You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother’ (Exodus 20:14, 13, 15-16, 12. Deuteronomy 5:17-20, 16).”
Christ recalls the commandments, especially those commandments that concern a person’s relationships with his neighbor. He does not say that a person can be saved by perfectly keeping the law by his own strength, but sets the law before him as a mirror. That mirror was to show his moral condition and reveal what his heart lacked. The mention of the commandments was meant to lead him not to self-justification, but to self-examination, because God’s law requires not only outward obedience, but true purity of heart. In this way the Lord also prepares the next word, by which He will show that a person’s deepest attachment can remain hidden even under the outward keeping of the commandments. The law here serves not for boasting, but for the testing of the heart.