The WESTMINSTER LARGER Catechism
WLC
100. What special things are we to consider in the Ten Commandments?
The Lord Jesus says in His great Sermon on the Mount:
17
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Mt 5:17-18).A jot (or Jod or Yodh) is the smallest of the Hebrew alphabet (y). It is such a small letter that it may appear as mere quotation mark to an untrained eye! A tittle is the little extension on the letter Beth (b) that distinguishes it from the letter Kaph (k). The difference is so subtle that many new students of Hebrew can hardly tell the two letters apart!
What our Lord, is therefore saying is that every statement, every word and every letter in the Law of God has been given deliberately or purposely under the inspiration of God. God is not capricious. Neither is He unnecessarily verbose. There is a strict economy with His words. Not a word is unnecessarily spoken.
Therefore, when God spoke the Decalogue, every phrase and word is important. We must not think that only the ten sets of imperatives are important. The preface to the whole Decalogue as well as the reasons annexed to some of the commands are also important.
The Preface of the Decalogue is in the words:
"I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Ex 20:2).
These words are pregnant with meaning and instructive as our next question will show.
The annexes to the commands, on the other hand, are words such as "for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God &c." These annexes are spoken "the more to enforce" the commands to which they are annexed. In other words, they serve to further encourage obedience and discourage violations. We shall look at each of the annexes when we examine the substance of the Ten Commandments. W