The First Commandment

      Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3, King James Version)

Since there’s more to the first commandment than the one verse, let me give it all to you in an easier translation than the King James Version.

God spoke, and these were his words: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god but me. Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their descendants down to the third and fourth generation. But I show my love to thousands of generations of those who love me and obey my laws. (Exodus 20:1-6, Good News Translation)

We finally made it back to the beginning, the first – and perhaps most important – law which God gave to His people.

If you think back on all the other commandments, if we just kept this one, we wouldn’t break the others. If we put other gods – possessions, power, people – above the one true God, that’s when we steal, covet, cheat, commit adultery, kill.

Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37, New International Version)

If we put our love and our trust in God Almighty and put all those other distractions on the back burner, we would have peace in our hearts. We wouldn’t have to look elsewhere for happiness.

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10, New International Version)

But what about the hard-hearted non-believers, the ones who have ripped the Ten Commandments out of public places, claiming that this is a free country and that by posting God’s laws for all to see, Christians are forcing our agenda on them?

Folks, you need to have something bigger and more powerful than you are. Something or someone that you can turn to in times of trouble, that has the ability to rescue you when you are sinking, that will love you more than you can ever love yourself. Without that, you are nothing. And if you can truly find that god somewhere other than in heaven, then congratulations, I guess.

“But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. . . . But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, New Living Translation)

Because the one true, triune God is the One who I know will always have my back. And I will try, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to believe in and worship only Him.