What the Bible says about Ten Commandments
(From Forerunner Commentary)
A commandment is a specific instruction or law from God that we are to obey forever. Commandments have no precedents because they establish original, divine law.
A statute designates a law that one engraves, meaning a lawgiver establishes it unchangeably unless he alone changes it. A religious statute sets rules for worship. Secular statutes have the force of a royal decree. A statute is formulated like a law: "You shall (not) do so-and-so" (Exodus 22:18-23:33). A synonym for statute is "oracle."
A judgment is a decision based on an established law. A judge takes associated factors into account to decide appropriately for the specific situation. It takes the form of a case-law: "If you do so-and-so, you will pay so much" (Exodus 21:1—22:15). A synonym for judgment is "precedent."
Martin G. Collins
The Ten CommandmentsRelated Topics: Commandment | Commandments | Judgment | Judgments | Law | Law Keeping | Law of God | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments
God commanded Israel, "Obey My voice." If we take that extremely literally, His voice would include only the Ten Commandments because He literally spoke only them in the hearing of all Israel. Nevertheless, "My voice" undoubtedly includes what He spoke privately to Moses, and thus what is contained within the terms given between Exodus 20 and 23.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Eighteen)Related Topics: God's Voice | Listening to God's Voice | Obeying God | Ten Commandments | Voice of God
In the New Testament, the Greek word eleeo occurs only once (Matthew 18:33, "pity"), and it means "to be kind," "tender." In contrast, self-pity is the opposite—not tenderness to oneself but an abusiveness that causes great stress and harm. It shows faithlessness by breaking the first commandment in placing oneself higher in importance than the Creator God. This obsession with self interferes with God's development of righteous character in us.
In essence, self-pity is excessive love of oneself. Thus, a simple cure for self-pity is caring for someone else's welfare more than self—in a word, selflessness. Outgoing concern, love toward others is outlined by the Ten Commandments, for they show love toward God and love toward neighbor. The saints who overcome Satan and the world are known by the trait that "they did not love their lives to the death." They are willing to lay down their lives for their friends (John 15:13).
Martin G. Collins
Overcoming (Part 10): Self-PityRelated Topics: Character | Character, Building | Faithlessness | First Commandment | Kindness | Obsession with Self | Outgoing Concern | Self Absorption | Self Centeredness | Self Concern | Self Pity | Selfishness | Selflessness | Ten Commandments | Tenderness | The First Commandment | The Ten Commandments
Having love does not nullify God's law. John, an apostle and close friend of Jesus Christ, emphasized love. However, not once did he say that love nullifies or supersedes the Ten Commandments. Indeed, by keeping the commandments, the love of God is perfected in us (I John 2:5). The Ten Commandments constitute a spiritual law that is inexorable and eternal, producing faith and happiness and righteous character that pleases God.
Martin G. Collins
The Ten CommandmentsRelated Topics: Character | Character, Building | Character, God's | God's Law | Keeping Commandments | Keeping Commandments as Love | Law | Law "Done Away" | Law is Holy | Law is Spiritual | Love | Love as Keeping Commandments | Love for Christ | Love for God | Love of God | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments
The speaker, Stephen, is most specifically alluding to Exodus 19:3, where
Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel."
See also Psalm 147:19, where the psalmist avers that God "declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel."
The living oracles in Acts refers specifically to the Ten Commandments, more broadly to the Torah, which were to be given "to us," to the church of God. God's Old Testament utterances are for us today.
Charles Whitaker
The Oracles of GodRelated Topics: God's Law | Judgments | Oracle | Statutes | Stephen, Example of | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments | Torah
It is clear what law the apostle Paul is referring to. In fact, the New Testament Commentary admits that the law here is at the very least the Ten Commandments. Paul might be talking about the whole Pentateuch, in which the Ten Commandments appear.
Paul has at least the Ten Commandments in mind. Since God is impartial in judgment, those in ignorance of the law will still be judged according to what they know. Those who are privileged to know the law—in Paul's time, the Jews, and in our time, us—must never allow themselves to think that knowledge of the law will save them. What it does is make them subject to more severe judgment because they know.
"To whom much is given, from him much will be required" (Luke 12:48). Those who have the law, however, have a tremendous advantage over those who do not, because they have the opportunity to make their lives exceedingly better by following the way of life that God sets out in the law. That is a privilege that God has not given to those who do not yet know the law.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Sixteen)Related Topics: God's Law | Keeping Commandments | Keeping God's Law | Pentateuch | Ten Commandments | To Whom Much is Given, Much is Required
Galatians 3:17 confirms that, when Paul was talking about the law, he was also talking about the entire Old Covenant. He uses "law" synonymously with "covenant."
The translators have difficulty deciding whether the "covenant" refers to the Mosaic covenant or the one made with Abraham. Most modern translations connect "covenant" to the one God made with Abraham. However, the more literal translations such as the King James version and Young's Literal Translation put the word "covenant" in the sentence so it refers to the Mosaic covenant. The Emphatic Diaglott translates it as, "Now this I affirm, that a covenant-engagement previously ratified by God, the Law, issued four hundred thirty years afterwards does not annul, so as to invalidate the promise." Thus, Paul viewed the law as the symbol and embodiment of the Old Covenant and used the terms "law" and covenant" synonymously.
This agrees with the way the covenant was sometimes referred to in the Old Testament. In II Chronicles 6:11, Solomon says, "And there I have put the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD which He made with the children of Israel." Only the two tables of stone upon which were written the Ten Commandments were in the ark (II Chronicles 5:10).
Moses writes, "So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone" (Deuteronomy 4:13; see Exodus 34:28). Even without this evidence, it is very clear that Paul refers to the two covenants, not just to what we would consider the law itself.
Further, notice how Paul uses the term "law" in Galatians 4:21-23. The births of Ishmael and Isaac are recorded in Genesis 16 and 21. Though this happened long before the Ten Commandments and the other laws were given through Moses, Paul refers to this portion of Scripture as the law! Obviously, Paul uses "law" to mean the entire Pentateuch or Torah (the first five books of the Bible), not just the Commandments. In Galatians 4:24, he specifically mentions the Old and New Covenants.
Earl L. Henn
What Was the Law 'Added Because of Transgressions'?Related Topics: Abrahamic Covenant | Ark of the Covenant | God's Law | Law | Law of God | Mosaic Covenant | New Covenant | Old Covenant | Pentateuch | Promises to Abraham | Tablets of Stone | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments | Torah
What is the law of liberty? Specifically, it is the Ten Commandments, but we can consider it broadly as the law of God. Israel had the benefit of the law of liberty, though they did not use it rightly.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Three)Related Topics: God's Commandments | God's Law | Law of God | Law of Liberty | Liberty in Law | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments
James presents a tall order for God's people to live up to—and one impossible to do that unless one has the Holy Spirit.
James speaks of the "royal law," meaning the Ten Commandments, since he cites the specific requirement, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In this, he parallels Christ and Paul, finding in love of neighbor the sum of the law and its true fulfillment. James confirms that respect of persons is a breach of this "royal law" and leads to those indulging in it being convicted by the law of transgression.
Then, he affirms the solidarity of the law: that a breach of a specific commandment is a breach of the whole, making the transgressor guilty of all. This is a far-reaching principle that Paul also suggests by quoting Deuteronomy 27:26 in Galatians 3:10: "Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them." Paul also indicates it in Romans 7, where he explains that the conviction that he had broken the tenth commandment made him realize that he had broken the whole law.
Martin G. Collins
The Law's Purpose and Intent
Although many ministers condemn sin vehemently, most do not understand what it is! In I John 3:4, God gives us a clear definition of sin: the attitude and practice of breaking God's laws. These laws, summarized in the Ten Commandments, define what is right and wrong, and the breaking of them constitutes sin.
Earl L. Henn
Basic Doctrines: SalvationRelated Topics: Commandment Breaking | Commandments, Keeping | God's Law | Law Breaking | Law Keeping | Lawkeeping | Sin | Ten Commandments
God's law will still be in effect once His Kingdom is established. Even after the Millennium, when New Jerusalem comes down, no lawbreaker will be allowed in the city. In Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, obedience to God's law is the central issue. This is very clear proof that the law of God, which reflects the holy conduct of the Almighty, will be the standard for all eternity!
Martin G. Collins
The Ten CommandmentsRelated Topics: Commandment Breaking | Commandment Keeping | Commandments, Breaking | Commandments, Keeping | God's Law | Holiness | Holiness as Conduct | Holiness, Pursuing | Law | Law "Done Away" | Law Breaking | Law is Holy | Law is Spiritual | Law Keeping | Law of God | Lawkeeping | Millennium | Obedience | Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments
Find more Bible verses about Ten Commandments:
Ten Commandments {Nave's}