The Commandments of God

In the Old Testament, Moses received the Ten Commandments from God in two tablets. Later in New Testament, Jesus Himself explained these Commandments clearly; stating that there are two great commandments of God first, is to Love the Lord your God with whole heart and soul and second to love your neighbors as you love yourself. If we will notice in some churches there are two tablets where the Ten Commandments are written (replica of the two tablets during the time of Moses). On the first tablet are the Three Commandments about God and then on the second tablet are the remaining Seven Commandments on how to honor and respect our neighbors.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS GIVEN TO MOSES:

These are the commandments which God gave to man to guide him to happiness in this life and in the next:

I. I AM THE LORD THY GOD; THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
Commands: faith, hope,love, and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer. Forbids: idolatry, superstition, spiritism, tempting God, sacrilege, attendance at false worship.

II. THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.
Commands; reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows. Forbids; blasphemy, the irreverent use of God’s name, speaking disrespectfully of holy things, false oaths, and the breaking of vows.

III. REMEMBER THOU KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY.
Commands: going to Church on Sundays and holy days. Forbids: missing church through one’s own fault; unnecessary servile work; public buying and selling; court trials.

IV. HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER
Commands: love, respect, obedience on the part of children; care on the part of parents for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children; obedience to civil and religious superiors. Forbids; hatred of parents and superiors; disrespect, disobedience.

V. THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
Commands: safeguarding of one’s own life and bodily welfare and that of others. Forbids: unjust killing, suicide, abortion, sterilization, dueling, endangering life and limb of self or others.

VI. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
Commands: chastity in word, and deed. Forbids: obscene speech; impure actions alone or with others.

VII. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
Commands: respect for the property of others and rights of thers, the paying of just debts; paying just wages to employees, integrity in public officials. Forbids: theft, damage to the property of others; not paying just debts, not returning found or borrowed articles; giving unjust measure or weight in selling; not paying just wages, bribery; graft; cheating; fraud; accepting stolen property; not giving an honest day’s work for wages received; violation of contract.

VIII. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBORS WIFE.
Commands: truthfulness, respect for the good name of others; the observance of secrecy when required. Forbids: lying, injury to the good name of others, slander, talebearing, rash judgement, contemptuous speech, and the violation of secrecy.

IX. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S WIFE.
Commands: purity in thought. Forbids: willful impure thoughts and desires.

X.THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBORS GOODS.
Commands: respect for the rights of others. Forbids: the desire to take, to keep, or to damage the property of others.

The Great Commandments explained by Jesus

1. You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.
2. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2067 The Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of neighbor. The first three concern love of God, and the other seven love of neighbor.

2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.