10 Truths about the Ten Commandments

When we think God delivering the Ten Commandments to Moses many of us picture a long-bearded dude, shockingly resembling Charlton Heston, going up on a mountain with pen in hand. We picture Moses audibly hearing these commandments from God and then writing them down. But Exodus 31:18 tells us that the giving of the Ten is unique. God inscribed these commandments on two stone tablets and handed them to Moses.

This direct authorship underscores their divine authority. There is also something beautiful about the personal touch of these commandments. This is not a cool, distant, and mechanical law-giver—this is the living God. By writing them Himself, God was not only providing a set of rules but also affirming His commitment to guiding and shaping the moral and spiritual lives of the Israelites.

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I do not mean here that there are two separate stone tablets (or three if you follow the Mel Brooks retelling). Rather that the first set of commandments (1-4) focuses upon our vertical relationship with God. These concern our duties to God: worshipping Him alone, avoiding idolatry, respecting His name, and observing the Sabbath. The second tablet addresses our responsibilities towards other people: honoring parents, and prohibiting murder, adultery, theft, false testimony, and coveting.

This division reflects the holistic nature of biblical ethics—integrating both the spiritual and social dimensions of life. Jesus, similarly, summarized the entire law with a call to love both God and people. This structure also underscores the comprehensive nature of God’s law. It governs every aspect of our life as well as our relationships with both God and man.

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As a new company forms, the CEO establishes ground rules that will define them for years to come. At this formative stage, these rules will be able to define their community and create a culture. They are written so well that other companies use them—even companies that have long been established. This creates a problem—divorced from the start-up company's specific context, some rules get twisted and are applied wrongly. Without the context of the relationship, they become a handful of meaningless rules, which can be accepted or discarded on the whim of the receiver of the rules.

This little illustration explains why it is important not to lose sight of the context in which the Ten Commandments were given. They were at a critical and formative moment in redemptive history. They were meant to shape the community. As they transitioned from slavery in Egypt to becoming a people to reflect God’s glory, these commandments would define their identity. It was covenantal.

Removing the story and the covenant from the Ten Commandments makes them something they weren’t meant to be.

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There are several laws within the Old Testament, but they all flow out of these basic ten. And we might even say that these ten spring forth from the two most basic commandments which Jesus shared: love God and love people. The Ten Commandments give us a foundation, the rest of the Law is essentially a commentary upon these.

For this reason, the Ten Commandments form a bedrock for the moral law and community ethics of the people of God. But really these Ten Commandments are a reflection of God’s natural law, they are a summary of what kind of people those created in His glory are to be. Because of this they provide a timeless ethical framework which transcends cultural and historical boundaries. Of course, as mentioned above, this also needs to be considered in light of a covenant relationship.

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The stone tablets of the Ten Commandments were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant, which was kept in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:16, 21). The placement of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark underscores their foundational role in the covenant relationship between God and Israel. The Ark of the Covenant was not just a container; it was the central symbol of God's dwelling place on earth. This signifies their central importance in Israel's worship and religious life. What does it mean that the Ark, which symbolized God’s presence among His people, had the Law at its center? It helps us see that loving God and people was to be at the heart of the community. Adherence to “doing justice” was integral to reflecting God.

Furthermore, as the people of God traversed the land throughout their wilderness journey and into the Promised Land, they carried the Ark with them—and thus the Law of God. This means that God’s law, like His presence, travels with us wherever we go. It is definitive.

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Okay, we don’t actually know for sure that there are ten commandments because we have ten fingers. But it is certainly plausible. I mention this here because one thing is without question—these laws were meant to be memorized and woven into the heart of each individual person. The Israelites were a predominately oral culture; because of this, it was important to have mnemonic devices such as this to help them remember and reflect on these commandments daily.

Again, we don’t want to stretch this picture too far, but we might also make a point that using our fingers as a mnemonic device could have other applications. We use our fingers daily to perform various tasks—many of them menial and insignificant. Yet, we live these out in the context of applying the principles of the Ten Commandments. The law is to infiltrate every bit of our life.

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One of the first heretics in the early church was a guy named. Marcion. Marcion, influenced by Gnosticism, believed that the Old Testament God was rather uncouth. He much preferred the softer parts of the New Testament. So, Marcion took his scissors and cut out anything that sounded too “Old Testament”. That’s a bit of an over-simplification but you get the gist. People today like to give the Marcion treatment to the Bible.

When it comes to the Ten Commandments, we might dismiss them as a code for the people of the Old Testament, but they do not bear on us today. The issue is that almost all of these commandments are reaffirmed in the New Testament. There is significant continuity here. That’s not surprising, really. These commandments reflect the unchanging heart of God.

Even if we consider the Sabbath, which is redefined in light of Christ’s work, we must admit that the New Testament reaffirms the moral principles of the Ten Commandments, demonstrating their enduring relevance. They form not only the ethical community of the Old Testament but also the New Testament community.

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Another simplistic way of thinking about the Ten Commandments is to think that they were there so the people of the Old Testament could try to earn their salvation. But they were never intended to mean this. Instead, they reveal God’s holy standard as well as His heart. Woven into this society were also prescriptions for what to do when the law is broken. Our status as lawbreakers underscores our need for atonement—which ultimately is found in the person and work of Christ.

The Ten Commandments, while integral to the covenantal relationship between God and Israel, were never designed as a ladder by which people could climb to earn their salvation. Legalism is a distortion of their meaning; it is what happens when fallen humanity claims the law for itself.  

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The Ten Commandments are a reflection of God’s heart and His will for humanity. Jesus perfectly fulfills their expectations. He perfectly loved God and people. Through his perfect obedience and sacrificial death, he fulfilled every bit of the law. His sinless life fulfilled humanity's part of the covenant of Moses. As such, He receives all the blessings of the Law.

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or Prophets, as He said in Matthew 5:17. Here, Jesus stated, "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." His fulfillment of the law does not mean that the Ten Commandments have no meaning in the new covenant. They still reflect God’s heart. But the work of Christ and the giving of the Spirit means that we are now empowered to follow these commandments. We are being transformed into Christlikeness, which means we’re being changed into people who love God’s law.

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We are no longer “under the law” in the sense that it does not bring condemnation. We could not fulfill the Law and all of its demands. But Jesus did. Because of this, the law is no longer bringing condemnation—but rather, it continually points us to Christ. And it remains relevant as a moral and ethical guide. We do not fulfill the Ten Commandments apart from Christ. We are powerless to do this. That means we do not follow them as something to bring to God to earn favor, but rather, we live out the Ten Commandments because in Christ, we have gained favor.

When we say that these commandments are relevant, it doesn’t mean they are relevant as a club by which to bruise our unbelieving neighbors. This isn’t meant to be divorced from a relationship with our Creator. Nor is it meant to be divorced from a covenant relationship with God. Rather, the Law is meant to show us God’s heart, to reveal our sinfulness, and to ultimately point us to Christ. When we come to Christ, the Ten Commandments are then able to help us understand the way in which our Savior would have us live in response to our redemption.

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