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Shorter Catechism
St Philaret of Moscow, in Blackmore, 1845
Chapter 4
Q. What is the first Commandment of God’s law?
A. I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt have none other Gods but Me.
Q. What doth God command hereby?
A. In this Commandment God teaches us:
1. With our mind to acknowledge Him.
2. With our heart to believe in Him, trust in Him, and love Him.
3. With our lips to confess and glorify Him.
4. With our whole being to worship Him, and with all our might devoutly to serve Him.
5. Beside the one true God neither to invoke nor honour any false god, nor give to creatures that honour which belongeth to God only.
Q. What are we to think of the holy Angels and holy men?
A. We ought not to honour them as we honour God, but as God’s servants, who may present our prayers to God, and minister to us His grace; wherefore we should also ask help through them of God.
Q. What is the second Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them.
Q. What doth God forbid in this Commandment?
A. He forbids us to worship idols.
Q. What is an idol?
A. The material representation of any creature, or of any imaginary deity, which is worshipped instead of the true God.
Q. What are we to think of Icons?
A. Icons, (or church images,) that is, representations of the true God in the flesh, and of His Saints, are rightly used for the religious remembrance of the works of God, and of His Saints, and it is right to pray before them to God and to His Saints. Nevertheless, this right and godly honour of Icons may be abused so as to become the sin of idolatry, if any one honours only the holy Icons themselves, and trusts in their material substance, without raising up his mind and heart to Christ and His Saints whom they represent.
Q. What is the third Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. He forbids us to use the name of God amiss.
Q. When may we rightly use the name of God?
A. We may rightly use the name of God in prayer, in religious instruction, and in lawful oaths, when required by authority, and that with fear and reverence.
Q. But in common talk may we exclaim, as many do, or swear by the name of God?
A. No. This is contrary to the third Commandment.
Q. What is the fourth Commandment?
A. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: six days shalt thou work and do all that thou hast to do, but on the seventh day is the sabbath to the Lord thy God.
Q. What doth God command hereby?
A. To work six days in the week, and do all that belongs to our worldly calling, but to keep the seventh day holy to God; that is, to set it apart for prayer, for religious instruction, and works of piety.
Q. Why ought we to keep holy the seventh day?
A. Because God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day rested from all His works.
Q. Which particular day of the seven ought we to keep?
A. In old time they kept the sabbath (or Saturday); but since the resurrection of Christ, the Christian Church keeps the Day of the Resurrection (or the Lord’s Day).
Q. Are there not also other days to be kept holy?
A. There are: first, the festivals of our Lord: secondly, those of the most holy Virgin, the Mother of God: thirdly, those of the Saints: fourthly, fast days, which are to be kept holy by observing such abstinence as is enjoined by the Church.
Q. What is the fifth Commandment?
A. Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth.
Q. What doth God command hereby?
A. He commands us to honour and obey our parents.
Q. Is it only our parents then that we are to honour?
A. The same Commandment teaches us also to honour all who in divers relations stand to us in the place of parents; as the Sovereign, who is the common father of the whole people and empire; spiritual Pastors and Teachers; Elders; Guardians and Benefactors; Governors and Masters.
Q. What is the sixth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt do no murder.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. He forbids us to take away men’s lives by force or guile, or in any way to disturb the peace of our neighbour; and so this Commandment forbids also all strife, wrath, hatred, envy, and cruelty.
Q. What is the seventh Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. He forbids adultery, and all irregular and unclean carnal lust, and likewise all that may tend to excite unlawful desires; as drunkenness, indecent and shameless words or gestures, the reading of bad books, singing or listening to immoral songs, or looking upon immoral pictures or shows.
Q. What is the eighth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not steal.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. To take by force or guile any thing that is not our own.
Q. What is the ninth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. He forbids us to bear false witness against any man, in court, or out of court, to slander, defame, or revile any, either to his face or behind his back, or under any circumstances to lie or deceive.
Q. What is the tenth Commandment?
A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his field, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any other beast, nor any thing that is his.
Q. What doth God forbid hereby?
A. He forbids us not only to do evil, but even so much as to desire it, or think of it, that we may not from evil thoughts and desires go on to evil deeds.
Q. How are we to keep ourselves from evil deeds, desires, and thoughts?
A. We should ever bear in mind that the Holy, Just, and Almighty God constantly seeth us; and upon the first thought of sin we should say with Joseph, the son of Jacob, How shall I do this wickedness, and sin against God?