(John Vann)
The first commandment
Exodus 20:1-6” And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
So what are other gods? Other gods can be anything that can deemed to be more important to us than our one true God.It can be a possession,it can be anything that we focus our desires upon.It can be our goals or it can even be another person.It can be anything that we become infatuated with.It is where we focus most of our attention.Because where our thoughts are there also is our hearts.
So you should have no other gods before me means we must put God first in our lives. He is more important than anything or anyone else. God loves us deeply, so we must also love him with all of our hearts.
Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 when he said. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
This was a summarization of the first Commandment. Jesus set the example in putting God first. When Jesus was in the wilderness fasting for 40 days, he responded to Satan‘s Temptations by saying “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Living by the word of God involves having a commitment to always live our lives in accordance to what God teaches us in the Bible. We are not to lean on our own understanding. Jesus then told Satan “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” because after all, God is not some sort of a genie in a bottle that does our bidding for us. Then Jesus told Satan, ”you should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” Jesus later said, you cannot serve God and also serve materialism. He said our focus and priority must be to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The first Commandment is a reminder to focus on the power and majesty of our creator.The one and only true God.
God’s power was on display when he appeared to the Israelites from the top of Mount Sinai In Exodus 20:18 “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.”
In verse 20 “Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” King Solomon said “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Jesus told his disciples do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. We as humans tend to fear the things that we can see with our eyes.The things that our human understanding teaches us to fear. But the fear of God, is not a fear of punishment or retribution, but it is an act of reverence and of deep respect and it is a recognition of God’s Almighty power. The fear of God kindles inside of us a feeling of amazement and ultimately it gives us a great love for the one who has the greatest of love for us.
Our respect for God should grow into a deep appreciation of God‘s love. A deep appreciation for his laws and a deep appreciation for his way of life. We must grow from obeying God out of fear to obey God out of love.
So never put anyone or anything above God. Never be boastful or prideful because that is putting yourself above God. Remember, God is greater because God made you who you are. God is greater than your possessions because God gave you everything you have . God is greater than anyone else in your life because God put them there. Putting God first would be thanking him for all the things that he’s done. Putting God first would be thanking God for everything that he’s given you. Putting God first is loving him deeply, the way that he loves us. We should show our love for God by keeping his Commandments. We should show our love for God by showing that love to others and not just to some others but to everyone. All the other Commandments hang on this one commandment. Keep this one commandment and you’ll keep them all.