The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment

Deuteronomy 5:8-10

“‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.’”

1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 John 5:21

God is jealous of the worship and obedience of His people, for He knows that He alone is worthy of these. He is the Lord, and beside Him there is no other. It is futile and foolish to give worship and obedience to anyone or anything besides God. Therefore God expressly forbids the making of any images for the purpose of worship, for reasons which we shall see. He alone is to be worshiped and served.

Worshiping God, bowing before Him to acknowledge His greatness and our dependence on Him, is the primary way of showing God that we love Him.

We also show our love for God by the service we render in His Name. As we carry out His commandments we perform that “reasonable service” which Paul commends in Romans 12:1, 2 and extend the love we have for God to our neighbors as well.

All our devotion and all our works service are due to God only, for His glory, for He is our Creator and Redeemer, and He alone is God. We must not allow anything other than God to receive our humble devotion or to determine what we do in our strength each day. Thus, all our lives and work are subsumed under the headings of worship and service to the living God.

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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.