Guard Your Soul – The First Commandment

Guard Your Soul

Exodus 20:2, 3

“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.”

God is not a tyrannical oppressor to demand that He alone receive our exclusive allegiance. Rather, He alone deserves our love, devotion, and service. At the same time, we are not fools to embrace this commandment, nor do we put ourselves under some burdensome yoke, for God alone is good, wise, powerful to save, and able to liberate us from those things which can never make us free. Practicing devotion to God alone is the way we exercise the freedom we have in Christ.

But we must constantly guard against the tendency of other “deities” to insinuate themselves into our lives. There’s still plenty out there to steal our affections, waste our time, deplete our resources and energy, and distract us from our liberty to live as God’s sons and daughters. We must guard our souls against every would-be usurper of God’s place, lest we lose the liberty He has redeemed us to enjoy through His Law.

Daily meditation in the Law of God (Ps. 1), together with a lifestyle of worship and service (Rom. 12:1, 2), can help us to live out the requirements of this first commandment.

Memorize the first commandment. Before the day is over, share your thoughts about the reasonableness of this commandment with someone in your family, or with a close friend.  How does he or she respond?

Lord, here is how I plan to memorize this commandment:

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.