The Christian life is marked by the biblical virtues of faith, hope, and love. Having seen how the essence of our faith is expressed in the Apostles’ Creed, the essence of our hope in the Lord's Prayer, we now look at how the essence of our love is found in the Ten Commandments.

The Apostle Paul teaches that love is greater than faith and hope. "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). Though superior, love is not separated from faith and hope. These godly virtues overlap. For example:

• Our faith, rooted in the truths of the Apostles’ Creed, leads us to hope and love.

• Our hope, stirred up by the Lord’s Prayer, leads us to faith and love.

• Our love, founded in the Ten Commandments, leads us to faith, and hope.

What does this godly virtue of love look like? The Bible tells us it looks like the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3–17).

1. You shall have no other gods before me. (3)

2. You shall not have false images of God in worship. (4–6)

3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God. (7)

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (8–11)

5. Honor your father and mother. (12)

6. You shall not murder. (13)

7. You shall not commit adultery. (14)

8. You shall not steal. (15)

9. You shall not give false testimony. (16)

10. You shall not covet. (17)

When someone asked Jesus, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" he responded:

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. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 22:37–39)

In his response, Jesus is not replacing the Ten Commandments but summarizing their essence as loving God with our whole being and loving others as ourselves.[1]

The first four commandments focus on our duty to love God with our whole being. [2]

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not have false images of God in worship.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

The next six commandments focus on our duty to love others with our whole being.[3]

5. Honor your father and mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not give false testimony.

10. You shall not covet.

The Westminster Larger Catechism contains a helpful summary of these two sections:

Q. 102. What is the sum of the four commandments which contain our duty to God?
A. The sum of the four commandments containing our duty to God, is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind.

Q. 122. What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A. The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man, is, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have them do to us.

Though the commandments to love God and others are separated, they are also integrated in that your love for God is demonstrated by your love for others.

The way you fulfill the purpose for your life—to glorify God and enjoy him forever—is to love him with your whole being and love others as you do yourself in obedience to the Ten Commandments.

The Significance of the Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments have a central place in the unfolding story of God's plan of salvation. They teach believers how to love God and others.

In the Old Testament, we learn that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone and placed in the ark of the covenant, the Lord’s dwelling place in the midst of the people (Ex. 31:18; Deut. 4:13, 5:22, 9:10, 10:5).[4]

In the New Testament we learn from the Apostle Paul that when we love, we fulfill the commandments, and when we obey the commands, we fulfill the law of love. When Paul gives us a summary of how we should love, he refers to the Ten Commandments (1 Tim. 1:8–10).

Over centuries, these commandments have not only shaped the lives of believers in churches, but also shaped and sustained the moral virtues that most societies have lived by through history.

The Nature of the Ten Commandments

While the Bible refers to the Ten Commandments as "law," it's wrong to see them like a list of dos and don'ts that restrict our personal freedom and rob us of joy. The Hebrew word for law, torah, in the Old Testament means the sort of instruction a loving Father gives his child. Torah is the "perfect law of liberty" (James 1:25, 2:12).

The purpose of the law is not to crush our self-expression, even though it may seem so.

A loving father's needed instructions are often disliked by children. But God's laws are designed to guide us toward paths that are best for us.

True freedom is not found in doing whatever we desire, but in being and doing what God designed us to be and to do. It's the freedom to be who God made us to be—people who flourish in life and find true happiness and joy by loving him and loving others in obedience to his commands.

The Ten Commandments are part of a broader covenant relationship between God and his people where obedience is not just a duty but a response to God's gracious love and mercy.  Before God gave any command to Israel for them to love him, God first reminded them of his love for them saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Ex. 20:2).

The Purpose of the Ten Commandments

There are three important ways that God uses his law to help us flourish in life.

God's Commandments Restrain Us

The first use of God’s law is to restrain us. This applies to both Christians and non-Christians. When God’s moral laws are upheld in society, such as laws not to murder, steal, and lie, it limits lawlessness, protects the righteous from the unjust, and keeps civil order (Deut. 13:6–11, 19:16–21). 

God's Commandments Convict Us

The second use of God’s law also applies to both non-Christians and Christians. The second use is to convict us of sin and lead us to Christ. The law is like a mirror that reflects God’s perfect righteousness and our sinfulness, which leads us to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.

Though we don’t have the ability to fully obey even one of the Ten Commandments, God, in his mercy, has done that for us through his Son. Jesus perfectly obeyed all of God’s laws for us so that he could fully satisfy all of God’s just demands of us through his death on the cross in our place.

God provides for us in Jesus Christ what he requires of us in his law. The good news is that God the Father promises to accept and love all who are in Christ as he accepts and loves his one and only Son, and there is no greater love than the eternal love of God the Father for his Son.

So, if all the requirements of the law have been met for us by Jesus Christ, and God considers us to be his children "in Christ," meaning that God now sees us as if we've always obeyed all his commands, then why should we obey his commands? This leads us to a third use of God’s law. 

God's Commandments Guide Us

Paul knew that it would be easy for believers to misunderstand their relationship with God’s law after they came to saving faith, so he writes, "Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31).

The Bible teaches that believers in Jesus Christ are now "free from the law" as a way of salvation (Rom. 6:14, 7:4–6; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:15–19, 3:25). We are no longer under the curse of the law because Jesus took that curse on himself for us.

However, we’re always under God’s loving authority. The difference now is that God’s law tells us what pleases and honors him as our heavenly Father. God’s law is now our family guide to help us flourish in both our relationship with God and in all our relationships in life. It's God's blueprint that shows us how we should live.

The Meanings of the Ten Commandments

Positive and Negative Meaning

Although most of the Ten Commandments are stated negatively, as "You shall nots," all the commandments have both a positive and negative meaning. They are meant to tell us not only what we are not to do, but also what we are to do. 

For example, God’s first command not to have any other gods before him means more than merely we should not worship idols, but that we should worship God only. Likewise, the negative command not to murder means we are also to stand for the sanctity of human life. And the negative command not to commit adultery conveys the positive command to uphold sexual purity, just as the negative command not to lie also means we are to stand for truth.

Similarly, when a command includes a promise for obedience, it should also be understood as including a consequence for disobedience. For example, the fifth commandment states: "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you" (Ex. 20:12). The promise for obedience is the blessing of a long life given by God. The consequence for disobedience is the curse of a shorter life and lack of blessings given by God. 

Broad and Narrow Meaning

The Ten Commandments, while addressing external behaviors, are also addressing the internal desires and motives underneath the behaviors. For example, Jesus teaches that God’s sixth commandment not to murder includes the sin of anger that is at the root of murder: "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" (Matt. 5:21–22).

Likewise, Jesus teaches that the seventh commandment not to commit adultery includes the sin of lust (Matt. 5:27–28). God’s commandments to love our neighbors includes loving our enemies (Matt. 5:43–44).

The command to honor your parents also conveys God’s will for us to honor all whom he places in authority over us, even the ungodly (Romans 13). And the neighbor, whose house we should not covet, and to whom we should not lie, is not just the person living next door to us.

Ordered and Disordered Loves

The Ten Commandments are not just a set of isolated, individual moral laws. They are interwoven commands that reflect an ordered and integrated love for God (commandments 1–4) and others (commandments 5–10).

The first commandment ("You shall have no other gods before me") is the foundation for all the other commandments. We show our love, loyalty, and trust in God above everything else (first commandment) through our obedience to all the remaining commandments.

On the first commandment, Martin Luther remarks, "Where the heart is rightly set toward God and this commandment is observed, all the other commandments follow...everything is to flow from the First Commandment's power."[5]

Breaking the first commandment—by loving or trusting in someone or something above God—is the root of our disobedience to all of God's other commandments. This is idolatry. Breaking the first commandment is what leads us to breaking all the other commandments to love others.

God created us to have a deep love for him and trust in him above everyone and everything else. But because of sin, our hearts are corrupt and always trying to find ultimate happiness apart from God.

The reason we don’t experience the joy and peace God designs for us is because we place our greatest love on created things, including people, instead of on our Creator, and we wrongly expect created things to give us what only God can give us.

The order of the commandments—first love for God, then love for others—reflects the importance of having our primary love for God above everyone and everything else.

Only when our love for God and trust in God is first in our life, can we truly love others for their sake and for God's sake, not only for our own sake. All our other loves for people or things are properly ordered only when our greatest love is for God.

Review Questions:

• What is the Great Commandment?  How is it connected to the Ten Commandments?

• The nature of the Ten Commandments is not about restriction but freedom. How do we find true freedom in the Ten Commandments?

• What are three purposes of the Ten Commandments?

• Why is the first commandment the foundation for all the other commandments?

Footnotes:

[1] Jesus is explaining the Ten Commandments the same way Moses did to Israel: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 10:12–13, 11:13, 22, 30:20; Lev.19:18).

[2] The Bible teaches that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone (Ex. 31:8, 34:1; Deut. 4:13, 5:22). However, the Bible does not reveal which specific commandments were on the two tablets. See footnote 4.

[3] Following the example of Jesus, the Apostle Paul also presents the Ten Commandments as descriptions of love when he writes, "For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Rom. 13:9).

[4] The Bible does not reveal which specific commandments were on the two tablets. Views throughout history include: 1) an equal division of five commandments on each tablet, 2) all ten commandments on both tablets, and 3) the first four commandments (representing love for God) on the first tablet and the last six commandments on the second tablet (representing love for others). The first commandments (146 words) are three times longer than the second commandments (26 words), and the tablets may have had writing on both sides due to the scarcity of writing materials.

[5] Martin Luther, Part First. The Ten Commandments of The Large Catechism , translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dau in Triglot Concordia: The Symbolic Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921) uploaded in full at https://www.ccel.org/l/luther/large_cat/large_catechism.html (access date 02.17.24).