Worship God’s Way – The Kingdom Curriculum VI (1)

Worship God’s Way

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image….” Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8

“When my angel goes before you and brings to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them…” Exodus 23:23, 24

Keep your worship pure.

In the Kingdom curriculum, the second commandment follows from the first. In “having” the Lord only as our God we must be careful and circumspect to exclude any and all devotion to any and all other deities.

Now this seems simple enough in our materialistic culture, where multiplied pagan religions and their varied and complex deities are not exactly to be found on every hand. But let’s not be deceived or misled by the word, “gods.” As we explained under the first commandment, anything to which we give the kind of affection, devotion, attention, and energy that suggests it is of ultimate importance in our lives is functioning like a deity.

Wealth can be a god. It can consume our devotion, command our time and energy, and bring us more satisfaction than anything else. Our choices, decisions, schedules, and priorities can become organized around the pursuit of wealth, and all our thoughts can be devoted to acquiring and enjoying it. When that happens, wealth becomes a god. So can success, happiness, popularity, power, possessions, and much more. When any of these things get the better part of our hearts, minds, and strength, they have become gods; we have made them gods in place of the one true God. We must guard against falling into the thrall of such deities, or we may find ourselves in violation of the second commandment.

God warned Israel that the pagan gods of Canaan would be a temptation for them. They were strictly admonished not to incorporate any aspect of pagan religion into their lives or worship. Secularism, materialism, sensuality – these are the “religions” of our unsaved neighbors, within which they pursue their particular deities. We should be similarly warned about the materialist gods of pagan America: “you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them.”

The way to begin to love God’s Law is to spend time reading and meditating on it. Order your copy of The Law of God today by going to www.MyParuchia.com, clicking on Publications, then clicking Waxed Tablet.

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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.