No Other Gods – The Ten Commandments Part 2.
The commandment to have no other gods is part of western culture. But is it still relevant today? Stephen March explores the 10 Commandments.
No Other Gods
In part one of our series on the ten commandments, I gave a brief overview on the entirety of the commands, their original purpose, and their significance for life today. In this installment, I’d like to start looking at the individual commandments starting of course with number one.
The biblical text for this commandment, first appears in Exodus 20:3,
“You shall have no other gods before me”
or sometimes translated as no other gods besides me. There really isn’t any hidden interpretation here. God is simply saying that He is the one true God of the universe, so don’t follow after or believe in any other God. Now of course, this is a faith matter, first and foremost. You either believe that the God of the Bible is true God or don’t. And let’s face it, just about every religion, every faith that exists claims the same thing about their own deity. So, why is this commandment important for the person that isn’t a believer in the Christian God.
Two Verses From the New Testament
I’m going to give two verses from the New Testament, that go hand in hand with this commandment. To understand the context, I’ll first give a reminder of what the Bible teaches about what we call the gospel, or good news. That is, that God sent His Son Jesus, who was fully God, which itself is a mystery that is hard to explain but is what the Bible teaches. God sent Jesus to pay the penalty for the sin of all mankind. Jesus did that by dying on the cross for us, and rising again from the dead. The promise of God is that anyone who believes in Jesus, in who he is and what he has done, will be forgiven, saved from the penalty of their sin, and have everlasting life with God in heaven.
Here are those two verses, the first is John, chapter 14, verse six, Jesus himself says:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”
The other, very much like this one, comes from the book of Acts, chapter 4:11-12,
“This Jesus, is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Both of these verses convey the same message, that without Jesus, the Son of God, we have no hope of heaven, and everlasting life. Therefore, way back in the book of Exodus, when God says we are not to have any other gods besides Him, it wasn’t because He was greedy for the love and attention of mankind, it was because He knew that anything else we follow, any other god, or earthly passion, is unable to save us from our sin, or provide a path to salvation. When we consider God’s desire for man, that he doesn’t want anyone to perish, but that all would be saved, we see that this first commandment reinforces that desire. God is saying trust in me, and me only, because I will save you.
A Command of Critical Importance
So, for the person who doesn’t believe in Jesus, this first command is of critical importance. The Bible teaches that there will come a day of reckoning for all people, when sin will be judged by a holy and righteous God. If our faith is in Christ, then our sin has already been judged, but anyone who has not had their sin dealt with must face the penalty for it, which is described as eternal separation from God in the lake of fire, a place of eternal torment, from which, at that point, there is no escape.
God gave us this first command, because he wants us to realize that whatever else we might be following, whether the god of another religion, atheism, maybe just earthly pleasures, or even our own good works, whatever it is we are trusting in to get us through this life, it cannot save us, it cannot take away our sin, only Jesus, the Son of God, can do that. These are not self-serving commands that God gave to us for His benefit, every one of the ten commandments was for our benefit, and for our well-being.
The “No Brainer” Command
Now, for the believer, that is for the person who is trusting in Jesus for salvation, this command might seem like a no-brainer. We already have no other gods, or do we? Normally we consider this to be in regards to the deities of other faiths, those that people from other religions worship. But let’s take a look at Matthew chapter 6. Here, the Lord Jesus is going through a number of items in what is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 6:19-24 he speaks of the relationship were are to have, or better said, not have, with money and possessions.
In verse 21, he makes the statement
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Later in verse 24 he adds
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
It is important to remember that the word “hate” in this context does not carry the same connotation that is does in our culture today. It does not necessarily mean that we will strongly, or with hostility, dislike one of the masters. It more accurately means that we will love one less, or in this specific usage, that we will choose one over the other. In other words, money, things, careers, fame, pastimes, lots of things that we normally wouldn’t consider to be gods, can become like them when we start devoting too much time, attention and resources toward them, and less toward the one true God.
Undivided Allegiance
With this first command, God is demanding our undivided allegiance to Him, but again, it is because he knows what is best for us. The sad story of King Solomon gives us a great example of how easily and quickly we can get distracted, and even drawn away by the things of this world. Solomon started off well. In 1 Kings 3:3 it says “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David, his father.”
By chapter 11:4, we read
“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not true to the Lord his God”,
then in verse 6
“So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not wholly follow the Lord.” Wealth, power and lust became Solomon’s gods, and they led him astray.
In 1 John 2:16-17 it says
“For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions, is not from the Father but from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
And this is not to say that money and stuff is necessarily bad, the Bible doesn’t tell us we are not to have these things, some of it we are to avoid, but much of it really is amoral in nature. But it’s not to be sought after, its not to be the main goal of our lives, or the source of our pride and identity. That’s God’s place. It is God and His will for us that should be sought after, it’s Jesus that should be our identity. Will you be known as the person with the cool car, fancy house, or big bank account, or will you be the one that lives a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, just like Jesus did.
God Will Provide What We Need
A lot of the things we busy ourselves with are amoral in nature and then what we do with it can be either moral or immoral. We can use some of the things of this life to do the Lord’s work, but it can be easy to get into that mindset where we say, if I only had this or that, I would be able to do more for the Lord. But I will say this, God will provide what we need, and if it is His will for us to do more for Him He will equip us, we don’t have to worry about that. I will also say that it is very easy for a ministry to become derailed from their mission, by chasing after the things they don’t have, more money for example, and very easily the main focus will shift to trying to get that which we think we need, rather than doing the work we’ve been called to do. We just need to trust in God.
If we read the preceding verse to this commandment, we find this;
“And God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”
Ever notice how the Israelites never planned for their journey? They never opened bank accounts and saved their money, they didn’t rush out and purchase more camels, donkeys or horses, they just trusted God, and He delivered them.
God Continues to Provide For His People
God has always provided for His people, and he continues to do so. It starts with salvation, freedom from the penalty of our sin, and he continues to give us everything we need to live a godly life here on earth, until that day when He will bring us in to the eternal glory of His presence. No other god can do that for us.
Do you think the 10 Commandments are still important today? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Stephen March
Stephen March is the President of FBH International and HopeStreamRadio. He graduated from the Broadcasting Program at Niagara College in 2001, and has previously worked in television production and post-production. Stephen lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with his wife Corinne and their four children.
Read and hear more from Stephen March on his contributor’s page. Stephen currently has 5 Programs on HopeStreamRadio:
- Please Forgive Me
- Isolation Chronicles
- Faith By Hearing – The Twelve
- Bibles and Baseball
- Bible Tech Talk
More Podcasts Below:
More Blogs
Why Did Jesus Say “I Am the Bread of Life
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Poppies – RoonZ-NL
St.Catharines Monastery, Mt. Sinai – Makalu
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