The Great

Commandments
“The Ten Commandments are the charter and guide of human
liberty, for there can be no liberty without the law”.

- Cecil B. DeMille

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Learning Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
1. Advocate the Ten Commandments;
2. Elaborate the meaning of each commandment by sharing personal experience;
3. Explain the Ten Commandments in the tradition of the moral teaching of the
Church;
4. Identify the different offenses which are violations of the Ten
Commandments; and
5. Familiarize how Jesus perfects the Ten Commandments.

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 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
 Are divine positive laws.
 Part of God’s revelation.
 They teach us man’s true humanity.
 They shed light on the essential duties, and so indirectly on the fundamental rights,
inherent in the nature of the human person” (CCC, no. 2070).
 Is a translation of the Hebrew “ten words” found in Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; 10:4.
 Also known as Decalogue written in the two table of stones
 Refers also to the commandments given in the theophany on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:3-
17).
 Serves as unvarying moral compass for all people.
 Best understood as a covenant of freedom between God and His people.
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 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
WRITTEN AND HANDED BY GOD
TO MOSES:

(Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church)

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 1stCommandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Cf.
Exodus 20:30).

 The First Commandment summons man to believe in God, to worship Him, to love Him and to hope in Him
above all else. Adoring Him, praying to Him, offering Him the worship that belongs to Him, fulfilling the
promises and vows made to Him are acts of virtue of religion which fall under obedience to the First
Commandment (nos. 2134-2135).

 Thus, believers are called to act according to their faith in God. Otherwise, they bring religion into disrepute
and risk their spiritual selves.

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 VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE FIRST COMMANDMENT:

1. Superstition
2. Idolatry
3. All forms of divination
4. Magic or sorcery
5. Irreligion
6. Practical materialism
7. Atheistic humanism

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 2nd Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord
your God in vain” (Cf. Exodus 20:7).

 The Second Commandment prescribes respect for the Lord’s name since the name of the
Lord is Holy. It governs our speech in sacred matters.

 God reveals His name and confides His name to those who believe in Him, in His personal
mystery. Respect for His name is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God
Himself and to the whole sacred reality it evokes. Thus, the sense of the sacred is part of the
virtue of religion (nos. 2142-2144).

 The Second Commandment encourages us to approach the Divine with reverence. By using
the name of God with reverence, we honor Him and His creation (nos. 2160-2166).
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 PROHIBITIONS OF THE 2ND COMMANDMENT:

1. Blasphemy (towards God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints, and the
Church)
2. Sacrilege or desecration
3. False Oaths
4. Perjury
5. Untruthful and irrelevant swearing in the name of God

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 3rd Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy” (Cf. Exodus 20:8).

 The Third Commandment of the Decalogue recalls the holiness of the Sabbath: “The seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn
rest, holy to the Lord”.

 The Sabbath which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday which recalls the new
creation inaugurated by the resurrection of Christ (no. 2190). It is a sign of irrevocable covenant.
 It is set apart for the praise of God, his work of creation and his saving actions on behalf of Israel.

 As God rested from His six day’s creation, we, who are made in His image, need time to worship God and to refresh
ourselves.

 This commandment also extends the duty of the believers to observe holy days of obligation.
 To restrain people from the exercise of religious duties on these days is to violate a basic human right.
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 SINS AGAINST THE THIRD COMMANDMENT:

1. Missing Mass on Sunday or Holy Days of Obligation without serious

reason
2. Doing unnecessary or servile work on Sunday
3. Intentional failure to fast or abstain on appointed days.
4. Requiring employees to work on Sunday in non-essential
occupations

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 4th Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be
long in the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Cf. Exodus 20:12).

 The Fourth Commandment opens the second table of the Decalogue. It shows the order of
charity. God has willed that, after Him, we should honor our parents to whom we owe life
and who have handed on to us the knowledge of God. We are obliged to honor and respect
all those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority (CCC no. 2197).

 Respecting this commandment provides, along with spiritual fruits of peace and prosperity.
Conversely, failure to observe it brings great harm to communities and to individuals.

 The Fourth Commandment also covers duties to all in authority: teachers, employers, civil
and religious leaders and others to whom the community welfare is entrusted (no. 2200).

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 SINS AGAINST THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT:

1. Disobeying one's parents; hating, threatening, cursing, striking, or insulting them; being
ashamed of them; wishing them evil; speaking or acting unkindly toward them; causing them
anger or sorrow.
2. Serious failure to care for aged parents/failure to carry out the last will of a deceased
parent.
3. Serious disrespect for or disobedience to parents, superiors or authorities
4. Wishing death or evil on parents
5. Abuse or serious neglect of children
6. Failure to baptize children in a reasonable time (within a few months) after birth
7. Serious neglect of the religious education or upbringing of children

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5th Commandment: “You shall not kill” (Cf. Exodus 20:13).

 The Fifth Commandment reminds us that human life is sacred. It

involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a
special relationship with the Creator who is its sole end. God alone
is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end. No one under any
circumstance can claim for himself the right to directly destroy an
innocent human being (no. 2258).

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 VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT:
 Deliberate murder of an innocent person
 Abortion
 Suicide
 Terrorism
 Capital Punishment
 Euthanasia
 Injuring another
 Leading another into sin
 Willful engagement in unjust lawsuits
 Hatred
 Sterilization
 Drug/Cigarette/Alcohol addiction
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6th Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery” (Cf. Exodus 20:14).

 The sixth commandment reminds us that God is love and in himself, he lives a mystery of personal loving
communion. Creating the human race in his own image, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman
the vocation, and thus, the capacity and the ability of love and communion sacramentalized by marriage (no.
2331).
 Marriage is the principal way in which the majority of the human beings experience God. Fidelity means
more than avoiding extramarital affairs. It puts the spouse first in sickness and health, in good and bad times.
 The conjugal act is the specific pleasure and duty reserved for the married. It is a source of sexual identity,
affirmation, healing, hope and thanksgiving.
 Adultery is an offense against the dignity of marriage and therefore absolutely forbidden.
 The one who commits adultery compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who
need their parents’ stable union.

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 THE FOLLOWING ARE CONSIDERED AS VIOLATIONS OF THE
SIXTH COMMANDMENT:
1. Divorce
2. Morally offensive separation
3. Polygamy
4. Bigamy
5. Incest
6. Free union
7. Homosexual acts
8. Sex outside marriage
9. Sexually active cohabitation
10. Extra-marital sex (adultery)

Other offenses:

1. Masturbation
2. Pornography
3. Fornication
4. Rape
5. Prostitution
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7th Commandment: “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

 Unjustly taking or keeping the goods of one’s neighbor and wronging him in
anyway with respect to his goods are violations of the 7th commandment.

 It commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the fruits of
men’s labor. For the sake of the common good, it requires respect for the
universal destination of goods and respect for the right to private property.
Christian life must strive to order this world’s goods to God and to fraternal
charity (no. 2401).

 The seventh commandment forbids theft and the usurpation of another’s

goods against the reasonable will of the owner.
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 VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT:
1. Theft
2. Robbery
3. Cheating
4. Graft and Corruption
5. Usury
6. Injuring the property of another
7. Detention of goods that have been found or lent
8. Non-payable of debts
9. Accepting of bribes by public officials
10. Buying a stolen article or accepting it as a gift
11. Bullying
12. Vandalism
13. Not sharing one’s wealth with the poor (-Pope Francis)
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 Deeper reasons why we should not steal:

1. Stealing not only disrespects someone’s physical property, it also disrespects the labor and
effort that went into obtaining the property.
2. To love means to “will the good of the other” (CCC 1766). To steal means to want what’s
good for yourself at the cost of others.
3. Stealing does not only injure individuals. It also injures society by destroying the bonds of
trust between people, injuring safety and security, and forcing people to become more
isolationist as they look out for themselves.
4. Stealing also destroys our personal character by making us untrustworthy. It has the same
effects on us as lying.

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 8th Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against
your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16):
The Eight Commandment forbids misrepresentation of the truth in our relations with
others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness
to their God who is the truth and will the truth.

 Offenses against the truth are expressed by word or deed or a refusal to commit oneself
to moral uprightness. They are fundamental infidelities to God and they undermine the
foundations of the covenant (no. 2464).

 God is the source of truth. His Word is truth. His Law is truth. His faithfulness endures to
all generations. Since God is true, the members of his people are called to live in truth.

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 VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE 8TH COMMANDMENT:
1. Lying
2. False witness and perjury
3. Boasting
4. Detraction
5. Calumny
6. Rash Judgement
7. Adulation
8. Humiliating another

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 9th Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife”
(Cf. Exodus 20:17):

In Catholic catechetical tradition, the Ninth Commandment forbids and warns us against lust
and carnal concupiscence.
 It requires one to purify his heart and practice temperance, decency and discretion. It
requires the virtue and gift of chastity, purity of intention, purity of vision and modesty (nos.
2520-2521).
 It is modesty which protects the intimate center of the person, the heart which is the center
of one’s responsibility (nos. 2528-2533).
 It is related to the sixth commandment. While sixth commandment involves sinful activity,
the Ninth commandment involves sinful thoughts and desires.
 Virtue to acquire: purity, chastity, modesty

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VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE NINTH COMMANDMENT:

1. Impure thoughts and desires

2. Impure shows/X-rated movies
3. Indecent dress (immodesty)
4. Sex on Phone/Sex on Text/Sex on Chat
5. Sexual Harassment
6. Pornography
7. Masturbation

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10th Commandment: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s
goods” (Exodus 20:17)
The tenth commandment unfolds and completes the ninth commandment which is
concerned with concupiscence of the flesh. It forbids the coveting of the goods of another, as
the root of theft, robbery and fraud, which the seventh commandment forbids.
This commandment forbids greed, avarice, envy, and all the criminal desires (nos. 2535-
2540). It forbids passion for riches and their attendant power, as well as the immoderate
desire to have them for oneself (nos. 2552-2557).
 When the law says, “You shall not covet,” these words mean that we should banish our
desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another’s goods is immense,
infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: “He who loves money never has money
enough” (CCC # 2536).
Detachment from the riches is necessary for entering the Kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are
the poor in spirit”.
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 VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE 10TH COMMANDMENT:

Greed
Avarice (materialism)
 Envy
 Gluttony

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