What are the 10 Commandments, and do they still apply?

The Most Famous Laws Ever Written

The Ten Commandments appear in two places in the Old Testament — Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 — and have shaped the moral foundations of Western civilisation more than any other document in human history. Legal systems, social ethics, and concepts of justice across the Western world are directly traceable to these ten statements carved on stone tablets and handed to Moses at Mount Sinai.

Yet for many people today they feel like museum pieces — ancient rules for an ancient people, made obsolete by time and cultural change. The question "do they still apply?" is not a trivial one. It deserves a serious answer.

The Ten Commandments — Listed

The commandments as recorded in Exodus 20:1–17 are:

1. "You shall have no other gods before me." God alone is to be worshipped. Nothing — wealth, status, relationships, ideology — is to occupy the place that belongs to God.
2. "You shall not make for yourself an image." No idol or substitute representation of God. He is not to be reduced to something made by human hands.
3. "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." God's name carries his character and authority. To treat it casually or use it as a curse is to treat God himself with contempt.
4. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." One day in seven is set apart for rest and worship, reflecting God's own rest on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:2–3).
5. "Honour your father and your mother." The first commandment with an attached promise — "so that you may live long in the land." Respect for parents is the foundation of a stable society.
6. "You shall not murder." Human life is sacred because human beings bear the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Unlawful killing is a direct assault on God's image.
7. "You shall not commit adultery." Marriage is a covenant before God. Its violation is not merely a private matter — it breaks faith with both a spouse and with God.
8. "You shall not steal." Other people's property, labour, and dignity are not yours to take. This commandment underpins property rights and economic justice.
9. "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour." Truth-telling is foundational to community. False witness destroys reputations, perverts justice, and tears apart social trust.
10. "You shall not covet." The only commandment that explicitly addresses desire rather than action. Covetousness — the discontented craving for what belongs to someone else — is the root from which most of the other sins grow.

Two Tables: Our Duty to God and Our Duty to Others

Theologians have traditionally divided the Ten Commandments into two groups — often called the "two tables of the law." The first four commandments concern our relationship with God: his uniqueness, his dignity, his name, and his day. The final six commandments concern our relationship with other people: parents, life, marriage, property, reputation, and the inner life of desire.

This is not a coincidence — it reflects the very structure Jesus gives when he is asked to name the greatest commandment. He replies: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Deuteronomy 6:5) — and then: "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). He then adds: "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:40). The Ten Commandments are the concrete expression of these two great loves.

Did Jesus Abolish the Ten Commandments?

This is the most common misunderstanding about the law in Christian thinking. Jesus said explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." — Matthew 5:17–18 (NIV)

Jesus did not replace the commandments — he deepened them. He took the prohibition on murder and extended it to anger and contempt (Matthew 5:21–22). He took the prohibition on adultery and extended it to lustful intent (Matthew 5:27–28). He was not lowering the standard — he was revealing what the standard had always meant at its root: the condition of the heart, not merely the outward act.

As Billy Graham wrote in his "My Answer" column: "No one lives up to them perfectly, and that's why we need Christ." The law does not save us — but it shows us what we are, and why we need a Saviour. This is Paul's argument in Romans and Galatians: the law acts as a "guardian" (Galatians 3:24) to bring us to Christ, revealing our failure and our need for grace.

Are Christians Still Bound by the Ten Commandments?

Christian theologians have distinguished between three types of Old Testament law: ceremonial law (temple rituals, sacrifices, dietary regulations — fulfilled and set aside in Christ), civil law (Israel's national legal code — not binding on other nations), and moral law (the Ten Commandments — the enduring expression of God's character).

The Ten Commandments belong to the third category. They are not arbitrary cultural rules that belonged only to ancient Israel — they express the unchanging character of God himself. God does not change (Malachi 3:6), and his moral nature does not become obsolete. Nine of the ten commandments are explicitly reaffirmed in the New Testament. (The Sabbath commandment is the one with nuance — the New Testament is clear that Christians are not bound to observe Saturday as Israel was, but the principle of rest and worship remains.)

Pope Francis reframed the commandments in a 2018 reflection as "loving words, not oppressive commands" — emphasising that they describe the shape of a loving relationship with God rather than a burden imposed by a distant lawgiver. This is entirely consistent with their biblical framing: God gives the commandments to a people he has already rescued (Exodus 20 begins "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt" — the redemption comes before the law, not as a reward for it).

Why the Commandments Still Matter

Consider the world the commandments describe — a world where:

• Nothing is placed above God — not money, power, ideology, or national identity
• Human life is treated as sacred, because it bears the image of God
• Marriage is honoured and kept
• Truth is told in courts and in everyday speech
• What belongs to others is left to them
• Contentment replaces the restless craving that drives so much human misery

This is not a description of an oppressive theocracy — it is a description of a healthy, just, and flourishing society. Billy Graham's point that our world would benefit from taking these commandments seriously is not a religious imposition — it is an observation about what human life requires to go well.

As the Hallow article notes, Jesus summarised the entire law in two commandments — love God, love your neighbour. The Ten Commandments are the unpacked version of those two loves: what love for God looks like in practice, and what love for your neighbour looks like in practice.

The Commandment That Reveals the Heart

The tenth commandment — "You shall not covet" — is in some ways the most remarkable of the ten, because it is the only one that explicitly targets desire rather than action. You can refrain from stealing while burning with envy at your neighbour's possessions. You can avoid adultery while feeding lust in your imagination. The tenth commandment says that the inner life matters — that God is not just interested in outward compliance but in the condition of the heart.

Paul writes in Romans 7:7: "I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.'" The commandments do not just regulate behaviour — they illuminate what is happening inside us, and in doing so, they send us to the only One who can deal with what they reveal.

"The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple." — Psalm 19:7 (NIV)

Not a Ladder — A Mirror

Here is the final and most important thing to understand about the Ten Commandments: they are not a ladder to climb to God. No one has kept them perfectly — "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). They are a mirror that shows us what God requires and what we lack. That honest self-knowledge is meant to drive us not to despair but to grace — to the God who, knowing exactly what the mirror reveals about us, sent his Son to do what we could not.

"No one lives up to them perfectly," Billy Graham wrote, "and that's why we need Christ." The commandments and the gospel are not opposites. The commandments diagnose the problem. The gospel is the cure.

For further reading, Billy Graham's original answer is available at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: "The Ten Commandments Are Still Very Relevant" (Billy Graham, BGEA). The Hallow app's guide "The 10 Commandments" also provides a clear overview of each commandment and its contemporary significance.