Significance of the Ten Commandments
The laws that the prophet Moses gave to the Jewish people were intended to regulate not only their religious but also their civil life. In New Testament times, most of the Old Testament ceremonial and civil laws lost their significance and were abolished by the apostles (see the decree of the Apostolic Council in the Book of Acts of the Holy Apostles, chapter 15). However, the Ten Commandments and other commandments that define the moral behavior of man, together with New Testament teaching, constitute a single moral law. Regarding the Ten Commandments, it must be said that they contain the very foundations of morality, laying down those fundamental principles without which the existence of any human society is impossible. Therefore, they are like the “constitution” or “Magna Carta” of humanity. Probably due to such extraordinary importance and inviolability of the Ten Commandments, unlike other commandments, they were written not on paper or any other perishable material, but on stone.
As we will see, there is a certain sequence in the Ten Commandments. Thus, the first four commandments speak of man's duties toward God, the next five define relationships between people, and the last one calls for purity of thoughts and desires.
Undoubtedly, there are some common features between the Ten Commandments and the laws of the ancient peoples who inhabited the northwestern part of Mesopotamia. (Known are the laws of the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (2050 BCE), the Amorite king Bilalama, the Sumerian-Akkadian ruler Lipit-Ishtar, the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1800 BCE), Assyrian and Hittite laws compiled about one and a half thousand years BCE). These common elements and coincidences can be explained by the unity of the moral law laid by God in the human soul. If human nature had not been corrupted by sin, probably the voice of conscience alone would have been sufficient to regulate all human relationships. In contrast to the Ten Commandments, in ancient pagan legislations the moral imperfection of their compilers is clearly felt.
The Ten Commandments are expressed very concisely and limited to the most minimal requirements. This constitutes their great advantage: they grant man the maximum freedom in arranging his everyday affairs, clearly defining only those boundaries that cannot be crossed without shaking the foundations of social life.
The Lord Jesus Christ in His conversations often referred to the Old Testament Ten Commandments and gave them a deeper and more perfect understanding. We will speak about this as we expound the commandments themselves.