This is part of an ongoing series on the Ten Commandments. God’s word reveals to us the laws he requires for living in the world as he has ordered it, and only by living according to this law are we able to flourish and enjoy our creational purpose: to glorify God and enjoy him. This series explores how Christians, whose identity is in Christ and whose inheritance is stored in eternity, should live under and live out the Ten Commandments.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”— Exodus 20:2–3
I used to think the first commandment meant that God was supposed to be our top priority. There might be other “gods” in our life, things we love and adore, but the true God had to come first in our desires and decisions. While it’s true that God is to be our first and greatest love, I think the word “before” primarily reminds us that all of life is lived coram deo, that is, before the face of God. God is present in all places at all times—he sees every act of worship we make. It’s silly and foolish to worship anyone or anything other than God because he is the greatest of all beings and he is always there. Worshiping an idol (having another god in front of God) is a bit like proclaiming my love to a woman while my wife is standing next to us. My love and commitment should be directed to my wife and to her alone. Just as my wife would be rightly angered by my unfaithfulness to my wedding vows, so also is God wrathful when we adore and love his creations more than him.
This first command is deceptively simple. It’s only eight words, but if we take these words seriously, our entire life will be changed. This command requires everything we have. It requires everything we are. And it also prohibits many things. It is, at once, terrifying and inspiring, daunting and welcoming!
What does the first commandment require of us?
We must know God and believe that he is the one true God. Who is this God that we live life before? God is omnipresent, he fills all space at once (Psalm 139:7–12). Therefore everything we do is before him. God is eternal, he is outside of time and therefore is present at all moments. God is holy and righteous. We live before a God who is completely fair and just. Furthermore, he is the maker of heaven and earth, our sustainer, and our redeemer. Remember, this commandment rests upon the identity and saving work of God for his people: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt” (Ex. 20:2). God is a God of mercy, grace, and patience. Notice as well, God describes himself as our God. To have no other gods is to understand that we have a sacred, covenantal, and exclusive relationship with God. This means all our worship, praise, and adoration must go to God. Our thoughts, our hopes and dreams, our respect, our love and joy, our desire, and our will must be aimed at God above all else.
What does the first command prohibit?
This command also entails many things that we must not do. First, atheism is prohibited. To deny God’s existence is to break this command. Second, as already alluded to, the command prohibits all forms of idolatry. Idolatry can take many shapes. The commandment forbids worshiping gods other than the God of the Bible. It also forbids loving or desiring anything in God’s creation more than God himself.
Furthermore, to have no other gods means that we should never fail to give God anything that he deserves, such as honor, respect and praise. We break this command when we forget about God and live life as if God isn’t present or doesn’t exist. We break this command when we have erroneous ideas about who God is and create a false version of God towards which we direct our worship. We break this command when we are angry at God, when we doubt his goodness and wisdom, and when we don’t trust in his promises. Certainly, the Scripture teaches us that we can have doubts and ask questions of God without sinning (Psalm 13:1–2; 22:1–2). However, the Bible also warns us that our feelings and thoughts about and towards God can become sinful:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.— Hebrews 3:12–14
An “unbelieving heart” describes a person breaking the first commandment. This person falls away from God, they no longer live before him. The author of Hebrews warns us, not only so that we can keep close guard of our own heart, but so that Christians can encourage each other to persevere in faith, even as we struggle to believe the truth about God and live life before him.
Beautiful and Terrible
The first commandment, with all it calls us to and all it forbids us from, is beautiful in its simplicity. It gives us the key to all of life: as God’s creatures, we are to only worship him. If we do this, we live according to our design and are free to flourish.
This command calls us to a beautiful faithfulness to the God who loved us, created us, and saved us. Yet, we know we cannot come close to meeting its demands. For this reason, the command is also terrible. It reveals that, at the very core of our being, we fail to be who we are meant to be. We have other gods before God. We break this command daily in our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Yet, it was not given to us to condemn. Only after God rescued Israel from captivity to Egypt does he issue the Ten Commandments. They are not a condition for God’s rescue, but a response we are called to in light of God’s unconditional love for us.
This is also part of the beauty of the First Commandment. It is a guide for God’s redeemed people. We have been freed from captivity, not to Egyptians, but to sin. We have been saved not by Moses, but Christ. Our exodus is a spiritual journey out of bondage to sin into covenant relationship with God. Within that grace-filled relationship, we strive to keep the First Commandment, repent when we fail, and trust in the forgiveness of God as well as the power of the Holy Spirit to make us more and more obedient over the course of our lives. By the power and grace of God, we can put away all other gods from before our God and worship him only.
