Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Ten Commandments is their essential brevity. It could be argued that every theological discourse and every God-directed thought since the day these commandments were received has been a commentary upon them. They make up the bedrock of human faithfulness. Yet these laws are presented so straight-forwardly that they seem almost simplistic.

At its essence what we have in the Ten Commandments is a list of what displeases God. Except for the divine comments in verses 5-6, there is no careful itemization of penalties or a list of punishments each broken commandment will elicit. Instead, we have a kind of divine crib sheet on how to live a God-pleasing life.

The first four commandments in the Decalogue focus on the divine-human relationship. By followi…