"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you. "You shall not murder. "You shall not commit adultery. "You shall not steal. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." Exodus 20:12-17
When we began our consideration of the Ten Commandments, we pointed out that the commandments have been divided into “two tables” of the Law. The first table contains the first four commandments. The second table contains the remaining six commandments.
Those numbers might suggest that the second table of the Law is more important than the first because there are two more commandments in the second than in the first. We would suggest that is not necessarily true. (This once again proves that statistics can be presented to make whatever case a person favors!)
The first table of the Law concerns our obligations to God and the second table concerns our obligations to one another. (1) Jesus summarized and prioritized the Law by saying that the greatest commandment is to love God and the second commandment is to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40). Therefore, the first table is first and primary, precisely because not sinning against God is the foundation for not sinning against one another. Loving God is primary. Loving our neighbors (though vitally important) is secondary.
When comparing the first and second tables of the Law, the number of commandments (4 & 6) may not be the best way to assign priority either. Look at the overall length of the first table compared with the second table. Look at the number of words in each. The Ten Commandments (in the NKJV) contain a total of 300 words. The first table, about our obligations to God, contain 221 of the 300 words (73.6%). The second table, about our obligations to each other, contain only 79 words (26.3%). Might I suggest that God gives more ink and attention to the first four laws about our obligations to Him than to the second six laws about our obligations to one another?
The point of this exercise is not to minimize our obligations to each other in the second table, but to emphasize the priority of obeying the commandments relating to God. The next time someone claims not to be a sinner because he/she has never murdered anybody, ask if he/she has kept the first four commandments relating to God.
Notes: (1) Even our obligations to one another are ultimately obligations to God, since all ten commandments are given by God. So when we sin against our neighbor, we are sinning against God who (a) gave the laws, and we are sinning against God since (b) our neighbors are created in God’s image.