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Catechism of the Orthodox Eastern Church (1888)
Ignatios Moschakis, tr. Baker, 1894
2. Part 2: Moral
§ 47. The Decalogue.
As in the Creed we are taught what we ought to believe, so in the moral law, or the Ten Commandments, we are taught what we ought to do; because our faith is only a true and living faith when we not only accept the truths which it teaches us, but also act in accordance with our faith: “For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead” (St. James ii. 26). The Decalogue, which has been so named because it contains ten commandments, was given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and is as follows:—
1. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have any other gods except Me.
2. Make no idols, nor bow down to them, nor worship them.
3. Make no irreverent use of the name of God.
4. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother.
6. Thou shalt do no murder.
7. Thou shalt not profane the sanctity of marriage.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Do not covet what belongs to thy neighbour.
The Decalogue is divided into two parts, of which the first includes the first four commandments, and teaches our duty towards God; and the second includes the six last commandments, and teaches our duty towards our neighbour. Jesus included the Decalogue in two injunctions—the injunction to love God, and the injunction to love our neighbour (St. Matt. xxvii. 37-40). He brought the Decalogue to perfection: first, because He taught us that we are not to keep the commandments from fear of punishment or from hope of reward, but from love to what is good and repugnance to evil; secondly, because He taught us that good does not consist only in good works that are apparent to the world, but in those good dispositions of the heart from which good works proceed; and, thirdly, because He taught that the commandments not only forbid us to do evil, but also enjoin upon us to do good.
§ 48. Love Toward God and Love Toward Our Neighbour, or the Moral Law, is Natural to Us.
Our Lord, as we said, reduced the Decalogue to two commandments, the duty of love toward God and the duty of love toward our neighbour; and these two commandments form what is called the Moral Law. The moral law, as fulfilled and perfected by our Saviour, is not a mere human invention, but God has given it a place in the heart of every man; we are born with it; in fact, it is implanted in us. There exists within us a certain power which is called Conscience, and by means of which we discern good from evil, and righteousness from unrighteousness, and truth from falsehood. All men, and all nations, in all places, and at all times, have regarded good as good, and evil as evil. What the moral law encourages or forbids, the conscience also encourages or forbids. And our conscience, just like the moral law, tells us that, not only ought we not to do our neighbour any hurt or injury, but also that we ought to be kind to him and give him help. The moral law, then, exists within us: and, for this reason, the Apostle Paul says that the nations which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, and speaks of the moral law as written in the hearts of men (Rom. ii. 14, 15).
§ 49. The First Commandment.
“I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have any other Gods except Me.”
This commandment teaches us that we must confess our belief in, and honour one God only, and not many. This commandment is the foundation of all the commandments; for any one who honours and loves God cannot fail to keep the rest of the commandments, and he who does not love and honour God certainly transgresses the rest of the commandments. Now, we honour God and confess Him (1) when we believe sincerely and from our hearts that He alone exists (as God) and none else; (2) when we fear Him as the avenger of what is evil—nevertheless this fear should not be a slavish fear, but should proceed from a natural reverence for the holy will of God; (3) when we love Him, and show by our works the love that we have for Him; (4) when we hope in Him and have confidence in His Divine help and Providence. They who transgress this First Commandment are (1) the atheists, who deny God; (2) polytheists and idolaters, who believe in many false gods; (3) magicians, who hope or promise to do impossible things, muttering certain mysterious phrases, or invoking the assistance of evil spirits; (4) superstitious or presumptuous persons, who distort the idea of God, and their religion, and make their good or ill fortune depend upon matters of chance and insignificance; and (5) persons who have fixed their hopes, not upon God, but upon material things, or upon men. We do not transgress this commandment when we honour the saints; because we do not make them like gods, nor do we worship them as gods, but we simply call upon them to act as mediators with God on our behalf.
§ 50. The Second Commandment.
“Make no idols, nor bow down to them, nor worship them.”
This commandment completes the first commandment, and forbids idolatry. Now idolatry consists in paying worship to idols—that is, to images and representations of the false gods. Those who transgress this commandment are (1) the nations, or idolaters, except the Jews and Mohammedans, all the rest are idolaters; (2) all Christians who worship images, and make gods of them, which images serve only to keep us in mind of holy and sacred persons, for which reason alone we ought to honour them and bow down to them, but not to worship them, and regard them as gods; and (3) those who are worshippers of themselves—for example, the vainglorious, the covetous, and those in general who worship material blessings, their own passions, and the various evil lusts.
§ 51. The Third Commandment.
“Do not use the name of God irreverently.”
This commandment forbids us to make any evil use of the name of God. We make an evil use of the name of God (1) when we use the name of God without reason in our daily conversation; (2) when we curse—that is, when we pray for some evil to come upon ourselves or others, calling upon the name of God; (3) when we blaspheme, or revile the name of God; when we commit perjury, or forswear ourselves—that is, when we call upon the name of God as witness that we will speak the truth and will keep our promise, when nevertheless we speak what is false, and are not true to our promise. He who commits perjury or swears a false oath is guilty of irreverence towards God, because he shows that he does not believe in Him, neither does he fear Him; and, moreover, he wrongs his fellow-men, for through his false witness it very often happens that the innocent is condemned and the guilty is acquitted: for this reason the government punishes perjury and false swearing. There is, however, an oath that is lawful and sacred, the oath which we take before the state with a view to the elucidation of what is just and true. This commandment, which forbids us to make an evil use of the name of God, urges the necessity of making a good use of it, and of calling upon the name of God in the troubles of life, and in our prayers.
§ 52. The Fourth Commandment.
“Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.”
This commandment teaches us that it is our duty to consecrate one day in the week to the worship of God, Who has given us our existence and life, and all our blessings. The Jews had held consecrated to the service of God the Sabbath, which commemorated the rest of God from the creation of the world. But instead of the Sabbath, Christians keep the Lord’s Day in memory of the resurrection of the Lord. And besides the Lord’s Day we have other feast days, which bear upon the life of the Saviour, or the Mother of God, or the saints and martyrs. Our duty as regards these feasts is as follows: We ought to go to church and listen with reverence and attention to the prayers, the hymns, and the teaching of the gospel. In addition to this, all who are educated ought to read some religious or moral book, and do as much as in them lies to benefit their neighbour. If we abstain from work on these feast days, we do not do this because work is an evil or forbidden thing, but in order that we may have an opportunity to fulfil our religious duties, and in order that both soul and body may not be destroyed by ceaseless work. For this reason, when there is any necessity, and for any philanthropic purpose, we are enjoined to work on the feast days. Our Lord said that, “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” and that before all things we keep holy the feasts by means of good works: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matt. xii. 7). They who transgress this commandment are they who without reasonable excuse are absent from Church on the feast days, all who do not do whatever they can for their neighbour, all who without any necessity, or from greed of gain, work on the Sabbath, and all who, instead of taking their pleasure in moderation, and in accordance with the moral law, give themselves up to pleasures and delights which are intemperate and unholy.
§ 53. The Fifth Commandment.
“Honour thy father and thy mother.”
This commandment enjoins upon us to honour our parents. Now, we honour our parents not only when we do not despise them and provoke them to anger, either by our words or our deeds, but as well when we obey them, and reverence them, when we love them and succour them in their misfortunes, and especially in their old age. We must do thus for our parents, because, next to God, our parents are our greatest benefactors: “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord” (Col. iii. 20). In like manner we owe love and reverence to our tutors, guardians, and teachers; to the clergy, and to the rulers of the State: because all these are in many ways our benefactors and protectors. Tutors and guardians supply the place of our parents; our teachers develop our intellect and our heart; the clergy have a care to our religious and moral constitution; and the heads of the Government, by means of the laws, protect and assure our life, honour, and property.
§ 54. The Sixth Commandment.
“Do not kill.”
This commandment enjoins upon us not to take away the life of our neighbour. The murderer is guilty of impiety towards God, because he assaults His image which exists in every man, and because he takes away that most precious of all blessings, life, which God gave, and which God alone has the right to take away. For this reason the man who commits suicide is also guilty of irreverence towards God—that is, he who takes away his own life, either intentionally by violence, or unintentionally by neglecting his health, or living a prodigal life. Killing is only lawful at such times when we go to war, for the purpose of protecting the violated rights of our native country. This commandment does not only forbid murder, but also the evil disposition of mind which leads to murder—that is, anger and hatred. This commandment equally forbids spiritual murder, which consists in deceiving and inflicting moral injury upon another, either through our bad example or our evil words. This commandment enjoins especially upon children that they should not grieve their parents by their evil deeds, because, by so doing, they gradually destroy the lives of their parents. So far from killing his neighbour, a Christian is bound to succour him, and to protect him in time of need.
§ 55. The Seventh Commandment.
“Do not profane the sanctity of marriage.”
Marriage, as we have seen, is a sacred bond, and the will of God. On marriage depends the weal of the individual and the community. Now, marriage is confirmed by the mutual love and trust of the husband and the wife. For this reason this commandment enjoins upon us to reverence marriage as sacred, and not to give any occasion to weaken the mutual love and confidence of the husband and the wife in each other; because in such a way we impair the relationship without which it is not possible for union to exist. This commandment in general includes the duty of prudence and sobriety, and warns us against excess and licentiousness. We must hold in esteem the virtues of prudence and sobriety, because by these virtues we maintain our health both of body and soul, and our physical and moral happiness. It is our duty to flee from excess and licentiousness, because through these evils we lose our health and our honour, we injure our reputation, and we fall into the worst misfortunes, as we are taught by that most beautiful parable of the “Prodigal Son.”
§ 56. The Eighth Commandment.
“Thou shalt not steal.”
This commandment teaches us that we must not take away what is the possession of another; because property is a very precious possession, without which it is impossible for a man to live and develop. Now, they who transgress this commandment are not only all who, either secretly, or openly and by violence, steal and rob one another, but all who cause injury to one another in general, of whatever kind soever, either by deception, by false measures or weights, or by overestimating the value of merchandise, either by false promises, false statements as to debts, or such-like. This commandment teaches us not only to reverence what belongs to others, but also our own; to hold in esteem industry and thrift, by which we guard against fraud; to avoid idleness, covetousness, and prodigal habits, which are incentives to dishonesty. A Christian must not only avoid doing injury and injustice to another, but must give assistance to the needy and the unfortunate, in accordance with the demands for Christian love.
§ 57. The Ninth Commandment.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
Honour and a good name are most valuable possessions, which this commandment enjoins upon us to reverence and to keep safe from injury. This commandment forbids (1) all falsehood spoken against others, either in a court of justice or anywhere else. Through falsehood we offend God, Who is truth itself, and we show towards our neighbour a crafty and malicious disposition, because the fact of our distorting the truth shows that we have a desire to injure our neighbour. This commandment forbids us (2) to accuse our neighbour, to lend a ready ear to charges made against him; that we should circulate against him evil suspicions either thoughtlessly, or from malice on our part; or that we should pass severe and ungentle judgments upon the failings of others. This commandment enjoins upon us to protect the good name of another, to speak the truth at all times, to avoid accusations, and to be charitable in judging of the failings of others.
§ 58. The Tenth Commandment.
The Tenth Commandment forbids every evil desire, because it is from evil desire that every evil takes its rise. The cause of evil is within us: “From the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (St. Matt. xv. 19). When evil thoughts prevail within us, then we become slaves to our evil thoughts, and do that which they force upon us, and not that which our conscience and the moral law wills that we shall do. For this reason this last commandment, with the intention of anticipating every evil, seeks to draw away from our hearts the root of the evil, namely, the evil thoughts. We ought, then, at all times, to take pains to overcome every evil thought, and to this end to ask the help of God by fervent faith and prayer: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (St. Matt. xxvi. 41).