1st Commandment

Sermon by Rev. Brian Keith

Lessons: I Kings 18:20–40; Mark 12:28–34; True Christian Religion

Sermon: “You shall have no other Gods before Me, You shall not make for yourselves any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor 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 generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments” Exodus 20:2-4.

The Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of all religion. They were given in such a miraculous way from Mt. Sinai to the journeying Hebrews. They are a starting point. They are a summary of the relationship between God and mankind. In their simple and straightforward way, they set out what God expects of us both in reference to Him and to other people on earth. Forms of the Ten Commandments can be found in every race and every culture on earth.

On the surface the Ten Commandments describe the fundamental laws which are necessary for people everywhere to exist in peace and harmony. But deeper down they encompass every facet of truth which the Lord reveals. They describe how the Lord reaches out to us, and how we might experience His joy, His happiness in our own lives.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that the very first commandment concerns the nature of God. It declares that there is one God and He alone is to be worshiped. This is the key concept upon which all the other commandments hang. For without first having an idea of God, everything else falls apart. How we conceive of the Divine affects us eternally. It is so central to who we are that we are told in the Heavenly Doctrines that our place in heaven is determined by our view of God. There is no test given when we enter the other world to see how much we remember–how many facts we have. It is not an intellectual or a factual amount of knowledge. It is a feeling kind of knowledge. It’s the truth that we take in about the Lord that affects who we are. It’s a concept of God that permeates our life causing us to embrace certain attitudes, to make certain decisions and those attitudes and those decisions gradually define who we are.

For example, imagine if we think of God as a harsh, punishing person, if we do that we will tend to think of this world as some kind of proving or testing ground to see if we are good enough for Him. Pain, any kind of punishment will be seen as a negative message from God. Just as worldly success will tend to be interpreted as a positive sign from God. The difficulty in believing this is that evil appears to occur randomly to people who try to do what is right in their lives. A person can easily feel that God isn’t terribly fair, that He is quite capricious in how He acts. And with that kind of attitude–belief of God, a person can begin to act in the same way, treating others contemptuously and unfairly because after all that’s the way God treats us and those around us.

An equally sad reaction can occur if one imagines God as so good, so pure that He is incapable of getting near or dealing with evil. Although it is appealing to imagine a God who would never punish or let anything bad happen, it’s not a very adequate model for how we have to deal with things in this life. A person could easily fall into thinking that one misstep, one sin in their life cuts him or her off from a God who doesn’t touch evil. Unreal expectations can be set up – expectations that can never be met by us — and we can feel that we have lost our connection to God if we are not as perfect as we imagine Him to be.

The Ten Commandments stress the singleness of God as the beginning point for our understanding of Him. In looking to just one Divine there is a focus and a direction for our thinking and our feeling. We can identify with One God. We can begin to appreciate His qualities. We can also feel a love for one that we can’t feel for several. The command that there only be one God reverberates throughout the whole of the Old Testament. Jehovah showed Himself time and time again as the only deity. Quite a conceited claim in that culture which worshiped an incredible array of gods. This was especially seen in the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. That story is such a strong lesson of how the Lord showed that He alone had power and that He alone created all things. The New Testament also echoes this principle. When a scribe asked the Lord for the greatest commandment, the Lord quoted Deuteronomy, the book of law back to him. He said, “Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” And then again when the Lord was about to be arrested and crucified, He said in prayer, “and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” From these and many other references in the New Testament, it is clear that Jesus Christ was sent from God, was the Son of God yet also God Himself. This was a presentation of God in a human form showing that He is one still as He ever has been.

The Lord tells us He is one not to control us or to just give us factual data about who He is, but so that we might see with our minds and feel with our hearts our Lord and God. To obey the first commandment is to recognize the Lord in our lives. Whenever we see an idea that is true, that leads to something that is worthwhile or good, whenever we feel the presence of genuine love we are sensing that One God with us. We can distort this presence of the Lord, we can ignore it, or we can worship the only God by making ourselves receptive to seeing Him in all His wonders.

When we look about us and consider that there is not a single thing in this world or in our lives that is unaffected by Him, that He knows all, that He is everywhere, that He has all power to do what is good, we can see the oneness of God in a way not before possible. We can feel it. The warning about shunning idolatry applies to us when we allow anything to prevent us from being affected by that vision of the visible God, the one God of heaven and earth.

We know that we are not likely to fall prey to the physical worship of wood and stone as the Ancients did; we are far too sophisticated for that! But while we may not bow down before graven images there are other gods which call to us–which call to us very strongly. We can allow other people to come between us and God. Ancestor worship is not very evident in our culture, but isn’t it there when a person is locked into a profession or a pattern of behavior by family traditions or expectations. When we fawn over media sensations (politicians, sports figures, actors, actresses) we converge on worshiping false images. When we accept the ideas that those people are presenting, because we look up to them, are we trusting in the Lord or in those people? Do we have false images? There are many things in this world which can become idols to us. We may be surrounded by incredible wealth. We may have incomes that allow us to purchase anything we really need and much that we are convinced we can’t do without. Our five senses can be overwhelmed by the apparently unlimited amount of pleasure that this world holds. We can be seduced by all of it. We can become so preoccupied with what all that money can buy that we suddenly shift our worship from the Lord to material things. Idolatry exists whenever we focus our attention on superficial, earthly things. For then the Lord is relegated to a secondary position and eventually if no change occurs, He is forgotten.

Of course the most powerful idol of all is ourselves. Our wants, our desires, or our goals can become so important to us that we sell everything we have in chasing after them. We are not using that wealth to purchase pearls of great price, but the things that would merely please us. The affection that we have for ourselves can divert us from the Lord and from others. The more we think about ourselves the less time and energy is left for the Lord.

The Lord commanded that no likeness be made of the things of heaven, of earth or of the waters under the earth. This means that we are not meant to make up excuses or justifications to fashion these worldly, selfish idols into something that appears to be living–appears to have real value in our lives. Our ability to reason can be used to see the Lord’s way that He sets before us or it can be used to justify any manner of idolatry.

But idols have no lasting power. They can fascinate, they can obsess but they can’t bring inner peace or lasting happiness. That only comes from recognizing the Truth of the First Commandment: that there is one God of heaven and earth. There is tremendous power when we turn our minds to a concept of one God. When we accept Him as the source of everything good and everything true we don’t have to worry as much about ourselves. Yes, without Him, without even a sense of Him we can lead an outwardly decent life. We can be productive. We can have fun. We can be respected. We can achieve much. But unless we are doing that because the Lord is our God, every effort we make at self–improvement tends to circle back on ourselves because the reason that we do it is selfish. Recognizing the Lord as the reason for our existence and the reason for our happiness is the only way that we can shift ourselves away from being the center of our lives and gradually replace it with the Lord.

We can worship one God and not idols. We can strive to bring Him more into the center of our lives not in an overly pious or sanctimonious way and not by taking up all our times with external worship but rather by trying to set our priorities to be the same as the Lord’s. Do we value the same things He does? Are we concerned about those around us? Do we want to treat them fairly? Do we wish them well? Is our marriage, our family, and our children worth energy? Do we feel close to and affectionate towards the Lord? What we care about says a great deal about what our priorities are and who we are.

Now although the amount of time that we spend each day on the wide array of activities we are involved in is not a clear indicator of what we really do value as important, we can learn much by seeing what we devote time to and what we don’t. Do we have regular worship? Do we pray daily? Do we read something from the Lord? Do we think of Him? Do we try to help those around us? Do we make the time to talk with our spouses and our children?

Of course we can all accuse ourselves of not doing enough. There is more than we could ever do in terms of caring for others and learning about the Lord. But it is relatively simple to make changes in our life. We are not locked in to any past history. We can change. We don’t have to give up a great deal just to take the time every morning to say thank you Lord for something or to take the effort to ask a friend how they are feeling. Small changes can, like water dripping upon a rock, wear away some of that selfishness and bring us more into harmony with the Lord, worshiping Him alone. Regularly asking ourselves the question: Do we really want the Lord’s Will to be done and to be the number one priority in our lives? Asking that question can remind us of the critical role that He plays in our lives. Removing ourselves from the frantic activity of our lives enables us to remember what He would have us do, how He is leading us, and how He is taking care of us in spite of ourselves at times.

As the commandment to serve one God comes first in the list of commandments so it can become the centerpiece in our lives. By focusing on the one God who created us rather than the false idols of self and the world we can be lifted up to the Lord to see Him more clearly. We can feel His presence more fully in the course of our lives.

Worshiping the one God of heaven and earth is a way that we can forget about ourselves and gain perspective. Our wants and our ideas pale in comparison with what the Lord offers us. As we see all the brilliance of truth and the warmth of love coming from Him we can relax. We can have no other gods before Him. We can avoid making those carved images, those rationalizations and we can receive mercy by loving the Lord and thereby keeping His commandments.

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