The First Commandment – No Other Gods

The First Commandment

No other gods

God, by virtue of His exclusivity and uniqueness, and the grace He has exercised toward those He has created and redeemed, commands their exclusive devotion and service.

The Source of the Law (1)

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.”

Deuteronomy 5:6, 7

“‘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.’”

In this briefest of prologues, God identifies Himself as sole Giver of the commandments, statutes, precepts and rules that follow. The Law thus has its origins in the eternal being and counsel of the one true God, and this has important implications for the nature of the Law itself.

The Lord. The Law comes to the redeemed of the Lord from an eternal and personal Being, Yahweh, the great I Am. He is holy and unchanging; hence, we should expect that whatever He might ordain in the way of moral instruction for His people would be of the same character. The Law of God is unchanging, as is God Who gave it; it is therefore also eternal.

Consequently, the Law of God is the absolute and final standard for human moral conduct. The works of the Law are written on the hearts of every human being (Rom. 2:14, 15), who bears the image and likeness of God. Thus, by living in conformity to the teaching of the divine Law may any human being expect to find the fullness of God’s purpose for life.

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.