1st Commandment

"You Shall Have No Other Gods" - Deuteronomy 5:6-6:12

What is the First Commandment?

God began the 10 Commandments this way: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2-3).

The Bible is clear concerning the basis of our relationship with God. First of all, He is our Creator! The Bible affirms that our Maker is both living and real—the one and only true God. “But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King” (Jeremiah 10:10). The relationship that God wants with us is that of children with their Father. “I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).

The God of the Bible is to be number one in each of our lives. If we choose to make anything or anyone more important than Him, we have created a false god to worship.?God has created in each of our hearts a void that can only be filled by a personal relationship with Him. Only the God of the Bible is the One True Living God and only He is worthy of our worship and our praise. We should love, honor, and respect Him so much that He alone is the supreme authority and model in our lives. We should allow nothing to come before Him and prevent us from serving and obeying Him.

Satan’s chief weapon is deception—he would rather you?believe?a wrong thing than?do?a wrong thing. Most people, no longer believe in absolute truth. But there is a God, and that God has given us Ten Commandments— “that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged” (Deuteronomy 6:2).

What Is the First Commandment? - Deuteronomy 5:6-7

I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.?(See also?Exodus 20:3.)

The great revelation in?Exodus 20:3,?Deuteronomy 5:7, and?6:4?is that?there is one Lord—and not simply the God of your choice.

How Do We Know There Is a God?

Scripture Declares God

"The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1).

We are not here to prove God. A man who denies facts is a fool, and a man who denies the supreme fact is the supreme fool. The Bible simply states, “In the beginning, God.” (See?Genesis 1:1.)

Creation Declares God

“Laws of science” are the laws of God in Creation, which science has discovered.

Faith Discovers God

The atheist is a believer—he believes, by faith, that there is no God. We believe by faith that there?is?a God, but also with evidence—we have creation, and the witness of God to our hearts. God created you so that when your heart is right, you will respond to the fact of God like your eye responds to light. The matter is not in your head but in your heart. (See?Psalm 14:1.)

How to Put God First in Your Family

Deuteronomy 6:6-7,12

These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall?teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down, and when you rise up….then?beware, lest you forget the LORD?who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.?(Emphasis added.)

We complain that the Ten Commandments are not posted in public places today. How many of us have them posted in our homes??Fathers, it is your responsibility?to see that these commandments are handed down. It is not the responsibility of the school or the government.

Putting God First in Your Life

What should be our response to the revelation that there is one God?

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

Put God First in Your Heart

Jesus spoke of people who “draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).

Do you know what your children need to see in your home? A passionate, emotional sincerity when it comes to the things of God. It is largely the phoniness of parents that turns kids off to the things of God.

Put God First in Everything You Do

Your soul is yourself. Your?total?self needs to be given over to God. There must be no area in your life that is off-limits to God. How are you going to teach your children that there is one Lord? They are to see in you that one,?strong?love. God is talking about whatever strength you have—physical, emotional, financial, intellectual.

Here is how to measure your home: look at your calendar and your bank account. Where are you putting your time and your money?

How to Teach the Ten Commandments to Your Children

The Ten Commandments are not suggestions or voluntary initiatives. Your home is to be a law school, to teach the law of God. The professors are to be mom and dad, but the emphasis is on the father (Deuteronomy 6:2).?The father is God’s chosen person to lend stability, character, and strength to the home.

Begin teaching your children?early. (See?Isaiah 28:9-10.)

Be Convincing

“These words which I command you today shall be in your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). If you don’t believe and practice it, you will never teach it. Don’t send your children to a Christian school and think you have done your duty.

It must be in?your?heart. You will teach it convincingly because you are convinced.

Be Creative

“You shall teach them diligently…when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). Teach them with Bible reading, Bible stories, Bible games, Bible memorization, and Christian books.

Use some incentive—it is not a bribe, it is a reward. A bribe is an inducement to do evil, but a reward is recognition for doing good. God rewards; parents should reward.

Be Consistent

Teach?diligently. “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10). Don’t think, “Well I told them that. What’s next?”

Be Conversational

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say…” (Deuteronomy 6:20). When the curiosity factor is high, answer. This doesn’t have to be dull.

Be Conspicuous

“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8).

By “between your eyes”, God means that?what you think?must be controlled by the Word of God. “As a sign on your hand” shows that?what you do?must be controlled by the Word of God.

Then He said, “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9). Hang up the Ten Commandments in your office, in your living room, in your children’s bedrooms.

Love God, and Love His Law

Above all, teach compellingly. Teach the Word of God in a way that your boys and girls?know?that you believe what you believe. Don’t say it won’t work if you have not tried it.

The Ten Commandments are God’s laws for living, and God’s laws are not for our punishment, but for our welfare. Every time God says, “Thou shalt,” He is saying, “Help yourself to happiness.” Every time He says, “Thou shalt not,” He Is saying, “Don’t harm yourself.”

List of Scriptures Referenced in this Article

Exodus 20:3;?Deuteronomy 5:6-21,?6:1-12;?Psalm 14:1;?Genesis 1:1;?Matthew 15:8;?Isaiah 28:9-10

Mark 12:29-30- Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”

Isaiah 46:9- "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,"

Exodus 34:14- "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God…"

?The First Commandment sets the tone for the first four commandments, which can be summarized as, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus Christ called this summation the great commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).