The Catechism


Question 80: Which is required in the eighth commandment?

Answer: The eighth commandment requires that we pursue lawful and useful work to provide for our needs and for those unable to provide for themselves.

ScriptureEphesians 4:28Proverbs 27:23Leviticus 25:35Deuteronomy 15:1022:1-4.


Question 81: What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?

Answer: The eighth commandment forbids whatever would unjustly withhold or diminish a person’s possessions or attainments.

ScriptureMalachi 3:8Ephesians 4:28Romans 13:7.


Question 82: Which is the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment is, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

ScriptureExodus 20:16.


Question 83: What is required in the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment requires that we maintain and promote truth between persons and that we preserve the good name of our neighbor and ourselves.

ScriptureZechariah 8:16Acts 25:10;  Ecclesiastes 7:13 John 12Proverbs 14:525.


Question 84: What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?

Answer: The ninth commandment forbids whatever dishonors truth, or injures our own, or our neighbor’s good name.

ScriptureEphesians 4:25Psalm 15:3;  2 Corinthians 8:2021.


Question 85: What is the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment is, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

ScriptureExodus 20:17.


Question 86: What is required in the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment requires contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit towards our neighbor, and all that is his.

ScriptureHebrews 13:51 Timothy 6:6Romans 12:151 Corinthians 13:4-7Leviticus 19:18.


Question 87: What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?

Answer: The tenth commandment forbids all murmuring over our own condition and all envying or grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate affections for anything that is his.

Scripture1 Corinthians 10:10James 5:9Galatians 5:26Colossians 3:5.


Question 88: Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

Answer: No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but daily falls short of inward and outward perfection.

ScriptureEcclesiastes 7:20Genesis 6:58:211 John 1:8James 3:2,  8Romans 3:237:15Philippians 3:12.


Question 89: What then is the purpose of the law since the fall?

Answer: The purpose of the law, since the fall, is to reveal the perfect righteousness of God, that his people may know the path of faith that leads to life, and that the ungodly may be convicted of their sin, restrained from evil, and brought to Christ for salvation.

ScripturePsalm 19:7-11Romans 3:20317:78:139:3212:2Titus 2:12-14Galatians 3:22,  241 Timothy 1:8Luke 10:25-28.