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Category 4, The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Questions 39 - 84 discussing the Ten Commandments.
- A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.[115]
- A. The sum of the Ten Commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.[116]
- A. The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these words, I am the Lord your God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.[117]
- A. The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us, that because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.[118]
- A. The first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before Me (God the Father).[119]
- A. The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.[120]
- A. The first commandment forbids the denying,[121] or not worshiping and glorifying, the true God as God,[122] and our God;[123] and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.[124]
- A. These words "before me" in the first commandment teach us, that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God.[125]
- A. You shall not make unto yourself 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: You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I (God the Father) the LORD your 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.[126]
- A. The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God has appointed in his Word.[127]
- A. The second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images,[128] or any other way not appointed in his Word.[129]
- A. The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God’s sovereignty over us,[130] his propriety in us,[131] and the zeal he has to his own worship.[132]
- A. The third commandment is, You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His Name in vain.[133]
- A. The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God’s Names, Titles,[134] Attributes,[135] Ordinances,[136] Word,[137] and Works.[138]
- A. The third commandment forbids all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.[139]
- A. The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.[140]
- A. The fourth commandment is, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservent, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your 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.[141]
- A. The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he has appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself.[142]
- A. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath;[143] and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath.[144]
- A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days;[145] and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship,[146] except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.[147]
- A. The fourth commandment forbids the omission, or careless performance, of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.[148]
- A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments,[149] his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the sabbath day.[150]
- A. The fifth commandment is, Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives thee.[151]
- A. The fifth commandment requires preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to everyone in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.[152]
- A. The fifth commandment forbids the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor and duty which belongs to everyone in their several places and relations.[153]
- A. The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is, a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve for God’s glory and their own good) to all such as keep this commandment.[154]
- A. The sixth commandment is, You shall not kill (murder).[155]
- A. The sixth commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.[156]
- A. The sixth commandment forbids the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor, unjustly, or whatsoever tends thereunto.[157]
- A. The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.[159]
- A. The eighth commandment requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.[162]
- A. The eighth commandment forbids whatsoever does, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s wealth or outward estate.[163]
- A. The ninth commandment is, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.[164]
- A. The ninth commandment requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between man and man, and of our own and our neighbor’s good name,[165] especially in witness-bearing.[166]
- A. The ninth commandment forbids whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbor’s, good name.[167]
- A. The tenth commandment is, You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his mule/donkey/horse, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.[168]
- A. The tenth commandment requires full contentment with our own condition,[169] with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward our neighbor, and all that is his.[170]
- A. The tenth commandment forbids all discontentment with our own estate,[171] envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.[172]
- A. No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but does daily break them in thought, word, and deed.[173]
- A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.[174]
- A. Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.[175]
The catechism is composed of 107 questions and answers broken down into six categories.
- Category 1, questions 1 - 12:
- Category 2, questions 13 - 20:
- Category 3, questions 21 - 38:
- Category 4, questions 39 - 84:
- Questions discussing the Ten Commandments.
- Category 5, questions 85 - 97:
- Category 6, questions 98 - 107
This organization mimics the earlier Heidelberg Catechism of the continental Reformed churches.
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