The Ten Commandments| G. Campbell Morgan 

About the Book: 

G. Campbell Morgan’s The Ten Commandments is a clear, searching, and deeply pastoral exploration of God’s law—not as a cold list of rules, but as a revelation of God’s character and love. With Morgan’s hallmark clarity and spiritual insight, each commandment is unfolded in its true depth, reaching beyond outward behavior to the motives, loyalties, and worship that shape a life. This is not merely a study of ancient words from Sinai; it is a guide to understanding why God’s commandments still speak with moral authority, and how they expose idols, heal conscience, and lead to genuine freedom.

What makes this book especially compelling is Morgan’s insistence that the Decalogue is a unified “law of life.” He shows how the commandments hang together—how breaking one fractures the whole—and why the deepest issue is always the heart. His writing is both intellectually solid and devotionally warm: it can challenge you, but it also draws you toward God. Again and again, Morgan brings Scripture to bear with precision, and he does so in a way that makes the commandments feel personal, present, and urgently relevant.

Just as importantly, Morgan never leaves the reader in moral effort alone. He frames the law in the light of the New Testament, showing how Jesus fulfills the law, deepens its meaning, and calls His people into a life of love that truly completes what the commandments require. The result is a book that is both convicting and hopeful—honest about sin, and confident about grace.

Who Should Read This Book?

• Christians who want a stronger spiritual foundation: If you’ve ever wondered how the Ten Commandments relate to your daily life, worship, and decisions, Morgan offers a grounded and life-shaping perspective.

• Readers who desire heart-level transformation: This book is for anyone tired of surface religion and ready for God’s Word to search motives, loyalties, and hidden idols.
  
  

• Those seeking clarity about law and grace: If you struggle with the tension between “obedience” and “freedom,” Morgan helps you see how God’s law and God’s love belong together.

• Pastors, teachers, and small-group leaders: Morgan’s structure and Scripture-rich approach make this an excellent resource for preaching, teaching, and guided discussion.

• Anyone living in a morally confusing age: When values feel shifting and unclear, this book returns you to enduring truth and the steady moral vision of Scripture.

What You’ll Gain From Reading

• A richer understanding of the Ten Commandments as one unified revelation of God’s will.

• A clearer vision of how the commandments expose modern forms of idolatry, selfishness, and moral compromise.

• A deeper appreciation for how Jesus fulfills the law and calls His disciples into love that is practical, courageous, and real.

• A renewed reverence for God’s holiness paired with a fresh confidence in His grace.

If you want a book that is biblically faithful, spiritually piercing, and beautifully focused on the holiness and love of God, The Ten Commandments by G. Campbell Morgan is a classic worth reading slowly, thoughtfully, and prayerfully.

About This Modernized Edition

This modernized edition of The Ten Commandments by G. Campbell Morgan has been prepared to help today’s readers engage with Morgan’s rich teaching with greater clarity and ease. While the original work carries timeless insight, its older vocabulary, sentence structure, and punctuation can sometimes slow down modern reading. This edition refreshes the language where needed, so the message can be received more smoothly—without changing the meaning.

The goal has been faithfulness first. The wording has been updated for readability, but the original thought, argument, and flow have been carefully preserved. Bible quotations remain unchanged, and the text has been corrected where obvious scanning or transcription errors appeared, so readers can trust the continuity and accuracy of the content.

This edition is also formatted for comfortable use in both print and eBook formats. Headings, spacing, and paragraph structure have been standardized to support clear navigation, easy reference, and an enjoyable reading experience—whether you are reading devotionally, studying in depth, or teaching others.

In short, this modernized edition exists to remove unnecessary obstacles, so Morgan’s enduring exposition of God’s law—revealing the holiness of God and the love behind His commandments—can speak freshly and powerfully to a new generation.

About the Author: G. Campbell Morgan (1863–1945) — The Prince of Expositors

G. Campbell Morgan (1863–1945) was one of the most influential Bible expositors and preachers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries—so widely respected for his Scripture-centered preaching that he was often called “The Prince of Expositors.” He served as pastor of Westminster Chapel, London, where his preaching and Bible teaching drew large crowds, and later mentored Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who succeeded him there.

Morgan’s enduring gift was his ability to open the Bible with clarity, reverence, and moral force—pressing beyond mere religious form into the realm of the heart, worship, and obedience. His ministry was closely connected with the wider evangelical movement of his day, including D. L. Moody’s influence and conferences.

He was also a prolific author, and many of his works remain widely read for their devotional warmth and strong biblical reasoning. Among his best-known books are The Crises of the Christ, a Christ-centered study tracing key moments in Jesus’ life and work, The Gospel According to Luke, an exposition presenting Jesus as the perfect Son of Man, and The Great Physician, a classic meditation on Christ’s healing ministry and compassion.

In The Ten Commandments, Morgan brings the same “Prince of Expositors” strength to the Decalogue—showing how God’s law exposes idols, searches motives, and ultimately points to the life of love revealed and empowered in Christ. 

Contents

About the Book 4

About This Modernized Edition 6

About the Author 7

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTORY 8

CHAPTER 2. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT 13

CHAPTER 3. THE SECOND COMMANDMENT 21

CHAPTER 4. THE THIRD COMMANDMENT 29

CHAPTER 5. THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT 35

CHAPTER 6. THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 41

CHAPTER 7. THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT 50

CHAPTER 8. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT 59

CHAPTER 9. THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT 67

CHAPTER 10. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT 74

CHAPTER 11. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT 81

CHAPTER 12. A NEW COMMANDMENT 90

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTORY

“And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.”—Deut. viii. 3.

“. . . So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”—Isaiah lv. 11.

“... Jesus answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”—Matt. iv. 4.

These three passages are linked by a single truth: human life is meant to be governed by the words that proceed from the mouth of God.

Deuteronomy records Moses’ final messages to the children of Israel. In this passage he explains the meaning of the various circumstances God allowed them to experience: “He humbled thee, suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna.” Why? “That He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.”

Isaiah speaks as God’s messenger to a people who, through disobedience, have gone into captivity. Chapter lv. contains a message in which he contrasts their life in captivity with the blessedness and joy found in continual obedience to the Divine law. It is of this law that he speaks when he says, “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth.”

In the New Testament we see Jesus, God’s perfect Man, passing through the severest temptation. In answer to the enemy’s first suggestion, He reveals the realm in which He lives: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Now lift the shared phrases from their settings:

1. “Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord.”

2. “My word that goeth forth out of My mouth.”

3. “Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Here is the central truth on which the Mosaic, Prophetic, and Christian economies rest. The methods have differed and advanced, but the purpose has always been the same.

The creation of the Hebrew nation, its preservation, and its magnificent ritual and organization were all directed toward one end: giving expression to God’s first intention for human blessedness—man receiving his law from the mouth of God, and yielding unquestioning obedience to it.

The prophetic office existed to declare this Word of God, especially to the disobedient. Its work was always marked by fierce denunciation of rebellion, glowing descriptions of the glory of the Divine Kingship, and passionate appeals to return to loyalty.

Jesus, the Author of Christian faith, lived from beginning to end—without deviation or exception—by the words proceeding from the mouth of God. In His passion-baptism He bore the penalty of the race’s disobedience, and in His resurrection He took His life again so that He might communicate it to sinful men, that by its power they too might obey the law of God.

According to the consistent teaching of Scripture, then, man only understands what he may become as he comes to know the law of God; and he only realizes that possibility as he lives by the words proceeding from the mouth of God.

The reason is this: within the Divine intention, every human life moves through present probation toward future purpose. Men are born not merely for today, but for God’s tomorrow. The outcome and completion are beyond sight, and are perfectly known only to the Creator.

The trouble is that so many live as though the whole purpose of life were realized in this brief day on earth. Yet men know it is not so—that this passing life is preparatory and probationary. Today men sow; tomorrow they reap, and the reaping depends on the sowing.

If the ultimate end is to be in harmony with the will of eternal love, then men must obey the law that proceeds from that love. They must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

THE SUPREME DUTY OF MAN

The supreme duty of every man is to discover and obey these words. If he lives from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year without reference to that law—hoping that after being careless of it, if not rebellious against it, he will at last slip into some happy state—then he is surely blind and foolish.

At the close of Ecclesiastes the preacher says, “This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole of man” (xii. 13). Not “the whole duty of man,” as it appears in the Authorized Version, but “the whole of man.” That is, if a man fears God and keeps His commandments, he is a whole man. Judged by this standard, how many are not whole men. Ecclesiastes itself reveals the fact. “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.” That is the sum total of life lived “under the sun,” among material and passing things—life in only one hemisphere.

The whole man is realized when man “fears God and keeps His commandments”—that is, when both hemispheres are recognized. He who lives without reference to the law of God fails to fulfil the possibilities of his own being. He is not truly a man until he lives by the words that proceed out of the mouth of God.

In the Epistle of James there is a word of deep significance: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all” (ii. 10). Set this beside the passage already noted in Ecclesiastes, and there are two phrases with a shared key word: “the whole”—“the whole of man,” and “the whole law.” Here lies the explanation of what seems like the severity of James’s statement.

Men often imagine that if there are ten commandments, and they obey nine, that obedience will be credited to them even if they break the tenth. But that is to misunderstand God’s purpose of perfection for man, and therefore the perfection of His law. The ten words spoken at Sinai were not ten separate commandments with no relation to each other. They were ten sides of the one law of God.

Jesus’ teaching shows that these commandments are so interrelated that if a man offends in one point, he breaks the unity of the law—and therefore the unity of his own manhood. It is by “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live.”

If these positions are established, there is no need to apologize for frankly and honestly facing the Ten Commandments. They were the comprehensive words of God, spoken for the government of a people whose distinctive glory was that they were a theocracy—under the immediate Kingship of the Most High—and whose recurring shame was their revolt from that authority.

These words embody a perfect law of life for probationary days. They presuppose human failure and sin; therefore they will have no place in the government of God in heaven. Not because man will do the forbidden things there, but because the glorified nature of man will have put the committing of such things beyond the realm of possibility.

In some measure the Christian dispensation anticipates the heavenly state, for its whole genius lies in this: newborn souls share, by that new birth, in the motives and impulses of God. Man still lives, however, both in his own personality and in his relation to his fellow man, in continual touch with the old nature. The words of God are therefore of perpetual importance and value.

He needs to be solemnly reminded that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ sets him free from the law of sin and death, but not from the law of God. Every word of the Decalogue is repeated with emphasis and new power in the Christian economy.

In the series of studies now beginning, it is proposed to consider the essential law contained in the ten words of the Decalogue, in every case endeavoring to trace the enforcement and emphasis of that law in the light of the Christian dispensation.

The severity of the law of God is the necessary consequence of His infinite love. The Eternal Heart purposes and seeks the ultimate perfection of every human being. To condone sin in any way, or excuse it, would be to make impossible the realization of that purpose.

There is infinite significance in the opening words of the Swan Song of Moses, the lawgiver:

The Lord came from Sinai,
And rose from Seir unto them;
He shined forth from mount Paran,
And He came from the ten thousands of holy ones:
At His right hand was a fiery law unto them.
Yet, He loveth the peoples;
All His saints are in Thy hand:
And they sat down at Thy feet;
Every one shall receive Thy words.
Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3.

The fiery law is the most perfect expression of His love for the peoples. Let men then, with reverent sincerity, stand in the light of His law, that they may understand the perfection of His love.

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