The Ten Commandments: the list and what they mean

Here are the Ten Commandments in the order Exodus 20 gives them, in the words of Father’s Heart Bible™:

1. Have no other gods before our Father — “Do not have any other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
2. Make no carved image to worship — “Do not make yourself a carved image…” (Exodus 20:4–6)
3. Do not take our Father’s name in vain — “Do not take your Father’s name in vain…” (Exodus 20:7)
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy — “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8–11)
5. Honor your father and your mother — “Honor your father and your mother…” (Exodus 20:12)
6. Do not murder — “Do not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)
7. Do not commit adultery — “Do not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)
8. Do not steal — “Do not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
9. Do not give false testimony — “Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
10. Do not crave what is your neighbor’s — “Do not crave your neighbor’s house…” (Exodus 20:17)

The first four are about our relationship with our Father; the last six are about our relationships with one another. Jesus summed up both halves when He was asked for the greatest commandment: “Love your Father with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You will love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).

The commandments do not open with a demand. Before a single “do not,” our Father says who He is and what He has already done: “I am your Father, who brought you out of Egypt’s land, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). The people had been slaves for generations. He set them free first, and only then told them how free people live.

That order matters. The Ten Commandments are not a ladder to climb so that God will accept you; they are the way of life for a family that has already been rescued. In Exodus they are not handed down by a messenger either: “Then our Father spoke all these words” (Exodus 20:1). In Father’s Heart Bible™ every one of them is printed in the Divine Voice™ Color for the Father, because He spoke them Himself.

The Ten Commandments appear twice. Exodus 20:1–17 records them as our Father spoke them at Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy 5:6–21 records Moses repeating them forty years later to the next generation, insisting, “This covenant our Father made not with our ancestors but with us—all of us alive here today” (Deuteronomy 5:3).

The two lists match almost word for word, with one striking difference in the Sabbath command. Exodus grounds it in creation: “For in six days our Father made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all in them, then rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:11). Deuteronomy grounds it in rescue: “Remember you were a slave in Egypt, and your Father brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm” (Deuteronomy 5:15). Rest is a gift both to creatures and to freed slaves, and Deuteronomy adds, “so your male and female servants may rest like you.”

The Bible itself counts them. Exodus 34:28 says Moses “wrote the covenant’s words—the Ten Words—on the tablets,” and Deuteronomy 4:13 calls them the same. That is where the old name Decalogue comes from: Greek for ten words. Deuteronomy 10:4 calls them “the ten commandments our Father had spoken to you on the mountain.”

Churches number them slightly differently. Most Protestant and Orthodox churches count “no other gods” and “no carved image” as two commandments, as listed above. Catholic and Lutheran tradition joins those two and divides the last command into two (not coveting a neighbor’s wife, and not coveting a neighbor’s goods). The words of Scripture are the same; only the counting differs.

Jesus did not set the commandments aside; He went to their heart. In the Sermon on the Mount He showed that “do not murder” reaches anger and “do not commit adultery” reaches desire. Paul says the commandments are summed up in one word: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:9), because “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10).

So the Ten Commandments still show what love looks like: loyal to our Father, honest about His name, glad to rest, honouring parents, protecting life, marriage, property and truth, and content instead of craving. They do not earn a place in the family. They describe the family’s life, and they were first spoken by a Father who had already brought His children out of slavery.