The First Commandment

And God spoke all these words, saying, “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 20:1-3 ESV). Not long ago I read about a group of theology students who were assigned the task of organizing the Ten Commandments in their perceived order of importance. Interestingly, these students felt that the sixth commandment, "You shall not murder," should be placed first on the list. The seventh commandment, "You shall not commit adultery," was also placed near the top. But the group relegated the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me," to the bottom of the list. They didn't think it was all that important. In God's listing, however, it is a different story. He puts this commandment at the top of the list. But why is it the highest priority for God? I believe it is because all others are built on this foundational truth. If you have broken this one, then everything else will fall apart. Could this be said of us today? Have we put the wrong things into first place? Recent surveys reveal that 76 percent of Americans believe they had been completely faithful to the first commandment. In other words, they might have problems with some of the other commandments, but for them, the first commandment was not a problem. My response is to question the validity of the data. Everyone has a god. Everyone, including atheists, bows at some altar. We don't all worship the true God, but we all worship. Everyone has something they believe in, some passion that drives them, something that gives their life meaning and purpose. It is amazing how much can be revealed by a simple little pronoun such as "I." Only one letter long, it conveys a profound and fundamental truth about who God is. When He said, "I am the Lord," He was, in effect, refuting all other belief systems, including pantheism, polytheism, deism, and every other “ism.” When God says, "I am," He is revealing that He is a being, not a mere force of nature. God is not an impersonal force, as pantheism would teach. Nor is He one of many gods, as polytheism claims. God said, "I am the Lord your God" (emphasis mine). In contrast to the teaching of deism, which says that God has no interest in the affairs of men, the first commandment shows us that we have a God who sees and hears and cares. Is God first in your life today? Or are you allowing other gods to crowd Him out? While Jesus came to complete the law and we now live in the age of grace, this has not changed. God is God. He tolerates no other thing before Him. Put God first and everything else finds a proper balance in life.