The Ten Commandments

The eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that we make a god.

The Second Commandment forbids the worship of the true God by images or similitudes. Many heathen nations claimed that their images were mere figures or symbols by which the Deity was worshipped, but God has declared such worship to be sin. The attempt to represent the Eternal One by material objects would lower man's conception of God. The mind, turned away from the infinite perfection of the Lord, would be attracted to the creature rather than to the Creator. And as his conceptions of God were lowered, so would man become degraded.

It is inevitable that children should suffer from the consequences of parental wrong-doing, but they are not punished for the parent's guilt, except as they participate in their sins. It is usually the case, however, that children walk in the steps of their parents. By inheritance and example the sons become partakers of the father's sin. Wrong tendencies, perverted appetites, and debased morals, as well as physical disease and degeneracy, are transmitted as a legacy from father to son, to the third and fourth generation. This fearful truth should have a solemn power to restrain men from following a course of sin.

In prohibiting the worship of false gods, the Second Commandment by implication enjoins the worship of the true God. And to those who are faithful in His service, mercy is promised, not merely to the third and fourth generation as is the wrath threatened against those who hate Him, but to thousands of generations.

This commandment not only forbids false oaths and common swearing, but it forbids us to use the name of God in a light or careless manner, without regard to its awful significance. By the thoughtless mention of God in common conversation, by appeals to Him in trivial matters, and by the frequent and thoughtless repetition of His name, we dishonor Him. "Holy and reverend is His name." Psalm 111:9. All should meditate upon His majesty, His purity and holiness, that the heart may be impressed with a sense of His exalted character; and His holy name should be uttered with reverence and solemnity.

To keep the Sabbath holy, we should not even allow our minds to dwell upon things of a worldly character. And the commandment includes all within our gates. The inmates of the house are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours. All should unite to honor God by willing service upon His holy day.

Parents are entitled to a degree of love and respect which is due to no other person. God Himself, who has placed upon them a responsibility for the souls committed to their charge, has ordained that during the earliest years of life, parents shall stand in the place of God. The Fifth Commandment requires children not only to yield respect, submission, and obedience to their parents, but also to give them love and tenderness, to lighten their cares, to guard their reputation, and to succor and comfort them in old age. It also enjoins respect for ministers and rulers and for all others to whom God has delegated authority. This, says the apostle, "Is the first commandment with promise." Ephesians 6:2.

All acts of injustice that tend to shorten life; the spirit of hatred and revenge, or the indulgence of any passion that leads to injurious acts towards others, or causes us even to wish them harm (for "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer"); a selfish neglect of caring for the needy or suffering; all self-indulgence, or unnecessary deprivation or excessive labor that tends to injure health-all these are, to a greater or less degree, violations of the Sixth Commandment.

This commandment forbids not only acts of impurity, but sensual thought and desires, or any practice that tends to excite them. Purity is demanded not only in the outward life but in the secret intents and emotions of the heart. Christ, who taught the far-reaching obligation of the Law of God, declared the evil thought or look to be as truly sin as is the unlawful deed.

Both public and private sins are included in this prohibition. The Eighth Commandment condemns manstealing and slave dealing, and forbids wars of conquest. It condemns theft and robbery. It demands strict integrity in the minutest details of the affairs of life. It forbids overreaching in trace, and requires the payment of just debts or wages. It declares that every attempt to advantage oneself by the ignorance, weakness, or misfortune of another is registered as fraud in the books of heaven.

False speaking in any matter, every attempt or purpose to deceive our neighbor, is here included. An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, a falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor's reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the Ninth Commandment.

The Tenth Commandment strikes at the very root of all sins, prohibiting the selfish desire, from which springs the sinful desire for that which belongs to another will not be guilty of an act of wrong toward his fellow creatures.

I

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."-Matthew4:10.

II

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God. we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."-1 John 5:21; Acts 17:29.

III

"That the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed."-1 Timothy 6: 1.

IV

"Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:' "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." "For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." "There remaineth therefore a keeping of a Sabbath to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." "For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth."-Matthew 24:20; Mark 2:27- 28; Hebrews 4:4, 9, 10 margin; Colossians 1:16.

V

"Honor thy father and thy mother."-Matthew 19: 19.

VI

"Thou shalt not kill."-Romans 13:9.

VII

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."-Matthew 19:18.

VIII

"Thou shalt not steal."-Romans 13:9.

IX

"Thou shalt not bear false witness."-Romans 13:9.

X

"Thou shalt not covet."-Romans 7: 7.  

I

I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods

before me.

[The Second Commandment has been left out]

II [actually Ill]

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

III [IV]

Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.

[The Sabbath Commandment has been changed]

IV [V]

Honor thy father and thy mother.

V [VI]

Thou shalt not kill.

VI [VII]

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VII IVI/I]

Thou shalt not steal.

VIII [IX]

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

IX [X- First Part]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.

X [X- Second Part]

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

The General Catholic Catechism. "Q.-Have you any other way of proving that the [Catholic] Church has power to institute festivals of precept? "A. Had she not such power. .she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week for Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority." Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174 [Roman Catholic] .

"Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy Catholic Church alone. The Bible says 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And Lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy Catholic Church." Thomas Enright, CSSR, President, Redemptorist College, Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 18, 1884. [Roman Catholic] .