1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Exodus 20:3-17)
God sent Moses who recited the 10 commandments, “So Moses went down unto the people, and spake unto them. And God spake all these words, saying,” (Exodus 19:25-20:1). The commandments start in Exodus 20:3 and end at verse 17, as listed above.
In the second commandment it says, “…visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me…” but this is not a curse from God, but a statement of logic. If you are godless and commit the sins listed above, your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren will almost certainly follow your example.
These 10 commandments must be upheld as Holy. If any person lived by them exclusively, they would be a good person. We as Christians know that being a good person is not enough to get to Heaven, but these commandments are still profoundly important. Seal them into your heart and abide by them. We need them back in our schools, places of business, government offices and any other prominent location where people can read them and remember them. They need to be emblazoned in our hearts and minds, so that we can be the people that God wants us to be and society needs us to be.
