On the First Commandment: Exclusive Worship belongs to the One God

"I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD:
YOU SHALL NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME."
Image via google.com

The First Commandment identifies God as our main object of worship and adoration. Here, God specifically declares His being God who deserves all the honor, respect and praise due to Him as the Supreme Being. He also clearly prohibits us from having other gods. 

Going back to the general Great Commandment of loving God above all things with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, the First Commandment simply means God's way of stating that we should not put our absolute trust in anything else, that we should not be ultimately dependent on anyone else, that we should not fully submit ourselves to someone or something other than Him. It also means that He should be our priority in everything, putting Him before anything else, and giving Him utmost importance, respect and honor in all that we do, think or say. Simply put, He should be our whole life, our very existence, and everything else that we do, think or say should be mere reflections of our relationship with Him. 

It is not because He is a selfish God. Fact is, He is a very generous God and was so generous indeed that He even gave us His only-begotten Son to become our salvation, that all of us may become His children through the Son. It is also through the Son that He renewed the bond of friendship between Him and us. Then why does it seem that He wants everything for Himself alone? 

It is because only in Him can we find rest, the fullness of life and eternal happiness. Only in Him can we live forever in everlasting joy. Nothing and no one else can offer the same benefits which He does. For without Him we are nothing and can do nothing. 

Special mention must be made about the Catholic, and other Christian churches', inclusion of the prohibition against the making of graven images in the First Commandment. For in the understanding of the Catholic mind, they both belong to the same category of prohibitions: that of false worship which also includes the particular error of worshiping false gods.

Without knowing it, many of us unconsciously offend God through the violation of the First Commandment by various degrees and means of idolatry. Many people charge us Catholics of being idol-worshipers because of our use of images. But what they forget is that what God prohibits is making images to be adored. He did not prohibit making images per se. However, there are other ways this commandment is being violated.

This leads us to a deeper understanding of the prohibition. When we make graven images, it doesn't also mean merely making graven images literally, for we also make images and worship them through various ways and means such as in the field of politics, entertainment, economics, and yes, even in religion: don't we use the the term idol when referring to someone in these fields whom we like so much and even claim to follow as an example in our life? Whenever we give so much for someone or something [time, effort, resources, etc] in a manner which already rivals the attention that we ought to give to God alone, we already become guilty of violating the First Commandment. How many of us would show faithfulness and obedience to God when He speaks through His Church against ideas such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, divorce, euthanasia, and the like, when their proponents are popular, influential and powerful politicians, businessmen, artists, and the like? As we have mentioned in an earlier entry, it is a very convenient excuse for people that God does not talk directly to us because they can use even the Holy Bible to mislead others to believe in their wrong policies, principles and propositions. Remember how the Devil used the Scripture in an attempt to lure the Lord into submitting to him?

Many would probably say that they do not make these people their gods at all. But action speaks louder than words, isn't it? Just try asking yourself if you are not guilty of any of these: giving more time to read pocketbooks than the Bible; watching telenovelas rather than EWTN or a local Diocesan or Parish TV station; playing games rather than pray the Rosary; hearing and sharing gossip rather than share and hear the Gospel of the day; following the lives of actors and actresses rather than read about the lives of the Saints; etc. 

God demands our total and undivided attention for He has and still is giving us His total love. Now, when we say undivided attention, we do not of course mean that we should not care anymore for the things of the earth which we need to take care of like our families, our work, our duties to country, etc. But what we are saying is that even in these things we ought to put God first, that is, our family should be a founded upon God's love; our work should not lead us to sin such as corruption; our duties to country should not compel us to disregard our duties to God; etc. In times of conflict between God and anyone or anything else, we must side with God, and in this we have to say, since God is represented by the Church, we therefore ought to side with the Church.

"I am the LORD your God," says Yahweh God. Let us not be like many of the Israelites whom Moses led out of Egypt who even though God showed them many wonders still remained stubborn and unfaithful and so God did not allow them to enter the Promised Land. Instead, God waited for a new generation of Israelites to be given the opportunity of doing so. [Even Moses was not allowed to do so because he also committed a sin: when the people clamored for water, God told him to order a rock to provide water for the people but Moses struck it twice instead! see Numbers 20: 1-12]

Instead, let us be faithful New Israelites, Christians, who obey God's law not in accordance with the letter alone but especially by its spirit and give Him alone all honor, worship and adoration that is due to Him.