Question: If God gave Moses 10 commandments, why did Jesus say there were only two?
Answer: You ask a very good question, which shows that you’ve been reading your Bible. Kudos to you! In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 22, Jesus is asked which of the commandments is the greatest.
He answers by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” He calls this the foremost commandment. But then Jesus quickly adds this second commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
To emphasize that there are indeed two distinct commandments, He then says in verse 40, “Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets.”
Now, regarding your question as to why Jesus only spoke of two when Moses had been given 10, let’s examine the focus of the original 10 commandments given by God in Exodus Chapter 20. The first four of them are directed at our relationship with God. They tell us to worship only one God, to refrain from worshipping idols, to never take the Lord’s name in vain and to honor God by setting aside a special day of the week to worship Him. These four are all summed up in Jesus’ command to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind.
The other six commandments are directed toward our relationships with others. We are told to honor our parents and to refrain from dishonoring others by hurting them, cheating on them, stealing from them, lying to them or being jealous of what they have. All of these are included by Jesus in His second command to treat others as we would want to be treated.
So, you can see that Jesus didn’t leave out eight of the commandments when He gave us His top two. He simply put all 10 into two main categories: loving God and loving others.
I think you would agree that the world would be a much better place if we could manage to follow both of them.
Dr. Steve Rahter
Pastor, Praise Tabernacle
Egg Harbor Township
