In this study I am going to breakdown the questions, “What are the Ten Commandments?” and address if they are still relevant in today’s society. There seems to be a split opinion on this topic. The objective of this teaching is to bring clarification on the topic.

The Law

The Holy Bible’s ten commandments originated in one of the five books of the law, within the book of Exodus chapter 20.  When God brought his people out of Egypt He gave Moses the ten commandments as a provision, a foundation of how his people should live.

This is a covenant between God and his people. Exodus 19:5 , “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

A great way to visualize this is to imagine you’re a parent and after some observation of your children you discover that you need to layout some house rules, or ground rules on behavior.

I’ll use myself as an example and share 3 of my house ground rules.

1. Be respectful of your Parents, Grandparents, yourselves and others.

2. No electronic devices at the table while eating.

3. Return items back to their place of origin.

While many may see these “rules” as common sense, others may not.  So, for clarity I let my family know what the expectations are in our home. This is much like what God has done with the Ten Commandments. He is informing His children of the ground rules, His expectations.  So, let’s go over those commands in Exodus chapter 20.

The Ten Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved 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 to them or serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
5. Honor your father and your mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors

Relevance in Today’s Society

Now that we know what the Ten Commandments are and where to locate them within our Bible, let’s go ahead and address The second question.  Are the Ten Commandments still relevant today. The short and simple answer to this is Yes! Now this answer may have not been what you were expecting.  You may now be saying, “Well didn’t Jesus do anyway with the Ten Commandments  in the New Testament? The short and simple answer to this is No! But you don’t have to take my word for it, let’s go directly to what Jesus said.

In Matthew 5:17-20: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Greatest Commandment

Now for my scholar’s out there that are shaking your heads in disapproval and screaming what about Matthew 22:36-38?  Well I am SUPER excited that you brought that up!  Let’s take a look at it now! “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Greatest Commandments vs. The Ten Commandments

Taken at surface level, I can understand how someone could mis-interpret this as meaning there’s only two commands now, not ten.  So let’s break this down.  Let’s calculate this out. When the Ten Commandments were originally scribed by Moses they were on two stone tablets. The first four commands on the first tablet and the remaining six commands on the second tablet. We are going to look back at Exodus 20 and compare it with Matthew 22. If we place the first four commands on one tablet, this is what we have:

First Tablet of Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved 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 to them or serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy

On the second tablet we are are left with these:

Second Tablet of Commandments

1. Honor your father and your mother
2. You shall not murder
3. You shall not commit adultery
4. You shall not steal
5. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
6. You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors

Now that we have the commandments split into two parts lets now  add the first and second commands to the equation.  We will put the Greatest commandment on the first tablet: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. On the second tablet we will place the second greatest command: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Now let’s evaluate.  If we follow the Greatest Command, to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls and mind, then will would unquestionably follow the first four commandments as these all relate to how much we love, honor, respect and obey God.  By following the first four commandments we are effortlessly following the Greatest Command and vice versa. The exact same holds true with the remaining six commands.  If we love our neighbors as we love ourselves we will without a doubt obey all of these commands.

The only thing Jesus did here was summarize the commands into two parts.  If you follow the Greatest command you have checked off the first four commands.  If you follow the second greatest command you’ve checked off the remaining six commands. Lets not forget that Jesus said “… have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them…”

Did this teaching clear up any confusion or misconceptions? If so leave a comment below!

I pray that this teaching and scripture breakdown was edifying.