How and Where the NT Authors Reaffirm the Ten Commandments (Except One)

The New Testament Authors Reaffirm All of the Ten Commandments (except the Sabbath Commandment)

The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1–17 (and restated in Deut. 5:6–21). Although Jesus talks about the Sabbath commandment in the Gospels, the New Testament authors never quote or affirm the Sabbath commandment as something applicable to new covenant Christians. But they quote or allude to the other commandments quite often.

1. The First Commandment

You shall have no other gods before me. (Ex. 20:3)

The idea that God must have first allegiance in our lives is implied by the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37; see also Jesus’s reply to Satan in Matt. 4:10). This commandment is also affirmed when Paul points out how people sinned when they “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25) and when the New Testament writers frequently condemn idolatry (see 1Cor. 5:10–11; 6:9; 10:7, 14; Gal. 5:20; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 1:9; 1 John 5:21; Rev. 9:20; 16:2; 20:4; 21:8; 22:15; see also Acts 12:23).

2. The Second Commandment

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Ex. 20:4–6)

This command against carved images made as idols was affirmed when Paul was in Athens and “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16)—here, not idols of the heart but physical carved images. This command is also affirmed when Paul says that Gentiles “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23). In addition, many of the passages cited under point (1) above could fit in this category as well, since in most cases people were worshiping physical objects that represented deities.

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3. The Third Commandment

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. (Ex. 20:7)

Paul affirms the evil of dishonoring God’s name when he says of the Jews who do not believe in Christ, “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Rom. 2:24). Such blasphemy that dishonors the name of God is also identified as a sin in 1 Timothy 1:13, 20; James 2:7; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 10; Revelation 13:1, 5, 6; 16:9, 11, 21; 17:3; compare the prohibition against “corrupting talk” in Ephesians 4:29.

4. The Fourth Commandment

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex. 20:8–11)

The command to rest on the Sabbath day is never repeated as an obligation for Christians after the beginning of the new covenant at the time of Christ’s death.¹ However, there is another part to the commandment. This commandment also requires that God’s people work: “Six days shall you labor, and do all your work” (Ex. 20:9). There are New Testament commands that reflect this requirement, such as Ephesians 4:28:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Similar commands for Christians to engage in productive work are found in 1 Thessalonians 4:11–12 and 2 Thessalonians 3:6–12. (However, there is nothing particularly innovative about a command to work, since God commanded Adam and Eve to “subdue” the earth [Gen. 1:28], and he put Adam in the garden “to work it and keep it” [Gen. 2:15].)

5. The Fifth Commandment

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Ex. 20:12)

Paul quotes this commandment explicitly in Ephesians:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” (Eph. 6:1–3)

Other passages in the New Testament also affirm the validity of a moral requirement to honor one’s father and mother (see Rom. 1:30; 1 Tim. 1:9; 2 Tim. 3:2; see also Jesus’s teaching in Matt. 15:4; 19:18).

6. The Sixth Commandment

You shall not murder. (Ex. 20:13)

“Murder” is listed many times among catalogs of various sins in the New Testament (see Rom. 1:29; 13:9; 1 Tim. 1:9; James 2:11; 4:2; 1 John 3:12, 15; Rev. 9:21; 16:6; 18:24; 21:8; 22:15; see also Jesus’s teaching in Matt. 5:21–26; 15:19; 19:18).

7. The Seventh Commandment

You shall not commit adultery. (Ex. 20:14)

Paul quotes “You shall not commit adultery” among the commandments that are
summed up in the love command in Romans 13:9. James also quotes this commandment directly (James 2:11).

But if we understand this commandment to forbid not only adultery in the narrow sense but sexual immorality in a broader sense, then many other passages in the New Testament reflect this moral standard and prohibit immoral sexual conduct (see Rom. 1:26–27; 2:22; 1 Cor. 5:1–5; 6:9, 13–20; 7:2; 10:8; Gal. 5:19; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 12:16; 13:4; James 2:11; 2 Pet. 2:14; Jude 7; Rev. 2:20–22; 9:21; 14:8; 17:1–5; 18:3; 19:2; 21:8, 22:15; see also Jesus’s teaching in Matt. 5:27–28; 15:19; 19:9, 18).

8. The Eighth Commandment

You shall not steal. (Ex. 20:15)

Paul quotes this commandment directly in Romans 13:9, his summary of moral requirements that are fulfilled in the command to love one’s neighbor. He also echoes this command when he says, “Let the thief no longer steal” (Eph. 4:28). But several other verses also prohibit theft of various kinds (see Rom. 2:22; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:10; Heb. 10:34; Titus 2:10; James 5:4; Rev. 9:21; see also Jesus’s teaching in Matt. 15:19; 19:18).

9. The Ninth Commandment

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Ex. 20:16)

Although this commandment is not quoted explicitly in the New Testament, if we understand it to be a general prohibition against speaking falsehood, then there are several passages that affirm this moral standard, beginning with the judgment on Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit in Acts 5:1–11. And Paul says to the Ephesians, “Having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor” (Eph. 4:25). Commands against speaking falsely, especially about other people, are found in Romans 1:30; Ephesians 5:3–4; Colossians 3:8–9; 1 Timothy 1:10; 5:13; James 4:11; 1 John 1:6; 2:4, 21, 27; 2 John 7; Revelation 21:8; 22:15; see also Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 5:37; 15:19; 19:18.

10. The Tenth Commandment

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. (Ex. 20:17)

Paul quotes the command “You shall not covet” as something that is summed up in the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom. 13:9). He also quotes this command in Romans 7:7 as teaching him what it was to covet, thereby awakening more sin and being used by sin to produce in him “all kinds of covetousness” (Rom. 7:8). The sin of coveting is also mentioned elsewhere (see Rom. 1:29; Col. 3:5; 1 Tim. 6:5–10, 17–18; Heb. 13:5; James 4:2; 2 Pet. 2:14; see also Jesus’s teaching in Luke 12:15). Not all of these passages use the word covet, but all contain the idea that it is sinful to have our hearts set on greater riches than God has entrusted to us.

What shall we conclude from these numerous New Testament affirmations of nine out of ten of the moral standards found in the Ten Commandments (plus the work aspect of the Sabbath command)? It would not be correct to conclude that the New Testament authors thought these commandments were binding for Christians because they were part of the Mosaic covenant. That line of thinking would contradict the other passages that so clearly teach that the Mosaic covenant has been terminated and that the new covenant is now in effect (see discussion above).

It is better to conclude that the New Testament authors, guided by the teachings of Jesus and by the further leading of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’s ascension into heaven, understood that God, in his wisdom, placed within the Ten Commandments some broad principles that would not only teach the people of Israel what kind of conduct is pleasing or displeasing to him, but would also be useful for teaching others outside of Israel, and throughout all history, about such conduct. In short, the Ten Commandments radiate God’s wisdom for all of human history.

Bruce Waltke points out that, even within the original context of Exodus, “The Ten Commandments are the most important teachings of the old covenant for several reasons,” including the fact that they are given first at the establishment of the covenant; they alone are given directly by God rather than through Moses; they alone are deposited in the ark of the covenant; they are not restricted to geography or history; they are referred to as “the covenant” (Deut. 4:13; 9:9, 11); and they are addressed personally to each individual within the whole Jewish nation using second-person singular verbs.² Waltke says:

The Ten Commandments are not bound by time and space. Thus, the Ten Commandments cannot be relativized to culture. They apply to all people of all nationalities and all time periods. They express God’s fundamental moral stance.³

In one remarkable paragraph, Waltke explains how the Ten Commandments are grounded in the order that God established at creation:

The creation narratives undergird the Ten Commandments, which epitomize the ethics of Israel’s faith and mold the judicial system of Judeo-Christian nations. The narrative affirms the priority of the one true God, demanded by the first commandment. It also affirms that he exists apart from and is sovereign over all creation; thus, to reimage him in the form of an idol or as the goddess Sophia, as prohibited by the second commandment, is a detestable distortion of his glorious person. This sublime God will not tolerate the attaching of his glorious name to anything false; this truth supports the third commandment. The stipulation of the Sabbath in the fourth commandment is predicated on the day of rest in the climax of creation. Murder is prohibited because humans are made in the image of God, which gives them dignity. The ban on adultery is based on the moral order established by God, who gave Adam only one wife. The Creator gave the arable soil to all humanity to provide them with food and wealth (Gen. 1:29). To steal from the community what rightly belongs to all or to steal from an individual what that person has lawfully earned as his or her wage from working the creation must not be tolerated. One must also protect the reputation of every human being, for all are made in God’s image.⁴

We could add that, in addition to the creation narratives, the subsequent chapters in Genesis show the moral wrong involved in several of these sins, such as murder (Gen. 4:8–10; 9:5–6), adultery (Gen. 12:17; 34:2; 39:9), and stealing (Gen. 31:9). Therefore, prior to the Mosaic covenant, many of the moral standards found in the Ten Commandments found earlier expression in the historical narratives of Genesis.

It is also significant to notice what is not affirmed by the New Testament authors as a moral standard for Christian conduct in the new covenant. We find no affirmation of circumcision, the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, the Sabbath commandment (interestingly), the Jewish holidays and festivals, the food laws, the laws related to purity of clothing, and the laws regulating farming practices. We find no hint of a desire for the civil government to establish laws regarding religious activities, and no encouragement for Christians to form a separate nation or any separate political entities.

It is best to conclude that the New Testament authors reaffirmed the moral standards found in nine of the Ten Commandments, not because they thought that some parts of the Mosaic covenant remained in force, but because they saw in these commandments clear statements of conduct that is pleasing to God for all people, for all of life.⁵

Notes:

In chap. 13 I discuss the question of whether people are still morally obligated to observe the Sabbath commandment under the new covenant. My conclusion in that chapter is that the Sabbath commandment is intended to be understood as a summary of all the later details about Mosaic holidays (including the Sabbath year and jubilee year), ceremonies, and sacrifices that looked forward to the coming of Christ, and therefore we are not morally obligated to obey it today, though it is wise to take regular periods of worship and rest. Some Reformed writers have argued that observance of the Sabbath is still required today because it was a “creation ordinance” established by God at the time of the creation of Adam and Eve: see Murray, Principles of Conduct, 30–35.
Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology: An Exegetical, Canonical, and Thematic Approach (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 412–14. Waltke points out, however, that in the new covenant age Christians are not required to observe a weekly Sabbath, though he still thinks it wise to do so (424–25).
Ibid., 413–14. Waltke explains the moral teachings of each commandment in some detail on pp. 414–33.
Ibid., 206. While Waltke connects the Sabbath commandment to God’s day of rest in creation, it is interesting that, unlike the other commands, this one is not grounded in the need to protect the honor of God or the dignity of human beings created in the image of God. See also the thoughtful analysis of “creation ordinances” by Murray in Principles of Conduct, 27–148.
Norman L. Geisler gives an ordinary-life example to demonstrate that New Testament authors could reaffirm old covenant moral standards without implying that Christians are still under the legal authority of the old covenant laws: “Just because there are similar moral laws in the New Testament does not mean we are still under the Old Testament. There are also similar traffic laws in North Carolina and Texas. But when a citizen of North Carolina disobeys one of its traffic laws, he has not thereby broken the similar law in Texas. Since God’s moral nature does not change from age to age, we should expect that many of the moral laws will be the same. But this does not mean that we are still bound by the Mosaic codification simply because Moses received them from the same God who inspired Paul and Peter.” Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010), 209.

This article is adapted from Christian Ethics: Living a Life That Is Pleasing to God by Wayne Grudem.

Wayne Grudem (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Bible Doctrine and Christian Beliefs.