God commands that certain elements be part of a worship service. God commands that these certain elements in a worship service be done in a certain way. God also commands that we conduct ourselves with a certain decorum when it comes to participation in this kind of worship.

Now that we understand what elements God wants in a worship service, we need to think about when He wants us to do each of them. A good Reformed liturgy gives careful thought to the order of the elements in a worship service.

If the second commandment teaches the regulative principle, we have to then ask: “What exactly does the Bible say we should do in New Covenant worship”? Without a New Testament book of Leviticus, are we left in the dark?

Behind and implied by the second commandment is this “regulative principle of worship,” which is taught all throughout the Holy Scriptures. Listen to see how and where.

Though the “regulative principle of worship” may be an odd or unfamiliar phrase, we hope you’ll come to undertsand and accept it as a good label for the second commandment’s authoritative import regarding worship.

The Jesus statues and crucifixes of the Roman Catholics, and the Jesus pictures in children’s Bibles of the Evangelicals, are a testimony to our thinking we are wiser than God. We are trying to re-make Jesus in our own image in gross violation of the second commandment.

The first commandment forbids worship of any false god, and now the second commandment forbids any false worship of the true God. This distinction lays the foundation for the practical application of the second commandment in our lives.

At last, the commandments. God requires in the first commandment not only that He be exclusively acknowledged, but also that we give all of our very selves to Him alone.

So what was engraved on each of the two tablets that God gave to Moses? How they answered that question in Sunday School might have distracted you from some important ways to understand and apply the ten commandments properly.

So how should you thank God for saving your body and soul? The right way is to obey His holy laws. The wrong way is to exert yourself in obedience to easier substitutes. As we come closer to the Ten Commandments themselves, be prepared, in light of the gospel, to obey them no matter how difficult the task.