹for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. ²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. (RSV)

It is interesting that the Roman Catholic religion does not list this as the third commandment. They remove this commandment from their list and split the tenth commandment into two separate commandments. That is why there are many idols and statues in the Catholic religion. This is not acceptable according to God’s instructions in the Bible.

Now we look at the words we use to worship and talk about God.

III. “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.”

God’s name is special. It identifies who He is and what He does. We should only use it with the utmost respect, reverence and awe, and never in anger, slang, or swearing. The way we use God’s name shows how we feel about Him. Do we properly fear and revere God as we should?

This commandment does not mean we can’t use God’s name while we are talking about Him or in prayer, we should just be careful not to throw His name around in a careless manner. In today's world things like OMG or TGIF should be avoided as they are not honoring God the Father. These are examples of how people are not really speaking about God or praying to God rather they are using his name disrespectfully.

Now we will look at which days are holy to God.

V. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

The weekly Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, or Saturday. Many people think they are keeping this commandment not realizing they are keeping the Sabbath on the wrong day. The disobedient can’t see why it makes a difference which day of the week they keep holy.

But listen to what God said about the Sabbath in Exodus 31 verses 13 through 17:

Exodus 31:13-17: Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. ¹⁴You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’

That was true then, and it is true now because God does not change (Heb. 13:8). It is a sign between God and His people forever. Keeping the seventh-day Sabbath identifies us as His people.

Let us look at when and how God created the Sabbath in Genesis 2:1-3.

Genesis 2:1-3: Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

After God had finished his physical creation, and had made man, then He made the Sabbath for man.

Mark 2:27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

He did not make it just for Israel, but for all men. He made it by resting Himself, then blessed it and made it holy. He rested and made it holy, and commands us to rest and keep it holy. Nowhere in the Bible can we find where God changed this. We have the example of Jesus Christ and the Apostles keeping the Sabbath. The Apostle Paul told us we are to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1Cor. 11:1).

Only God can make something holy, and He chose the seventh day of the week to make holy. We can choose whether to obey or disobey to keep it holy.

When God tells us to rest on the Sabbath, He is not telling us just to sit idly and do nothing. It is a special day. It is a time for solemn assembly with others who believe as we do. It is a time to worship our Creator and spend time with Him, seeking to learn more about Him, and to draw near to Him. It is a time to turn our focus from our normal activities and to focus on spiritually renewing our minds. Isaiah 58:13-14 tells us that God wants us to call the Sabbath a delight.

Isaiah 58:13-14 "If you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; ¹⁴then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (RSV)

The Bible has a lot to say about the Sabbath. We need to know how God feels about His Sabbath that He made for us, and why. See also the papers The Sabbath Day (No. CB21) and The Sabbath Days of the One True God (No. CB133) and the lesson Lesson: The Sabbath Days of the One True God (No. CB133_2).

In the above papers on the Sabbath, you will learn that God’s Holy Days and New Moons are an extension of the weekly Sabbath and are therefore also included as part of this commandment.

The Fourth Commandment ends the first section of the Ten Commandments that specifically tell us how God wants us to relate to Him. The remainder of the ten commandments teach us how God wants us to relate to mankind.

V. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

The Fifth Commandment is the first commandment that includes a promise that our days may be prolonged. How does honouring our parents make our life longer? For one thing, if we are obeying our parents we won’t be indulging in destructive habits like drugs, immorality (promiscuity), lying, stealing, cheating, and other damaging behaviour. Also, if we are obeying and honouring our parents, God will bless us.

How do we honour our parents? By showing respect to them, obeying them, being courteous and polite to them, and following their example as they follow God. God desires our obedience above all else. He says that is how to show love to Him, and our parents want no less from us.

Children need to be taught this Commandment from a very early age because learning to obey this Commandment helps us to begin a lifetime habit of respecting authority, rules and laws -- both God’s and man’s laws. Then, as we get older, we will have no problem transferring the love, obedience and respect we have for our parents to our heavenly Father.

VI. “You shall not murder.”

Life is a precious gift from God, and since only God can create life, only He can decide when a life should end. Society today is so far away from God and His instruction that murder is used in movies and television for entertainment. In general, violence in the world and in all forms of entertainment has become more commonplace.

But God says in Matthew 5 that we are not even to be angry with our brother. God’s way is the way of love, not strife. The Bible does teach that there is a time to be angry, but we need to be sure our anger is directed toward injustice and sinful acts, not people. There are also certain acts for which God allows a government to impose the penalty of capital punishment for the good of the society and also for individuals to defend themselves. This does not violate the Sixth Commandment.

VII. “You shall not commit adultery.”

Because marriage is ordained by God, He commands us to be faithful to our marriage. Marriage is a promise to be faithful to one another. God always wants us to keep our promises so He can bless us. If we break this commandment, it becomes hard for all individuals involved and breaks down the family structure. This Commandment refers not only to marriage infidelity, or being unfaithful, but also to any moral impurity before or after marriage.

We must learn to look at situations through God’s eyes, and not the world’s. Purity in both deeds and thoughts is so important to God that Christ tells us in Matthew 5:27-28:

Matthew 5:27-28: You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

From our physical relationships we learn about our spiritual relationships. Therefore, it is important to consider who we spend time with and what we do because these things look forward to our future marriage with Christ as the bridegroom for the Church.

VIII. “You shall not steal.”

Everyone has the right to own property. God gave each one of us that right, and the Eighth Commandment protects that right. We are only entitled to what we work for and earn, or what someone gives us as a gift. If we get anything any other way it is wrong. This applies to grades, money, or things. God commands us to respect the rights of others and their property just as we want others to respect ours.

There are many ways of stealing, including not giving an honest day’s work for a day’s pay, or borrowing something and not returning it. There are many other examples.

Malachi 3:8-10 shows that we can steal from God:

Malachi 3:8-10 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, 'In what way have we robbed You? 'In tithes and offerings. ⁹You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. ¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.

There are numerous ways to break God’s Commandment against stealing, so we need to be especially careful and take care to always be on guard.

IX. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.”

This commandment basically means you shall not lie. God loves truth; His word is truth. A list of things God hates is in Proverbs 6:16-19.

Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: ¹⁷A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, ¹⁸A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, ¹⁹A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

Among the six things God hates, two of them involve lying. God wants us to always speak the truth. We should love the truth. Since we don’t want people lying about us, God commands us not to lie about anyone else. It ruins reputations, damages character and the good name that it took someone a lifetime to build.

In John 8:44 Jesus called Satan the father of lies. We do not want to be guilty of following the example of Satan. In the past, we have all been guilty of lying, but we must repent and remember Proverbs 12:22.

Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.

We cannot stay with the truth without God’s help because He also tells us in Jeremiah 17:9-10:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? ¹⁰I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

If we ask, He will help us.

X. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

“To covet,” means to crave or desire in an improper way. It goes beyond just admiring something that someone else has. It includes envy, which is resentment of the fact that someone has something we don’t. It is a longing or yearning for something to which we have no right.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." (RSV)

This Commandment addresses how we think, more than what we actually do. Since all sin begins in the heart (or mind), it lets us know that God is not only concerned with our words and actions, but also with our thoughts.

To fight covetousness we must trust that God will provide a way for us to meet all of our legitimate needs. We should focus on God and His instructions to us in all areas of our lives, because He promises great peace to all whose mind is stayed on Him (Isa. 26:3). If our focus is on God and what He wants, we won’t give in to evil thoughts and desires.

Luke 12:22-34 And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? ²⁶If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? ²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ²⁸But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith! ²⁹And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. ³⁰For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well. ³²"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

God shows us that we should focus on the spiritual things in life instead of the physical things.

Summary

The Ten Commandments are summed up in the Two Great Commandments – love God and love your neighbor. If we follow God’s laws our Father will be well pleased with us.

When we have a relationship with God and His son Jesus Christ, the Ten Commandments become written on our hearts.

2Corinthians 3:3 and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (RSV)

Proverbs 7:1-3 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; ²keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye; ³bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. (RSV)

One way we are able to show God that we love and appreciate Him is to follow His commandments.

John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.(RSV)

1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,

All of mankind sins and breaks God’s Laws. God in His infinite wisdom makes it possible for us to repent and restore our relationship with Him.

Though God called Abraham His “friend” (2Chr. 20:7, Isa. 41:8, Jas. 2:23) and He called David “a man after Mine own heart” (Acts 13:22), they were not always obedient to God’s Laws. They were examples of people who obeyed God, but also made serious errors. When they repented and made changes, God was again pleased with them. By reading about the lives of David and Abraham, we can see what happened when they obeyed God as opposed to what happened when they disobeyed Him and things were more difficult.

The book of Revelations shows us that the saints of God are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. (RSV)

May you too always keep the commandments and repent of wrong doings and be counted with the saints and have the right to the tree of life.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. (NKJV)

For Q&A and activities associated with the commandments see the following lessons:

Lesson: First Commandment (No. CB70_2)

Lesson: Second Commandment (No. CB71_2)

Lesson: Third Commandment (No. CB72_2)

Lesson: Fourth Commandment (No. CB73_2)

Lesson: Fifth Commandment (No. CB74_2)

Lesson: Sixth Commandment (No. CB75_2)

Lesson: Seventh Commandment (No. CB76_2)

Lesson: Eighth Commandment (No. CB77_2)

Lesson: Ninth Commandment (No. CB78_2)

Lesson: Tenth Commandment (No.CB79_2)

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