the big 10

"And God spake all these words, saying, 'I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 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 shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 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'" (Exodus 20:1-7 KJV).

Ah, there's nothing like that good 'ol King James Bible language for quoting the Ten Commandments, is there? Man, when you see stuff like graven image, iniquity and Thou shalt not..., it just kinda gets your attention, doesn't it? Nevertheless, we don't seem to hear too much about the Ten Commandments anymore. This is too bad because the Ten Commandments are still as important today as they were when God gave them to Moses thousands of years ago.

You see, The Ten Commandments (the first three of which are quoted above) were never intended to be a set of rules by which people could earn their way into heaven. They were (and are) intended to show us how far off the mark we really are from what God intended for us. When we realize that we can never live without breaking even one of the Commandments, we can then see our need for a Savior- someone who can save us from the penalty that we deserve for breaking God's Laws. This is where Jesus comes in and for more on that, take a look at Galatians 3:21-26 where Paul the Apostle will be happy to give you a better explanation.

Anyway, the Commandments are usually (but not always) numbered this way...

  1. No foreign gods
  2. No idols (or "graven images")
  3. Don't misuse the name of God
  4. Remember the Sabbath
  5. Honor your parents
  6. Don't murder
  7. Don't commit adultery
  8. Don't steal
  9. Don't lie (or bear false witness)
  10. No coveting (in other words, don't pursue an intense desire to possess something or someone that belongs to another person.)

If you look closely at the Ten Commandments, you'll notice that they follow a certain order. The first four Commandments are vertical in nature- they concern our responsibility towards God. The following six are horizontal in nature- they concern our relationship towards others. This order makes good sense because our vertical relationship with God is something that should always come first. After all, if our vertical relationship with God is messed up then our horizontal relationship with others will tend to be messed up as well.

Even though the Commandments may seem old and out of place to some people today, the whole idea of the one true God setting down His commandments sounded just as ridiculous to people in the ancient world as it does to many people today, although for different reasons. You see, many people today have taken on a lifestyle that denies the existence of a Creator and considers the Ten Commandments to be hopelessly obsolete. In the old days however, it was much different. Back then, people usually took the opposite approach and worshiped images, idols, and gods of every kind.

This makes it interesting to see how the Ten Commandments apply to the people of yesterday (who worshiped all kinds of images) and the people of today (who seemingly don't). Take the second commandment for example. The second commandment forbids the use of any idol, statue, or figurine in worshiping God. But an "idol" doesn't have to be something made from wood, clay, or metal, you know. For instance, The Doctor has known people who have made an idol out of a car or money or a member of the opposite sex, just to name a few examples. 

In reality, an idol can be anything that you love, fear, or depend on more than God. This means that an idol can be anything that takes the place of God in your life. Once something has become more important than God in your life, then that thing (whatever it is) has become your "god." And so, the person for whom money is the most important thing in life is just as guilty of breaking the second commandment as the person who bowed down before the statue of some false god in Old Testament times.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus quoting the Ten Commandments a number of times. But while Jesus certainly supported the Ten Commandments, He never held them up as a set of rules that had to be followed to get into heaven. Instead, He used them to show that everybody falls short of meeting God's standards (see Luke 18:18-27 and especially Matthew 5:27-32). Jesus also stressed the importance of our inward thoughts and motivations in relationship to the Commandments. In fact, when asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied in this way...

"One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:35-40 NIV).

Why would Jesus boil down all of the Old Testament books of the Law and Prophets into these two simple commandments? Well it's pretty simple really. If you keep these two laws- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as yourself  -you'll find yourself keeping all the others. And when we fall short of keeping them (as everyone does), we have Jesus who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:14) and is going before God on our behalf right now (Romans 8:34).

So instead of being irrelevant, The Ten Commandments actually have a lot to say to us today. When you combine the Commandments with the New Testament teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, you have a 1-2 spiritual punch that's tough to beat.


The Doctor is not a real doctor but he plays one on the Internet. E-Mail prescriptions are also available on an individual basis.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptural references taken from The Living Bible, ©1971, Tyndale House Publishers


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