Category 4, The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Questions 39 - 84
Discussing the Ten Commandments.
Q. 39. What is the duty which God requires of man?
A. The duty which God requires of man, is obedience to his revealedwill.[113]
Q. 40. What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
A. The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience, was the moral law.[114]
Q. 41. In what place or respect is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A. The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.[115]
Q. 42. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
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]
Q. 43. What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
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]
Q. 44. What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?
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]
Q. 45. Which is the first commandment?
A. The first commandment is, you shall have no other gods before Me (God the Father).[119]
Q. 46. What is required in the first commandment?
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]
Q. 47. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
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]
Q. 48. What are we specially taught by these words "before me" in the first commandment?
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]
Q. 49. Which is the second commandment?
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]
Q. 50. What is required in the second commandment?
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]
Q. 51. What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A. The second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images,[128] or any other way not appointed in his Word.[129]
Q. 52. What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
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]
Q. 53. Which is the third commandment?
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]
Q. 54. What is required in the third commandment?
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]
Q. 55. What is forbidden in the third commandment?
A. The third commandment forbids all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God makes himself known.[139]
Q. 56. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
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]
Q. 57. Which is the fourth commandment?
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]
Q. 58. What is required in the fourth commandment?
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]
Q. 59. Which day of the seven has God appointed to be the weekly sabbath?
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]
Q. 60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?
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]
Q. 61. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
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]
Q. 62. What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?
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]
Q. 63. Which is the fifth commandment?
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]
Q. 64. What is required in the fifth commandment?
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]
Q. 65. What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?
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]
Q. 66. What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
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]
Q. 67. Which is the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment is, You shall not kill (murder).[155]
Q. 68. What is required in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.[156]
Q. 69. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?
A. The sixth commandment forbids the taking away of our own life, or the life of our neighbor, unjustly, or whatsoever tends thereunto.[157]
Q. 70. Which is the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment is, You shall not commit adultery.[158]
Q. 71. What is required in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity, in heart, speech, and behavior.[159]
Q. 72. What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
A. The seventh commandment forbids all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions.[160]
Q. 73. Which is the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment is, You shall not steal.[161]
Q. 74. What is required in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment requires the lawful procuring and furthering the wealth and outward estate of ourselves and others.[162]
Q. 75. What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
A. The eighth commandment forbids whatsoever does, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our neighbor’s wealth or outward estate.[163]
Q. 76. Which is the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment is, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.[164]
Q. 77. What is required in the ninth commandment?
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]
Q. 78. What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?
A. The ninth commandment forbids whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbor’s, good name.[167]
Q. 79. Which is the tenth commandment?
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]
Q. 80. What is required in the tenth commandment?
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]
Q. 81. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
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]
Q. 82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?
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]
Q. 83. Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
A. Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.[174]
Q. 84. What does every sin deserve?
A. Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.[175]
This organization mimics the earlier Heidelberg Catechism of the continental Reformed churches.