The Ten Commandments

Lets have a look at the Lord's Ten Commandments. This section of our site will discuss the inner senses of these important building blocks for life. Each Commandment will be revealed in its Natural, Spiritual and Celestial Sense.

First Commandment

I am Yehowah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the home of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make yourself a graven image, or any form which is in the heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I Yehowah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me; and showing mercy to thousands who love me and keep my commandments.

Natural Sense

There is only one God. Every kind of idolatry is forbidden. We must not worship sun, moon, stars, animals, or any part of nature. We must not worship images made to represent God and remind us of his presence. We must not worship saints or angels, nor love any man more than God. We should not put our trust in charms, witchcraft, fortune-telling and the like, nor have superstitious beliefs in evil spirits, demons, and ghosts.

Spiritual Sense

No other God is to be acknowledged than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Yehowah - the Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour of men.

Celestial Sense

The Lord is infinite and eternal, all-powerful, all-wise, everywhere present. He is Love itself and Life itself, and the only Being from whom all creation is.

Second Commandment

You shall not take the name of Yehowah your God in vain; for Yehowah will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Natural Sense

We are forbidden to use God's Name unnecessarily or slightingly in conversation, or to be thoughtless or careless about sacred things. Every kind of bad language is to be avoided, especially blasphemous speech. We should not swear unless required to do so by law; and every statement we make "on oath" should be truly and honestly made.

Spiritual Sense

The word of God is to be honoured as holy, and the Scriptures are to be read and treated with reverence. We must not mock or joke about the Scriptures. The church and the priesthood are to be respected, insofar as they represent the Divine. Worship should never be insincere.

Celestial Sense

Man is forbidden to belittle or slander the Lord's Divine Human, for to do so is "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit", which cannot be forgiven.

Third Commandment

Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep is holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yehowah your God. On it you shall do no work, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and your cattle, and the settler who is within your gates. For in six days Yehowah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore Yehowah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.

Natural Sense

Sabbath is a Hebrew word meaning "rest". On the Sabbath Day we should rest from our ordinary work. We should not be idle, but busy and interested in the things of religion. It is a day "for instruction in Divine things, for meditation about salvation and eternal life, and for the exercise of love toward the neighbour". We should observe Sunday as a holy day - a day of blessing, cheerfulness, and worship.

Spiritual Sense

The Sabbath signifies man's regeneration. The six days of labour are the successive states of temptation and spiritual combat through which man must go before reaching the Day of Rest - the regenerate state of victory.

Celestial Sense

The celestial Sabbath is a state of peace. Heavenly peace is blessedness, tranquillity, and harmony; mutual love and the joys of service; complete protection by the Lord from all evil; and a perfect confidence in his unfailing goodness.

Fourth Commandment

Honour your father and your mother; so that your days may be prolonged on the land which Yehowah you God gives you.

Natural Sense

We obey this commandment:

• By listening respectfully to our parents, and minding what they say; doing that which pleases them, and avoiding that which displeases them; supporting them willingly and generously when they are weak and poor; and honouring their name and memory after their death.
• By being obedient to those who stand in place of our parents - guardians, teachers, and elder relatives.
• By honouring Queen (or King) and Country, the laws of the land, and those who administer the laws.

Spiritual Sense

God is our father, and the Church our Mother. We are therefore commanded to love and honour God as the Father of all Mankind, and the Church as a Mother who nourishes her children with heavenly food from the Word.

Celestial Sense

Our Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, and our Mother the Lord's heavenly Kingdom and His New Church in heaven and on earth. By our worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our true membership of His New Church, our "days will be prolonged" towards the increasing joys and uses of heavenly life.

Fifth Commandment

You shall not commit murder.

Natural Sense

We are forbidden to take any man's life by violent means and with hateful intent; to do anything injurious to his health, peace, and well-being; to maliciously harm his good name, or to harbour murderous, cruel, and revengeful thoughts.

Spiritual Sense

In this sense, murder means killing and destroying the soul of man. Seeking to turn man from God, from the Word, from religion, and from worship; deliberately spreading falsehood in an attempt to kill his faith - all this is murder, forbidden in the commandment.

Celestial Sense

In this sense, to commit murder is to be rashly angry with the Lord, to hate Him, and to desire to blot out His Name.

Sixth Commandment

You shall not commit adultery.

Natural Sense

A man must not be faithless to his wife, nor a woman to her husband. Each should be clean, chaste. and modest, not only in outward conduct, but also in thought and speech. We should try at all times to avoid low ideas and impure practices; and we should not be friends with those who persist in loose living.

Spiritual Sense

To commit adultery means to use the Word falsely, to be faithless to its teachings, and to dishonour and ridicule the precepts of religion.

Celestial Sense

The most grievous kind of adultery is to hold the Divine as worthless, and to scorn and abuse everything holy from Him.

Seventh Commandment

You shalt not steal.

Natural Sense

We must not take that which belongs to another. It is not only stealing that is forbidden, but all kinds of cheating, such as :

• Borrowing and not returning.
• Finding lost property and not reporting it.
• Refusing to pay debts and taxes.
• Making dishonest business deals.
• Imposing in any way upon others.
• Not doing our fair share of work.
• Accepting bribes.

Spiritual Sense

To steal, spiritually, is to strive to take away another person's faith; to hide the truth from him, and deny him a knowledge of the Word; to confuse his mind with falsities and heresies; and to do or say anything with the intention of hindering his salvation.

Celestial Sense

Theft, in this sense, is theft from the Lord (i.e. claiming the Divine power as our own; boasting that we can save ourselves, and asserting that our own ideas are of more importance and value than the truths of the Word.

Eighth Commandment

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

Natural Sense

This forbids us to say anything about our fellow man that is not true. Nothing but the strict truth must be spoken, whether in private to our friends, or in public. We must not flatter, and we must not slander. And we are to be especially careful not to bear false witness in evidence in a court of justice, for such evidence is given "in God's Name".

Spiritual Sense

False witness is false persuasion-slandering the truth of God's Word. By trying to make evil appear to be good, and falsity appear to be true, we are breaking this commandment.

Celestial Sense

Hypocrisy is a great evil, and especially hypocrisy about God and His Word. To worship the Divine deceitfully, and to preach from the Word with an evil or mischievous intention is to bear the worst kind of false witness of all.

Ninth and Tenth Commandments

You shall not covet your neighbour's house.

You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, his manservant and his maidservant, his ox and his ass, and anything which is your neighbour's.

Natural Sense

To covet is to want to get what belongs to another person. We should try not to be envious of others because they possess what we would like to have. It is wrong to be selfish and imagine that we should have the best and choicest things of life. We should try to be contented, realising that the Lord provides everything necessary for the salvation and eternal happiness of every creature.

Spiritual Sense

The spirit of covetousness lies at the root of all evil. It is an "evil love" or "lust". Throughout the whole of the Word man is commanded to suppress his lusts, for if he does not do so, they will lead him into every kind of evil. If we cannot check our lusts, we cannot keep any of the Ten Commandments.

Celestial Sense

We are to acknowledge that every good and perfect thing in the universe is of God and from God