1. What are the Ten Commandments and when did God first give them?

Genesis 1:26-27: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Romans 2:14-15: For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).

When God first created Adam and Eve (Genesis 1-2), He wrote His law into their hearts so that they knew what was right and pleasing to God, and they loved God and desired only to serve Him and do what was right. This is what it means when the Bible tells us that God created man in His own image and likeness. But when Adam and Eve fell into sin (Genesis 3), they came to know good and evil, and their desire was to serve and please themselves and to disregard God’s law. But, even though mankind fell into sin and evil, a certain amount of knowledge of God and what is right and wrong still remains in people’s hearts. That is why even those who do not know God’s commandments still know, deep down, that certain things are wrong – such as killing, stealing, lying, committing adultery, etc. – and they feel guilty when they do wrong.

2. When did God give His law again? Why did He do it?

Romans 1:18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Read Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:1-33 in your Bible and compare the accounts of the Ten Commandments

God gave His commandments again on Mt. Sinai – and Moses reminded God’s people of the law before his death – because man’s foolish heart has become darkened. We do not understand God’s law and we compromise its precepts to make it fit our lifestyles rather than conforming our lifestyles to what is truly good and right and obeying God’s commandments.

3. How are the commandments numbered?

J – Jewish Numbering
AL – Augustine-Luther Numbering
(Most Roman Catholic and most Lutheran churches)
OR – Orthodox-Reformed Numbering
(and most other Protestant churches)

Introduction

J – And God spoke all these words, saying,

AL – And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God.”

OR – And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God.”

1st Word

J – “I am the LORD your God.”

AL – “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image”

OR – “You shall have no other gods before me.”

2nd Word

J – “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image.”

AL – “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

OR – “You shall not make for yourself a graven image.”

3rd Word

J – “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

AL – “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

OR – “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.”

4th Word

J – “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

AL – “Honor your father and your mother.”

OR – “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

5th Word

J – “Honor your father and your mother.”

AL – “You shall not kill.”

OR – “Honor your father and your mother.”

6th Word

J – “You shall not kill.”

AL – “You shall not commit adultery.”

OR – “You shall not kill.”

7th Word

J – “You shall not commit adultery.”

AL – “You shall not steal.”

OR – “You shall not commit adultery.”

8th Word

J – “You shall not steal.”

AL – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

OR – “You shall not steal.”

9th Word

J – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

AL – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.”

OR – “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

10th Word

J – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire anything that is your neighbor’s.”

AL – “You shall not desire your neighbor’s wife or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

OR – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire anything that is your neighbor’s.”

4. What is required in all of God’s commandments?

Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Leviticus 19:18: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:35-40: Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

5. How then can all God’s commandments be summarized?

Romans 13:8-10: Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

All of God’s commandments can be summarized by love. They require us to love both God and our fellow man (our neighbor) with a perfect and selfless love. And, if we truly did love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and if we truly did love our neighbor as ourselves, we would gladly and willingly obey all that God commands us – as did Adam and Eve before they fell into sin.

6. Are God’s commandments always good and right? Is there ever a time when it’s OK to disobey God’s commandments?

Psalm 119:128: Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right; I hate every false way.

Psalm 119:142-144: Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth. Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights. The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding, and I shall live.

Psalm 119:160: The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

Though we may, at times, think we know better than God what is good and best for us, God’s Word is always true and His commandments are always right. He gave us His commandments for our good, to keep us from bringing hurt and harm and the horrible consequences of sin upon ourselves. As He warned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden of the terrible consequences of disobedience (Genesis 2:17), so God warns us of the misery and suffering and death which we bring upon ourselves when we disobey His perfect and holy commandments.

Indeed, “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23). We, by our sin and disobedience, bring upon us death and damnation. Only in Jesus – for the sake of His perfect obedience and His perfect sacrifice on the cross for all sin – can we sinners have forgiveness and life. It is God’s free gift to us in His Son!

[Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.}

“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14

How do we come to God in worship and prayer? At times we feel that God should hear and answer our prayers because of all our efforts to obey Him and faithfully serve Him. We look around us and see so many who call themselves “Christians” but disobey God and disregard His Word. They are unfaithful! They have sinned and compromised their faith!

In contrast, we feel that God should certainly hear our prayers and accept our worship since we have been faithful to God’s Word and have given up much to follow Christ. We are not unfaithful as others are!

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican was told by Jesus to those “which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.”

When we feel that God will hear and answer our prayers or accept our worship because we have been faithful Christians and are not unfaithful as are so many others, we are praying in a similar fashion as the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable. Rather, we should come to God as did the humble tax collector who knew of his own sinfulness and unworthiness before God, for “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

When we come to God in worship and prayer, we should come humbly, acknowledging our sin and unworthiness before God. With the publican, we join in praying: “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

Since Christ has died for our sins and is risen again, we can also come before God with the assurance that He forgives our sins and hears and answers all our proper prayers (cf. 1 John 5:11-15). One might even say that we come to the LORD God in humble boldness — humble because we are unworthy sinners, but in boldness and in faith because Christ died for us and has redeemed us (cf. Heb. 10:19ff.).

Before Thee, God, who knowest all, with grief and shame I prostrate fall. I see my sins against Thee, Lord, the sins of thought, of deed, and word. They press me sore; I cry to Thee: O God, be merciful to me! O Jesus, let Thy precious blood be to my soul a cleansing flood. Turn not, O Lord, Thy guest away, but grant that justified I may go to my house at peace with Thee. O God, be merciful to me! Amen. (“Before Thee, God, Who Knowest All,” The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn # 318, Verses 1,3)

Many, even among those who call themselves Christians, will be shocked on the Last Day to find out that they were practicing idolatry and worshiping and serving a god of their own imagination and making and not the God of the Bible, who created the heavens and the earth.

Right after God said, “I am the LORD thy God … Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2,3), God also said, “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….” (Exodus 20:4).

And, of course, when we read on in Exodus (chapter 32:1ff.), we find that before Moses even made it down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments inscribed on the two tablets of stone, the people had fallen into idolatry and were worshiping a golden calf and calling it by the name of the LORD (or Jehovah).

We are quick to criticize the ancient Israelites, but so often we are guilty of the same thing. We worship and serve — with our own worship forms based on our culture and likings — a god made in our own image.

No, I’m not saying we carve an image out of wood or stone or make it out of molten metals like gold; but we make our god in our own image and likeness by assuming that God thinks as we think, that our opinions and views are those of God, and that our likes in worship forms are what God desires of us (cf. Isaiah 55:8-9).

Think about it. How often don’t we hear people say that they don’t accept this part or that teaching of the Bible because it is not in agreement with the views of our “modern” culture and society? Even though the Bible clearly teaches that God is righteous and holy and will judge all who break His commandments with eternal death and damnation, we imagine a god who grades on the curve and who will admit into heaven all who at least try to do good. Even though God, in His Word, plainly says we are all guilty and stand condemned under His law and that the only way one can be spared in God’s judgment and receive instead of death and damnation His mercy and pardon and eternal life in heaven is by clinging in faith to Jesus Christ and His holy life and innocent sufferings and death in our stead, people imagine a god who accepts all regardless of whether they repent and trust in Jesus.

Even though the God who says, “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6), judged the world in the great flood (Genesis 6-8), rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), and decreed the death and utter destruction of the Canaanites (Leviticus 18), people imagine a god who will tolerate every form of evil and sexual perversion and who will not judge our own land and people for their abortions and evil.

When people gather in their churches on Sundays and preach only love and tolerance for what the Bible calls sin and wickedness or when they preach that people can be saved if they are good and show love toward others, how is this any different than the Israelites in the wilderness calling a feast to the LORD when, in fact, they were gathering to worship a god of their own making?

So, what’s my point? Why do I point out the idolatry of “Christians” and “churches” today? I point it out in the hope that we all examine ourselves and our churches and preachers with the Word of God and determine if we are worshiping and serving the true God or a god of our own imagination and making. I’d rather you be spared the shock of learning the truth on the day of Christ’s return when He will say to so many who claimed to have worshiped and served Him, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:23).

God has not changed! His commandments have not changed! He still is a God who punishes sin and wickedness! He has never judged based on a curve and He never will! Trying your best at being a good person won’t cut it. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); and “the wages of sin is death” — spiritual, physical and eternal — (Romans 6:23)!

There is only one way to be spared in God’s judgment, and that is to cling in faith to Christ Jesus and His cross (cf. John 8:24; 14:6; Rom. 3:24-26)! “Jesus Christ the righteous … is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1,2). He took the punishment and paid the price for all and rose again on the third day in order that we might repent of our sinful ways and look to Him in faith for pardon, forgiveness and eternal salvation.

Instead of deceiving ourselves and making a god after our own image, let’s accept what God says of Himself in the Bible and worship and serve the true God by repenting of our evil ways and clinging to Christ and His cross for God’s pardon and eternal peace!

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)….” Ephesians 2:4-5

It is an amazing thing to consider. Even while we were dead in our sins, God so loved us that He gave His only-begotten Son to die for us and pay in full for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

The Bible tells us in Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

And not only did God send His Son to die for us and redeem us to God; as He raised up Christ Jesus from the dead on the third day, so He has raised us (all believers) up from our spiritual darkness and death and made us alive together with Christ through faith (cf. John 5:24-26).

By His grace alone and by means of the message of the Gospel, He brought us to trust in Jesus and His cross and gave to us the assurance of forgiveness and life in Jesus’ name. God, who is rich in mercy beyond all understanding, because of His great love for us in Christ Jesus, redeemed us and saved us from sin and eternal death by bringing us to know and trust in Messiah Jesus as our Savior.

It is as Paul writes a few verses later: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

What a gracious blessing that is for all who believe!

O merciful God, we thank and praise You for Your great love toward us in sending Your Son to die for us and redeem us and for making us alive to You and Your grace by bringing us to know and trust in Your Son, Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]