What are the Ten Commandments?

Short answer

The Ten Commandments are the laws God gave Israel at Mount Sinai and wrote on two tablets of stone: the first ones concern our love for God, the rest our love for other people. Jesus summed them up in two great commandments: love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.

The Ten Commandments are the best-known laws in the Bible. God gave them to Israel at Mount Sinai, soon after He brought His people out of slavery in Egypt. They are recorded twice: first at Sinai, and again when Moses repeated the law to a new generation before they entered the Promised Land (Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21).

God Himself wrote them on two tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18). As Albert Barnes points out, their Hebrew name means literally “the Ten Words” (Exodus 34:28), and the word Decalogue simply says the same in Greek.

God rescues first, then commands

Before giving a single commandment, God reminds Israel who He is and what He has already done for them. He is the Lord who brought them out of Egypt, and so they must have no other gods.

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exod 20:2–3 · King James Version (1769)

The order matters. God did not say, “Keep these laws and I will set you free.” He set His people free first and then showed them how to live as His people. Matthew Henry draws the conclusion: Israel owed its obedience to the One to whom it owed its freedom, just as Christians owe theirs to Christ, who set them free from sin. The commandments are not a ladder for earning God’s favor. They describe the life of those whom God has already rescued.

The Ten Commandments in short

In plain words, the commandments say:

Have no other gods besides the Lord.
Do not make idols and do not bow down to them.
Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Set apart the Sabbath as a holy day of rest.
Honor your father and your mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.
Do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

The Bible says there are ten but does not number them, so churches count them differently. The list above is the one used by most Protestant and Orthodox churches. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain that Jewish tradition counts God’s opening words about the exodus as a commandment of their own, while the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutherans, following Augustine, join the commands about other gods and idols into one and divide the last commandment into two. The content is the same; only the numbering differs.

It is common to say that the first four commandments are about our relationship with God and the other six about our relationships with people. Barnes notes an older division with five on each tablet, which places honoring parents alongside honoring God. Either way, both tablets belong together: we cannot truly love God while ignoring our neighbor.

Jesus summed them up in love

When an expert in the law asked Jesus which commandment is the greatest, He answered by naming two: love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matt 22:37–40 · King James Version (1769)

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see here Christ’s own approval of the two tablets: one for our duties to God, the other for our duties to people. Jesus did not set the Ten Commandments aside; He showed their heart. Paul says the same: the commandments about adultery, murder, stealing and coveting are all summed up in love for our neighbor.

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Rom 13:9 · King James Version (1769)

Jesus also showed how deep the commandments go (Matthew 5:21–22; Matthew 5:27–28). Matthew Henry explains that the Jewish teachers of His day held that only actual murder broke the sixth commandment, and Christ restored its full meaning: “All rash anger is heart murder.” In the same way, not only adultery but a lustful look breaks the seventh. God looks not only at what we do but at our hearts.

What the commandments can and cannot do

The commandments are holy and good (Romans 7:12). They show us what God is like and how life is meant to work. But they also show us something uncomfortable: none of us keeps them perfectly. Paul admits that he would not have recognized his own coveting as sin without the commandment against it (Romans 7:7). The law makes us aware of our sin, but it cannot make us right with God.

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom 3:20 · King James Version (1769)

Charles Spurgeon compared the law to a mirror: “it shows the spots, but it cannot remove them.” We are made right with God not by keeping the law but through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16). He lived the life of perfect love the law describes and died for those who broke it.

What they mean for Christians today

Christians are not saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, but the commandments still matter. Their moral teaching, to worship God alone, honor others, stay faithful and tell the truth, is repeated throughout the New Testament. God promised to write His law on the hearts of His people, not only on tablets of stone (Jeremiah 31:33), so that obedience grows out of love. Jesus put it simply: those who love Him will keep His commandments.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:15 · King James Version (1769)

Christians understand the fourth commandment in different ways, and so do commentators. Matthew Henry holds that setting apart time for God is a lasting moral duty, which Christians keep on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, in memory of Christ’s resurrection. Barnes argues that the sabbaths Paul calls a shadow of Christ were the Jewish festival days, not the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments (Colossians 2:16–17). Others see the Sabbath rest as a picture of the rest God’s people find in Christ and will enjoy fully in the future (Hebrews 4:9–10). Some Christians keep Saturday, while most gather for worship on Sunday.

The Ten Commandments are not an old list of rules to tick off. They are a picture of the life God made us for: loving Him above all and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Where we fail, Jesus offers forgiveness, and by His Spirit He helps us walk in this way of love. For those who love God, His commandments are not a heavy burden (1 John 5:3).