Open God’s 10 Commandments

God’s 10 Commandments

Why is the world so violent? Why do half of Western marriages end in divorce and so many children live in single-parent families? What are so many overlooking? What is the missing key to living a happy and productive life? If you want true peace and happiness, acting on the biblical lessons in this booklet is vitally important to you!

If you believe there is a God who created humanity, it’s logical to expect this Creator God to know the best way for us to live.

We believe God has recorded this information in the Bible to save anyone who will listen from the heartache and suffering that the wrong choices—what the Bible calls sins—bring.

But humanity as a whole has chosen to try to discover right and wrong by trial and error. Even worse, most people choose to experiment for themselves, not even learning from the mistakes of others!Jesus Christ summarized the right way in two great commandments: Love for God and love for others (Matthew 22:37-40). This basic approach is

Open The 10 Commandments for Today

The 10 Commandments for Today

Do the 10 Commandments need to be updated—or upheld? How do the ancient laws included in the 10 Commandments apply today?

You may have heard back in 2008 that Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti felt the Catholics’ seven deadly sins needed to be updated. According to the BBC report, he wanted to add things like environmental pollution, genetic manipulation, accumulating excessive wealth, and drug trafficking and consumption to his new list. (The old list, including gluttony, greed and sloth, is traced back to Pope Gregory I in A.D. 590.)

What about the 10 Commandments? They are much older. They were given by God on Mount Sinai about 3,500 years ago. Actually, though, they are even older, considering that Abraham obeyed God’s commandments hundreds of years earlier (Genesis 26:5). In fact, the Bible tells us that sin existed from the time of Adam (Romans 5:12), so the law of God was known by Adam and Eve—there is no sin where there is no law (verse 13)!Did Jesus Chri

Open First Commandment: You Shall Have No Other Gods

First Commandment: You Shall Have No Other Gods

The First Commandment is recorded in Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” It tells us to put God first.

God began the 10 Commandments this way: “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” (Exodus 20:2-3).

This First Commandment sets the tone for the first four commandments, which can be summarized as, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus Christ called this summation the great commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).

Jesus’ example

Jesus set the example of putting God first. Even after fasting for 40 days, He responded to Satan’s temptation by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Living by every word of God involves a commitment to always listen to what God teaches

Open Second Commandment: You Shall Not Make a Carved Image

Second Commandment: You Shall Not Make a Carved Image

Why does God command us not to make idols or any representations of Him in the Second Commandment? How does this command about idolatry apply today?

The Second Commandment against idolatry is recorded in Exodus 20:4-6:

“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.”

God commands us not to make idols or any representation of Him. Nothing we can make can compare with Almighty God—human handiwork would only give us a false image of the true God. We are not to use statues, pictures, jewelry or anything else to represent God or as a phys

Open Third Commandment: You Shall Not Take God’s Name in Vain

Third Commandment: You Shall Not Take God’s Name in Vain

The Third Commandment prohibits profanity, swearing and cursing: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

This Third Commandment is recorded in Exodus 20:7. To not take God’s name in vain means to not take it lightly and to never use God’s holy name as a thoughtless, hateful curse! This is perhaps the most common and lightly treated sin today, as profanity is splashed all over our television and movies. But God tells us to stop using blasphemy and filthy language and to bless rather than curse.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colosse, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth” (Colossians 3:8). He also gave this instruction to the church in Rome: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14).

Reverencing God and representing Him properly

Instead of using His name in vain with profanity, we

Open Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day

The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day

God made the Sabbath at the end of the creation week, and it reminds us of our Creator. How does He want us to remember it today?

God recorded the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8-11:

“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 Sabbath was made at creation

God made the Sabbath at the end of the creation week, and it reminds us of our Creator: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had

Open Fifth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Your Mother

Fifth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Your Mother

The Fifth Commandment says: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

The first four commandments define how God wants us to show love for Him. This Fifth Commandment begins a series of six commandments that show us how to love other people—starting from our earliest years in the family.

In a way, the Fifth Commandment connects the two sections, since God reveals Himself as our loving Father. No father deserves honor as much as our Heavenly Father, whom Jesus Christ came to reveal to those God is working with! Yet the Bible shows that humanity, and even those chosen to be God’s people, have often failed in showing that honor and respect to our Creator God.

God pointed out this much-too-common problem in Malachi 1:6: “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?”

Open Sixth Commandment: You Shall Not Murder

Sixth Commandment: You Shall Not Murder

God recorded the Sixth Commandment in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.” God values life highly and He wants us to as well.

God is the giver of life. He breathed into the first man the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), and His plan is to give every human being a chance at real life—eternal life as His sons and daughters in His Kingdom.

Jesus Christ said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). He desires everyone to repent and have salvation—eternal life (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). This physical life is a training ground for that future life.

God values life highly. He tells us to choose life: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

God showed the value of human lif

Open Seventh Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery

Seventh Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery

The Seventh Commandment is recorded in Exodus 20:14: “You shall not commit adultery.”

God intended the sexual relationship between a husband and wife to be an exclusive, intimate bond to strengthen the marriage relationship.

The creation account shows God’s wonderful intention for men and women and for the marriage bond. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him’ …

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

“And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:18, 21-24).

So t

Open Eighth Commandment: You Shall Not Steal

Eighth Commandment: You Shall Not Steal

The Eighth Commandment is recorded in Exodus 20:15: “You shall not steal.” The Bible describes many forms of stealing we must avoid.

Many human laws have been made to try to protect our personal possessions and property from those who would seek to take them for themselves. But the intent of God’s Eighth Commandment goes deeper.

Many forms of stealing

Stealing can take many forms, including cheating someone or even delaying paying someone what you owe him or her: “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another … You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning” (Leviticus 19:11, 13).

The apostle James strongly warned the wealthy people who oppressed their workers and the poor: “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh

Open Ninth Commandment: You Shall Not Bear False Witness

Ninth Commandment: You Shall Not Bear False Witness

The Ninth Commandment is found in Exodus 20:16: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” This principle includes all forms of lying.

Modern laws about perjury are based on this concept of reinforcing the importance of truth and truthfulness. The intent of God’s Ninth Commandment goes even deeper.

God of truth

God is a God of truth. He wants us to learn to hate lying and dishonesty and to love truth. Consider these scriptures about how important truth is to God:

• “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

• “His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).

• “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

• “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

• “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have co

Open Tenth Commandment: You Shall Not Covet

Tenth Commandment: You Shall Not Covet

The 10th Commandment tells us not to covet. It gets to the heart of the matter of sin. It looks at our motivations, showing how God wants us to think.

God recorded the 10th Commandment for us in Exodus 20:17:

“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.”

To covet means “to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition).

When the 10 Commandments are listed again in Deuteronomy 5, the order of the items not to be wrongly desired is slightly different (wife before house), which argues against breaking this into two commandments as some do.

Deuteronomy 5:21 says: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything t

Open What Now?

What Now?

Reading about the 10 Commandments is not enough. They are designed to be acted on! Obeying them brings great blessings, but disobeying brings a terrible penalty.

As you have read through God’s 10 Commandments, undoubtedly you have seen areas where you have missed the mark—sinned, as the Bible calls it. We say undoubtedly because the apostle Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Paul also explains that this is serious business: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

God’s laws are for our benefit; but when we break them, they exact a terrible penalty. Ultimately they carry the penalty of eternal death unless we sincerely repent.

In the concluding remarks of the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ reminds us that He will reward people for their actions when He returns (Revelation 22:12). John follows this statement with, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that

Open Are the 10 Commandments Upheld in the New Testament?

Are the 10 Commandments Upheld in the New Testament?

Most people acknowledge that Christians should obey most of the 10 Commandments, including those that prohibit worshipping other gods, murder, stealing, adultery and lying—just to name a few of the instructions spoken by God to the ancient Israelites from Mount Sinai. It is only the Fourth Commandment to keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11) that some claim is not repeated in the New Testament and therefore is no longer required of Christians.

Are all of the 10 Commandments upheld in the New Testament? To answer this question, consider what Christ taught concerning the commandments and the following chart showing the repetition of the commandments in the New Testament.

What Christ taught concerning the 10 Commandments in the New Testament

Christ consistently upheld the 10 Commandments as given in the Old Testament. In His Sermon on the Mount, He very pointedly stated: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Proph