Our Journey No 3
The Ten Commandments

Click to download a printable (pdf) copy.

Read through Psalm 119:1-16 and take some time in quiet to reflect and pray in response to these verses.

Read Exodus 20:1-17

1. Discuss what you think was the purpose of the 10 commandments? Why do you think God gave them?

2. Look closely at verses 5 & 6. What impression do you gain of God from these verses? Does that sit comfortably/fit with our understanding of God? How do we deal with the way God is portrayed here?

3. Looking at verse 17, why do you think ‘coveting’ or wanting something that someone else has is commanded against? Is it not natural to want what others have? Surely it’s only wrong if we actually do something wrong like steal or treat people badly out of jealousy or whatever? Discuss.

Glance through Exodus 32 (don’t need to read whole chapter aloud – just a quick look at what’s going on)

4. Which of the commandments do you think the people were breaking here?

5. Why do you think they might have behaved in this way?

6. Often it’s easy with hindsight for us to say ‘they shouldn’t have done that’. But actually if we’re honest, do we – even if not so blatantly as by creating a golden calf – slip into ways of putting other things before God, even ‘worshipping’ other things? If so what sort of things and how?

Matthew 5:17-20

7. What do you think Jesus meant by saying he did not come to abolish but to fulfill the law?

8. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus seems to break, or allow his disciples to break, the Sabbath laws (eg Matthew 12:1-14). Does this not contradict his statement in q. 7 above? Discuss what you think Jesus’ attitude towards the 10 commandments/Jewish law might have been.

• In what ways could the message and teaching of the 10 commandments make a difference in society today? What is our responsibility here? Just to get on with leading our own lives as best we can or is there more than that? If so what and how can we go about it?

• Pray for God’s strength & help.