The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, and How Each One Leads to Christ

God wrote ten words on stone at Sinai, and they still search the human heart: worship God alone, keep His name holy, do not kill, do not covet. Jesus did not abolish them; He deepened them to the heart and kept them perfectly. Each page below shows what the commandment requires and forbids, how Christ fulfills it, and how the law, holy and good, becomes a schoolmaster that brings us to grace in Him.

1. You Shall Have No Other GodsExodus 20:3 2. You Shall Not Make Graven ImagesExodus 20:4-6 3. You Shall Not Take the Name in VainExodus 20:7 4. Remember the Sabbath DayExodus 20:8-11 5. Honour Your Father and MotherExodus 20:12 6. You Shall Not KillExodus 20:13 7. You Shall Not Commit AdulteryExodus 20:14 8. You Shall Not StealExodus 20:15 9. You Shall Not Bear False WitnessExodus 20:16 10. You Shall Not CovetExodus 20:17

The two tables of the law

The commandments have long been read as two tables. The first four concern our love for God: worship Him alone, make no idols, honour His name, and keep His day. The last six concern our love for neighbour: honour parents, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, and do not covet. Jesus gathered them all into two: love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbour as yourself. On these two, He said, hang all the law and the prophets.

The law and the gospel

Read honestly, the commandments humble us, for no one keeps them fully, especially once Jesus shows they reach the heart and not only the hands. That is part of their purpose. The law is a mirror that shows our need and a schoolmaster that brings us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. It was never a ladder we climb to earn God. It drives us instead to the One who kept it perfectly and fulfilled it for us.

A note on the numbering. Christians agree there are ten commandments, and every word of them is the same, but the traditions divide them a little differently. The Reformed, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox churches count as we do here: the command against other gods is the first, and the command against graven images is the second, while the whole prohibition of coveting stands together as the tenth. The Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches join the words about other gods and images into a single first commandment, and to keep the number at ten they divide the last, making coveting a neighbour’s wife the ninth and coveting a neighbour’s goods the tenth. No word is added or removed either way; only the lines between them fall in a different place. What matters is not the numbering but the heart, and every tradition reads the same law given at the same mountain.

The Mosaic covenant · Connections · Who is Jesus?