The 10 Commandments   (Click here.  See BibleInfo's Flash Movie.)

 

 

The 10 commands can be divided into two categories:  Love God & Love Man (See Matthew 22:37-40).

God first spoke these out loud, then wrote them in stone.  (Exodus 20:3-17)

Love God
1 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 
2 20:4-6 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 
3 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 
4 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 
Love Man
5 20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6 20:13 Thou shalt not kill. 
7 20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 
8 20:15 Thou shalt not steal. 
9 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 
10 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's. 

 

God is in the business of saving life (our life) and this list of commands should be looked at as things that will hurt and eventually kill us if we choose to disregard them.  (They are not just arbitrary commands pulled out of the air.)

Commandment #1 tells us that God must be first in our lives.  At first glance it seems that God must need to be first to boost His self image or something, but what's in it for God when He is number one in our lives, when we give Him all the glory?  Is He really needing the praise, or is it because He is wanting to see the correct attitude in us? 

When we give God real glory and praise, when we place Him first, it will stem from a heart full of gratitude and love.  God wants us to be truly happy and when we are praising Him it is doing us the most good and we actually become happier and that makes God happier.  So God wanting to be first in our lives is actually God wanting the best for us.

Commandment #2 tells us that we should not even make an image that represents Him and then worship it as if we are worshiping Him.  Images like these only confuse us and keep us from seeing how great our God really is.  The devil knows that if we are not worshiping God, it's like we are worshiping him even if we don't think we are.

Commandment #3 tells us that by using God's name carelessly we do ourselves great harm.  When we choose to verbalize our low regard for Him it degrades us as well.

Commandment #4 reminds us that God gave us a specific day on which He wants us to spend time away from all of our cares and to remember that He created us.  When we disregard this special day it is ourselves that we hurt the most.

Commandment #5 tells us that by bringing honor on our parents we are bringing a great blessing on ourselves as well.  Being the person God wants us to be will bring great honor on our parents.

Commandment #6 tells us that killing another human not only hurts them but ends up hurting us as well.  We should care about them as much as we care about ourselves.

Commandment #7 tells us that being untrustworthy sexually brings great harm to ourselves.  We can see this in the disease it brings on us and the way it degrades us mentally.

Commandment #8 tells us that taking something that does not belong to us will make us miserable and it hurts the other person as well.

Commandment #9 tells us that telling untrue things about another person not only hurts them, but hurts us as well.  (When was the last time you felt good about another person that you know was telling a lie?)

Commandment #10 tells us that if we even want to take something that belongs to someone else it actually hurts us (even if we don't physically follow through).

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God . . . And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God . . . ."    Deuteronomy 11:26-28 

"The divine requirements call upon us to shun those indulgences that would bring suffering and disappointment, that would close to us the door of happiness and heaven."  Steps to Christ, page 46

"The man who attempts to keep the commandments of God from a sense of obligation merely--because he is required to do so--will never enter into the joy of obedience. He does not obey. When the requirements of God are accounted a burden because they cut across human inclination, we may know that the life is not a Christian life. True obedience is the outworking of a principle within. It springs from the love of righteousness, the love of the law of God. The essence of all righteousness is loyalty to our Redeemer. This will lead us to do right because it is right--because right doing is pleasing to God."   Christ's Object Lessons, page 97

As stated above, these 10 rules fall under only 2 rules, Love God & Love Man.  It seems that we should be able to keep them, but no matter how hard a person tries there is no way to really follow the principle behind them.  So how can a person ever hope to be "righteous"? 

"By His perfect obedience He [Jesus] has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness."    Christ's Object Lessons, page 311

"Righteousness is right doing, and it is by their deeds that all will be judged. Our characters are revealed by what we do. The works show whether the faith is genuine.

"It is not enough for us to believe that Jesus is not an impostor, and that the religion of the Bible is no cunningly devised fable. [See James 2:19]  We may believe that the name of Jesus is the only name under heaven whereby man may be saved, and yet we may not through faith make Him our personal Savior.  It is not enough to believe the theory of truth. It is not enough to make a profession of faith in Christ and have our names registered on the church roll. "He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." "Hereby we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments." 1 John 3:24; 2:3. This is the genuine evidence of conversion. Whatever our profession, it amounts to nothing unless Christ is revealed in works of righteousness."  Christ's Object Lessons, page 312

For more information on the steps it takes to come to Jesus, or on how to accept Jesus click here. 
For a short PowerPoint presentation showing how much we can do on our own click here.

For further study read:

7 (Click here for a printer-friendly version of the Ten Commandments.)

 

 

(An online Bible Search Tool is provided for your convenience.
For additional online Bible study help, visit one of our other links.)

 

(Note:  If you do not see the yellow "Table of Contents" on the left, click here.)