[Matt. 22:37-40+]

The substance of the law is, "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind." and "Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself."

The purpose of the law is, 1. To put a check upon wicked men, [I Tim.
1:9] 2. To convince us of our sinfulness [Rom. 3:20+] and our need of
the Saviour, [Gal. 3:24+] and 3. To be our rule and guide for Christian
conduct. [John. 14:15+, Matt. 7:12+] It is especially with respect to
the second purpose here mentioned, that the Ten Commandments were
assigned by Luther to the first and not to a later place in his
catechism.

The Two Tables. The Ten Commandments may be divided into two parts,
called the Two Tables of the Law. [Exod. 31:18] The First Table includes
the first three commandments, and teaches us our Duty to God. The Second
Table Includes the last seven commandments, and teaches us our Duty to
our Fellow-men.[2]

[Footnote 2: The Ten Commandments are not numbered in the Bible. A
two-fold numbering is found among Christians. The first is that which is
given in our Catechism, and which is accepted by the majority of
Christians, The other numbering makes two commandments of our first (the
second being the command not to make any images), and joins our ninth
and tenth into one. This makes a difference in the numbering of all the
commandments except the first.]

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