The First Commandment

The First Commandment

Deuteronomy 10:17-19

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

And lest we should think that God’s Law is only incumbent upon or intended to bless the elite few of society, the Lord emphatically declares that the blessings He intends through His holy and righteous and good Law (Rom. 7:12) extend to the very least of Israelite society–orphans, widows, and strangers. This is why pure and undefiled religion is defined in the New Testament as extending the grace and blessings to God to such as these (Jas. 1:27). His grace is sufficient for all our needs, and it flows in wave upon wave to all His chosen people through our Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of God’s Law.

In this series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.

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