Question #93

Question 93. How are these commandments divided?

Answer: Into two tables (a); the first of which teaches us how we must behave towards God; the second, what duties we owe to our neighbour (b).

(a) Exodus 34:28: So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:13: And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.
Deuteronomy 10:3-4: So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.

(b) Matthew 22:37-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

For your personal reflection:
When I married Jacqui my desire was to be a pleasing husband.  My problem?  I had no idea how to do this.  Over time, as I learned her nature I also learned what she found pleasing.  In a very simplistic way this is similar to my relationship with God.  By nature I have no idea what is good and pleasing to God.  He, however, has communicated to me – to us, both His nature and that which is pleasing.  In Matthew 22 (above) we read Jesus’ summary of the law and our continuing duty to love God and humanity.  Having observed previously our inability to fulfill this duty and Christ’s perfet fulfillment; in Christ we are now free to love God and express this love toward our neighbor.
How do the “two tables” of the commandments relate to one another?
What does this division of the commandments reveal to us?