The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments


The Ten Commandments are laws that God gave to Moses while he was leading Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land. God spoke to Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, in a cloud of fire, and engraved His laws on stone tablets. The Commandments are simple moral statutes which, if followed, would eliminate most sin.
The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

1.	You shall have no other gods before Me. -Exodus 20:3

2.

You shall not make unto yourself any graven 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; you shall not bow down yourself to them nor serve them. For I the LORD your 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 to thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments. -Exodus 20:4-6

3.	You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain. -Exodus 20:7

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 the 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. -Exodus 20:8-11 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. -Deuteronomy 5:15

5.	Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God gives you. -Exodus 20:12

6.	You shall not kill. -Exodus 20:13

7.	You shall not commit adultery. -Exodus 20:14

8.	You shall not steal. -Exodus 20:15

9.	You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. -Exodus 20:16

10.	You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manervant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. -Exodus 20:17

Jesus gave us two commands which sum up all of the ten commandments. Found in Matthew 22:37,39, these commands are:
1. You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
2. You will love your neighbor as yourself.
If you love the Lord, you won't break commandments 1-4, and if you love other people, you won't break commandments 5-10.