And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exodus 20:1-2
The commandments given by God to Moses on the mount are ten in number, the first four concerning man's relation to God and his duty to Him, and the remaining six man's relation to his fellows (compare the similar division of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13). We are surely meant to learn from this order that when a man honours God, and His Name, and His Day, and worships Him with heart and soul, he will not violate the other commandments. The first commandment, as indeed is the case with the others that follow, does not stand in isolation by itself, but in relation to what God has done in His mighty work of redeeming the people from Egypt. Grace is therefore first, and obedience is required as the necessary response to that grace. In this respect, it corresponds to the claim that Paul makes in Romans 12:1, 2 for consecration of life based on the mercies of God revealed in the Gospel. Obedience to God is something that a redeemed people owe to Him as their reasonable service. It is this fact that helps us to see that the Ten Commandments constitute a law for all men, not merely for the people of Israel. God lays superlative claims on all mankind because in Jesus Christ God loved a world, and gave Him for the life of the world. Nor does God have two standards, one for those who believe in Him, and another for those who do not. His tender mercy is over all His work, and so also, therefore, are the demands of His law.