1.

You shall have no other God’s before

me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any

graven images.

3. Honor your father and mother.

4. Thou shalt not kill.

5. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

7. Thou shall not bear false witness.

 8. You shall not covet.

The Ten Commandments are a list of religious precepts that, according

to passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed
 to Moses by Yahweh and engraved on two stone tablets. They are also
called the Decalogue.

1. You shall have no other God’s before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
3. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
9. Thou shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet.

The Ten Commandments

When were the Ten Commandments written?

The Ten Commandments establish rules of worship and forbid actions such as
murder, theft, and adultery. They reflect a morality common to the ancient Middle
East.

1.
 The Ten Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in
vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

The Ten Commandments are a list of religious precepts that, according

to passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed
to Moses by Yahweh and engraved on two stone tablets. They are also
called the Decalogue.
1

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).

What does the First Commandment mean?

“You shall have no other gods before Me” means we must put God first in our lives. He is
more important than anyone or anything else.

God loves us deeply, and so we should love Him with all our hearts.

“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.

What does the Second Commandment mean?

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 physical aid in worshipping Him.
3.

“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.” This is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:11.

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 music, television shows and movies. But God tells us to stop using
blasphemy and filthy language and to bless rather than curse.

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 music, television shows and movies. But God tells us to stop using
blasphemy and filthy language and to bless rather than curse.

4.

“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 it002E

God made the Sabbath on the seventh day 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 done, and He rested on the seventh day from
all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because
in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:1-3)
5

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!
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?”

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 for 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).
7

dultery is breaking the marriage commitment by having sex with someone else.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines adultery as “voluntary sexual intercourse

between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman
and someone other than her husband.”

A related word found in many biblical passages is fornication.

What is fornication? Specifically the English word refers to “consensual sexual intercourse
between two persons not married to each other” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary). It is often used for sex before or outside of marriage.

However, the Greek word porneia, often translated fornication in the King James Version,
has a broader meaning. Several times in the New King James Version it is translated
“sexual immorality.”

The Seventh Commandment in principle covers all forms of sex outside of marriage. It is
designed to protect marriage.

Sanctity of marriage

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 the prohibition of extramarital sex—adultery—was designed to protect the sanctity of

marriage and show the importance of faithfulness.
8

God gave this additional instruction in Leviticus: “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).

In Colossians 4:1, the apostle Paul also addressed a principle that applies in
employer/employee relationships today: “Masters, give your bondservants what is just
and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.”

Who is your neighbor?

Jesus expanded on “who is my neighbor?” in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke
10:25-37. He showed we are to be good neighbors to everyone.

Obviously the good neighbor Jesus Christ wants us to be will not lie about anyone.

Preventing perjury, slander and perversion of justice

Modern laws about perjury are based on this concept of reinforcing the importance
of truth and truthfulness.

The Ninth Commandment is designed to prevent slander and perversion of justice.

As God told Moses and the Israelites: “You shall not circulate a false report. Do not put
your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a crowd to
do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
…

“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute. Keep yourself far from a
false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. And
you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the
righteous” (Exodus 23:1-2, 6-8)

Lying and dishonesty pervert and corrupt hearts and are abominations to God
“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.”

When the 10 Commandments are listed again in Deuteronomy 5, the order of the items
not to be coveted is slightly different (wife before house), which argues against breaking
this into two commandments as the Catholics 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 that is your neighbor’s.”

In modern terms, coveting often includes our neighbor’s cars, electronic gadgets, money,
prestige, etc.

What does covet mean?

To covet means “to feel inordinate [immoderate, excessive] desire for what belongs to
another” (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary).

It is feeling “I have to have that!” when we have no right to have it

1. You shall have no other gods before
Me.

2. You shall not make idols.

3. You shall not take the name of the

LORD your God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it

holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness

against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.