commandments Archives

The 1st Commandment

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their ancestors’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation, but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:1-6

We are the apple of his eye

God has, in one way or another, brought us all out of slavery, just as he did the Israelites. His love for us knows no bounds. And when we put him first, he gives us unending mercy.

In chapter 32 of Deuteronomy Moses recounts all God has done and in verse 10 says, “He found them in a wilderness, a wasteland of howling desert. He shielded them, cared for them, guarded them as the apple of his eye.”

We are his children

Not only did God give us Jesus for our salvation, we are his adopted children. John reminds us of that, ” See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” 1 John 3:1-2.

Read the 1st commandment and consider if you have things or people or activities that come before God. Do you want to change that? How could you do that?