Many people know what the Ten Commandments are but how many really know more than one or two of the actual commandments or can even quote correctly one of them. The answer is, not many, if you have not studied them or studied the Bible, you probably don’t know what they are. This article will discuss each of them, where they can be found, and what God was attempting to tell us in each of them.
The first of the Ten Commandments is found in Exodus 20:3, and states, ‘ Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ (KJV) This was especially for the Jewish people since they had just come out of Egypt, where they had gods for almost everything, where they worshipped the god of earth, god of water, god of air, god of fertility, et-cetera, et-cetera. They even fell back into that when waiting for Moses to return with these commandments. The Israelites made a calf and covered it with gold, as they had in Egypt, and worshipped it, as they had when in Egypt. By their own actions, and our actions now, we show that we need too be told ‘have no other gods’. You might say , “ I don’t have a golden calf I pray too”, but we put our job, our children, our spouse, our life, as more important than God. Anything we allow to be more important to us than God is something that is now our god in our life.
The second commandment of God is ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image’(KJV). This, as previously described with the golden calf was in part for the Israelites. You might say how does that relate to me, I don’t have a golden calf? Well, do you think money is more important than God? Do you think your car is more important than God? Do you think any of your things are more important than God? If God wanted you too give up anything you have for His use, would you gladly give it? Anything you would not give up for God is a graven image, wither it was engraved by you or someone else for you, it is a graven image.
The third commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them’(KJV). Again this was in part for the Israelites due to the golden calf, but anything that we find more important than God and work to make it better for us then we bow down to it. Maybe we bow down to wash the car, or maybe we bow down to do our jobs, or maybe we metaphorically bow down to our boss, or maybe we bow down to someone we love, or something we love, or something we worship.
The fourth commandment is ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God’s name in vain’(KJV). the Bible says that the Lord will not find one who does this guiltless. You might say I don’t cuss and take the Lord’s name in vain, and maybe you don’t, but do you ever say “Oh my G**” or “Good G**” without thinking? You are guilty of using the Lord’s name in vain.
The next one is the Fifth commandment, ‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it Holy; six days shall thou labor and do thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God’(KJV). Technically the sabbath day in Bible days before Christ was Saturday, but Jesus was raised from the tomb on the First day of the week and the disciples began to gather together to commemorate that day on Sunday, so we carry on that belief today. We keep our Sundays as the Sabbath day spoken of in this commandment.
The Sixth Commandment is ‘thou shalt not kill’(KJV). Killing is looked upon as sin by God, but some people might argue that God calls for the Israelite people to kill the people in various places throughout the Old Testament. God had His hands tied by us and our sin nature. Adam brought death into the world with his sin and the killing goes on through history due to the continued sin of man.
The Seventh Commandment is the one we have a lot of problem with today ‘Thou shalt not commit Adultery’(KJV). The reasoning behind this was the Lord wanted to have people to make a promise to each other and to Him to do this so as to make a difference between us and the animals we had dominion over. God also wanted to keep the marriage Holy because it was to be a shadow or type of Christ and His Church.
The Eighth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not steal’(KJV). Theft of things is not really important to a true Christian as these are just things, but these things are God’s things and we are only given them for a short time to care for them until He returns, so we are upset at theft since it is like unto stealing from God.
The Ninth Commandment is ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. This is regularly broken by us as we try to get others to take the blame for our shortcomings. The truth is that no one here on earth can take our place for what we have done or said. We are guilty and even if man doesn’t know God does.
Finally we have the Tenth Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s’(KJV). This is the one we have the biggest problem with. Every time we see something that someone else has whither it be a car, or money, or celebrity, or even voice or ability of someone else and want it for ourself then we have coveted. I must admit even I have broken this one.
All of these are too easy to break in one way or another. we are tempted by this fallen world to do things all the time that will cause us to break these. Luckily for us Jesus came to give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins, past and present and future, so that we can be justified and sanctified before the Lord. All we need do is accept it and begin to profess Jesus to men. Colossians 2:13-14 says ‘And you, being dead in your sin and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.’(KJV)
Jesus took all our sins and made it as though we never sinned. Jesus made the Ten Commandments no longer condemning to us. He made us free from the burden of our sin and the Holy Spirit which now inhabits us should help us to attempt to keep those commandments, summed up in two commandments by Jesus for us ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.The first part covers the first five
commandments and the second part covers the last five. Jesus didn’t do away with the law, He only made man able to understand it and get closer to living by it.
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