This article is based on teaching by Pastor Colin Smith, Senior Pastor of The Orchard from his series The Ten Greatest Struggles of Your Life. Follow his teaching on YouTube, the Open the Bible app or by searching “Open the Bible” in your favorite podcast app.
The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:2–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21 in the Bible. Although they are some of the most influential words in human history, many do not understand them. This article summarizes the Ten Commandments, explains their meaning, and shares how they point us to Jesus Christ.
An Overview of the Ten Commandments
God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, and three months later He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. Notice, the law was given to people God had already redeemed. They had been saved from judgment by the blood of the lamb. They had been set free from slavery. They were God’s people.
The law of God was never a ladder for unsaved people to climb up to heaven. From the beginning, it was the pattern of life that God gave to people He had already made his own.
That’s why the Ten Commandments begin with God reminding His people of the relationship they have with Him: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2).
God was not saying, “I’m giving you these commandments, so that by keeping them you may become My people.” He was saying, “I am giving you these commandments because you are My people.” The Ten Commandments are gracious commandments from a loving God who seeks the best for His people. Following them results not in a life of bondage, but rather a life of freedom (James 1:25). That is why these commandments speak to us today.
Go Deeper:
- Article: Ten Questions for Evaluating Your Life
- Sermon: Life Is a Struggle (Listen below)
Commandment #1: You shall have no other gods before Me.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
It’s worth considering what other gods we might be tempted to put before God today. Noting that God is a trinity of persons, Bible scholar James Packer suggests some other trinities that vie to take His place: sex, shekels, and stomach; pleasure, possessions, and position; football, the firm, and the family.
All of these are good gifts from God. But any of these can become an area of sin against the first commandment if the specific gift becomes more important to us than the Giver. This is what the Bible refers to as “idolatry.” What dominates your thoughts, your goals, your conversation? What is the first love of your life? That is your god.
The God who reveals Himself in the Bible is the only true God. All other false “gods” lead to sorrow (Psalm 16:4) and spiritual blindness (Psalm 115:4–8). Only as we worship the true God do we find true satisfaction and our purpose in life (Isaiah 43:7).
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with God:
Commandment #2: You shall make no idols.
“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, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6)
It is natural for our imaginations to create an image of something or someone we have not seen. And since God is invisible, it is natural for us to create within our minds, or in art and sculpture, images that are intended to represent Him.
The problem with these images is that they cannot capture the glory of the Creator. All they can do is diminish Him, and that is why God tells us in this second commandment that we are not to make any images that are intended to represent Him.
Some people say that they find icons, beads, or pictures of Jesus to be helpful aids to devotion. But we should not try to be wiser than God. An image or an icon may reflect part of the truth about God, but it will always obscure as much as it reveals. Our second great struggle is to properly worship our God, the majestic Creator and Lord, without diminishing Him to a little god.
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Worship:
Commandment #3: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
The Third Commandment is all about giving God’s name the honor it deserves. Here are a handful of ways we misuse God’s name:
- Distorted claims–rushing to attach God’s name to your particular cause and to claim His endorsement for what you do.
- Empty claims–using God’s name as a substitute for a swear word or as an exclamation like “Oh my God!” Neither give God’s name the honor it deserves.
- Frivolous claims–saying you believe in God and, at the same time, considering Him less interesting than social media, His commands less authoritative than your desires, and His truth less compelling than the advertiser’s flattery and lies.
- Presumptuous claims–claiming God’s direct guidance by saying: “The Lord told me,” using God’s name to endorse our own ideas that could, in time, turn out to be a mistake.
If you have struggled because of the way that God’s name is repeatedly misused in the church and in the world today, you need to know that this is also an offense to God. How would you feel if someone used your name to promote acts of violence, empty promises, or frivolous claims? God takes this sin personally, and so would you.
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Religion:
Commandment #4: Keep the sabbath day holy
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8–11)
The fourth commandment has often been misunderstood. Some Christians have thought that they were honoring God by making Sunday the dullest day of the week, a day marked by long lists of things that you could not do, rather than a day of delight.
Some believers look back on a childhood where the day of rest was a day of misery and boredom. Their experience has left them with a deep suspicion that God’s laws are restrictive rules that load you with guilt and spoil your fun. But what kind of God would do that? Certainly not the God of the Bible who always seeks our good.
You will find it helpful to approach this command with the conviction that God’s laws frame the good life that He wants us to enjoy. The fourth commandment is divided into two parts: the first deals with the dignity of work, and the second deals with the blessing of rest.
The New Testament doesn’t command Sabbath observance as the Old Testament does. Instead, it teaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of Sabbath rest (Colossians 2:16-17; cf. Hebrews 4:1–11) and believers are not bound to observe one day over another (Romans 14:5–6).
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Time:
Commandment #5: Honor your father and mother
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
The first people God puts into your life are your father and your mother. Your parents are the first authority figures you ever encountered and, for better or for worse, your first experience of a person in authority will likely shape your reaction to other authorities.
So, if your parents brought disappointment and pain into your life, you may find that your defenses go up as you read this commandment. One of the greatest struggles for those who have suffered from poor parenting is to avoid projecting these same failures onto God. That’s why it is so important to discover what God is like from the Bible.
The fifth commandment confronts us with some difficult questions: How should a Christian student respond to a difficult teacher? How should employees deal with a difficult boss? How should Christians relate to leaders in the church or in the nation with whom they may passionately disagree? What does it look like to honor a dishonorable parent?
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Authority:
Commandment #6: You shall not murder
“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)
Human life is created in God’s image, and that makes it sacred. The offense in taking a human life is that it involves destroying the image of God. Yet we struggle to respect human life and to live at peace with one another. There are many ways to destroy another person’s life besides homicide, and the sixth commandment comes much closer to home than you might think. It describes one of the ten greatest struggles of your life–the struggle for peace with others.
Jesus made it clear that the scope of this commandment goes far beyond acts of murder to the thoughts and desires of our hearts. Picture a train moving along a track on which there are many stations. Murder is the station on the far end of a line called “conflict.” Many of us never go near that station, but all of us have traveled somewhere on this track.
Here are two stations along the line called “conflict”:
Station #1 – Verbal abuse:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. Matthew 5:21-22
Station #2 – Hatred
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15
A culture that values life begins with a community of people who see the value of their own lives as a precious gift from God and then place the same value on every other life.
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle for Peace:
Commandment #7: You shall not commit adultery
“You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)
The seventh commandment is about keeping your promise through sexual purity both in your mind and in your body. Jesus made it clear that the scope of the seventh commandment includes even our thoughts and desires: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).
Jesus described the times in which he lived as an “adulterous generation.” An adulterous generation is one in which many people are confused in their attitude and disordered in their behavior when it comes to the matter of sex. We are living in a similar generation. We live in an environment where it is extremely difficult to be pure in our minds, in our hearts, and in our behavior. Purity of thought and life is one of our greatest struggles.
We see the glory of God in the seventh commandment as we consider God’s character. He is faithful to His people. He calls His people to be faithful in their relationships. And though this following verse refers to more than just sexual purity, the promise rings true: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8, emphasis added).
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle for Purity:
Commandment #8: You shall not steal
“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
Stealing can be defined as the desire to get as much as possible while giving as little as possible. It is about being a taker without being a giver. On this definition, it is clear that a lot of stealing goes on within marriages, in families, in churches, and in our communities.
Here are some examples, as we apply our definition of stealing to various areas of life:
- Breaking into someone’s home (a common thief)
- Paying your employees as little as possible (employer theft)
- Giving less than full value for the work you were hired to do (employee theft)
- Overpricing or doing work that is only “good enough” (cutting corners)
- Using others’ material as if it were your own (plagiarism)
- Not paying for what you use (copying music, software, etc.)
God wants us to stop stealing and to replace a lifestyle of laziness and greed with one that is marked by hard work and generosity. The New Testament makes it clear that this is how we are to fulfill the eighth commandment.
“Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Ephesians 4:28)
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Integrity:
Commandment #9: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
God gave us the ninth commandment because He wants His people to be like Him—truth tellers and worthy of trust (Titus 1:2). He wants us to deal in truth rather than lies, in precision rather than distortion, and in honesty rather than deception.
Strictly speaking, the ninth commandment addresses the issue of perjury, that is, standing up in court and making an accusation that you know isn’t true. But the ninth command reaches far beyond our words in a courtroom. Perjury in a courtroom is a station at the end of a track called “lying.” You may never have been at that station, but you have certainly traveled along that line.
The essence of lying is saying something that will achieve a desired result without regard to whether or not it is true. There are many common ways that this takes place—flattery, exaggeration, and gossip, just to name a few.
Go deeper by listening to the sermon Your Struggle with Truth:
Commandment #10: You shall not covet
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17)
The tenth commandment is the key to understanding the other nine. All of the other commandments are about specific actions. Murder, adultery, stealing, and perjury are all behaviors that can be seen, but the tenth commandment is different. It deals with what happens in the secret place of your heart (Romans 7:7).
Coveting is known only to you and to God. My neighbor would know if I stole his car, but he would never know if I coveted his car. Nobody knows your secret desires, thoughts, or fantasies, but the tenth commandment makes it clear that they matter to God.
Some people have the idea that God was only concerned with outward actions in the Old Testament and that Jesus put a new spin on them, applying them to the attitudes of our hearts. But the tenth commandment makes it clear that this was the original intent of God when He gave the commandments to Moses.
The opposite of coveting is contentment. The apostle Paul wrote, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6, emphasis added). Contentment protects us from a myriad of dangers associated with coveting (1 Timothy 6:6–10) and is something we can learn as we depend on the strength of Christ (Philippians 4:11–13).
Go Deeper:
- Article: A Prayer for Contentment
- Article: Why Godliness with Contentment Is Great Gain
- Sermon: Your Struggle with Contentment (listen below)
The Ten Commandments and Jesus Christ
If you start trying to live out the Ten Commandments, it won’t be long before you’re saying to yourself, “I desperately need help.” If you start looking at yourself honestly in the light of these commandments, it won’t be long before you conclude that you’re a long way from the life that God calls you to lead.
The commandments are like a tutor, a coach, or a mentor (Galatians 3:24). Properly understood, the commandments will walk you to Jesus Christ. Just like a good mentor is someone who shows you where you need to go and then he or she is willing to walk with you so that you get there.
This is precisely what the commandments, applied by the Spirit of God, will do in the life of a person. The commandments will show you where you need to go (the kind of life that God calls you to live), and then it will walk you to Christ.
Jesus Christ perfectly kept the Ten Commandments. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for your breaking of the commandments. When we place our faith in Him and His finished work, His perfect life is credited to us and our sin is placed on the cross. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Even if you’ve been a Christian for 10, 20, or 50 years, the commandments will still keep pointing to your need. The longer you walk with Christ, the more you will come to see your own sinfulness, and the more eagerly you will cling to Christ. Discovering the commandments will increase your appreciation of Jesus.
The Ultimate Goal of the Ten Commandments
A religious leader once asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “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” (Matthew 22:36–39).
Jesus summarized the entire Old Testament law, including the Ten Commandments, in one word: love—a love for God and a love for others. As we grow in Christ and strive to follow His commands in the strength He provides, we will grow in love for Him and for each other, and we will better reflect our God of love (1 John 4:8; John 3:16).
Go Deeper on the Ten Commandments:
- Article: The Ten Commandments Are a Mirror Reflecting God’s Glory
- Article: The Ten Commandments are a Mentor Leading Us to Faith in Christ
- Article: The Ten Commandments are a Map for a Spirit-Empowered Life
Book Recommendation: The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life by Colin Smith
Can the Ten Commandments help you finally break through? Do you struggle with time? With a temper? With dishonesty or discontentment? Whatever it is, find help where it may surprise you: the Ten Commandments.
In The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life, Pastor Colin Smith opens up the Ten Commandments to show how there is more to them than meets the eye. Moving from dos and don’ts to matters of the heart, they become barometers of your love for God. You’ll discover areas of your life that are out of sync with His will, and you’ll receive wisdom for living in greater love, strength, and freedom in Christ.
Includes a 30-page study guide ideal for personal or group use, helping you take the next steps toward joyful submission to God’s Word.