The First Commandment

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6 NIV)

When I was a young boy taking my religion classes in school, we studied and "memorized" the list of ten commandments.  The first commandment went something like this:

"I am the LORD your God.  You shall have no other gods before me."

I knew this was the official commandment in the Bible, because we paid such great attention to detail.  The word "LORD" was in all capital letters just like in the Bible.  The word "God" was capitalized when talking about the real God and was in lower case when talking about false gods.  Plus, who uses words like "shall" anymore.

Later on, when Traci and I started working as volunteers in children's ministry together, we found ourselves teaching the ten commandments to the children as well.  We used the "abbreviated" version for the younger audience, knowing this would communicated better with them.  "Don't worship idols."  Yep, they understood that and memorized it pretty well.

Now that I look at the list again, though, I find myself a bit dumbfounded at the length of this command.  It isn't the little children's version.  It's not even the religion-class "official" version I thought I had learned.  It's the actual command in the actual Bible that actually was carved in stone.  Do me a favor right now.  Scroll up to the top and read the entire command, then come back to this spot.  Go ahead.  I can wait.

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Think about that command a moment.

What would your life be like if you really followed it?

What would your relationship with God be like?

How would it simplify things?

What would you be passing on to your children and your children's children?

How about we start today....

...putting God first.