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Minister's Corner
- There is a story of a family who had a statue of Jesus in their home. The father bought the statue and brought it home one day and placed it on the table in the living room. A few weeks later, the wife moved the statue to another room in the house. A couple weeks after that, the family moved it to another room. Finally, the statue of Jesus was moved to a back bedroom.
The little girl in the family said, “Dad, we keep moving Jesus further and further away, don’t we?”
We are doing a study together on the Ten Commandments. In last week’s column, we noted that the reason God gave the Ten Commandments was to show us how sinful we are and how far short we fall of God’s standards of righteousness.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
The Ten Commandments were never given as a means of salvation, but to show us our great need of salvation. We also noted the misconceptions many have about the Ten Commandments. Some believe they are to be saved. Some believe they were only for the nation of Israel. And still others believe that the Ten Commandments are no longer for us today, because Jesus and the New Testament did away with them.
We noted that none of these views are consistent with what the Bible teaches about the Ten Commandments.
Now we come to the first Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3).
To understand the meaning of this first Commandment, one must first understand the prologue to the Commandments that is found in Exodus 20:2, where God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage.”
God reveals Himself as the Lord their God, and shows that He has the right to be Law-Giver.
The word for “Lord” in Hebrew is “Jehovah.” This word means that God is sovereign. This means that God is in full control of all things. It means that God is self-sufficient. He does not need anything or anybody. It means God has all power. It also means that He is eternal. God has no end. He lives forever.
This also teaches us that God made everything, is in full control of everything, and has full ownership of everything.
Psalm 89:11 says, “The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; the world and all its fullness, You have created them.”
The reason we need to understand this prologue is because it teaches us that Jehovah God is the ultimate authority and He is the only one who has the right to make Commandments and to decide what is right and what is wrong.
The first Commandment says we are to have no other gods before God. In those days, the other nations worshipped many gods. There was the sun god, the Egyptian Nile god, and the Egyptian goddess with the head of a cow, to name a few.
In Psalm 86:8, the Bible says “... there is none like You among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like Yours.”
Because God is greater than anything, including all other gods, He alone is worthy of our worship. Another god could best be defined as anything that takes the glory, honor, time, talents, and worship that is due only to the one true God.
Because God created us, He has the right to have first place in our lives. Another god is any created thing that we treasure more than the Creator. If there is anything or anyone more important to you than God, then you have another god.
There are many things that could be considered gods in our day. There is the god of money. If we take money or wealth and place it before God in our lives, then we are guilty of breaking this Commandment. If we pursue wealth more than we pursue God, we have broken this Commandment.
Do your money or possessions come before God in your life?
There is also the god of pleasure. This could be in the form of sex, food, entertainment or hobbies. If any of these things come before God in our lives, then we have broken the first Commandment.
If we try to meet our needs in any of these areas of pleasure outside of God’s way of meeting them, we have broken this Commandment.
There is also the god of education and success. If we place our education and desires for success before God, we have broken this first Commandment. Education is a good thing, but if it becomes more important to us than God, we are guilty of breaking this Commandment.
There is a wise saying that really sums up the meaning of this Commandment: “A good thing can become a bad thing if it comes before or replaces the best thing.”
While there are many more gods of our age, the last one that covers them all is the god of self. It is very possible that we make a god of ourselves. When we put our desires, our interests, and our ambitions before God and His will for our lives, then we have bowed down before ourselves!
In a sense, we say, “God, my life belongs to me and I have a right to govern it, and I am going to do what I want to do when I want to do it.” While we may not say it like that, often our lives show that.
One wise preacher said if he could just take a look at a person’s checkbook and day planner, he could tell them what or who their god is.
Are we guilty of what that little girl said? Do our lives show that we move Jesus and God further and further away, or replace Him with other things? If there is anything or anyone more important to us than Jehovah God, then we have broken this Commandment.
Please notice a very important word in the prologue found in Exodus 20:2. It is “your.”
God said to the nation of Israel, “I am the Lord your God.”
God’s desire is that we be a part of His family even though we have broken His Commandments. He created us to glorify Him. His desire is that we be fully satisfied with Him and Him alone. But we have turned from Him in order to live our own lives.
The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
The “Him” in that verse is Jesus. Jesus took all of our sins, even our breaking of the first Commandment (which this verse in Isaiah tells us we all have). Jesus bore them in His own body on the cross. He gave His life for our sins, so that we could be restored and forgiven.
In every article I write, I always offer an invitation for you, the reader, to come to Christ for forgiveness and eternal life. This week is no different. If you will tell Him that you are sorry for your sins, and that you believe He died and rose again for you, He will save you.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 885-0516 or at preacherkenny1@juno.com. Everyone is invited to attend our Ten Commandments Study on Sundays at 10:45 a.m. and at 6 p.m.
The Rev. Kenny Coker Jr. is pastor of New Heart Baptist Church, which meets at the Thomasville Inn conference room, 407 National Highway.
(March 25)