Why is the First Commandment First?

God

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 (Exodus 20:2-3).

Have you ever wondered why the first commandment is first? Why isn’t the commandment against stealing, adultery, or even murder listed first? The commandment against idolatry – a prohibition that to many seems to be a non-issue today – is the first commandment for good reason.

The commandment against idolatry is given its primacy among the Ten Commandments because this command is intimately linked to the Lord’s moral authority over our lives and thus is at the heart of all the commandments. Far from being irrelevant today, the sin of idolatry is real and rampant today and is deeply connected to our day-to-day moral life, and adherence to the first commandment is necessary for true growth in the spiritual life.

The Foundational Commandment

The first commandment given by God in the Old Testament has primacy because it sets the foundation for the rest of the commandments – and indeed for all of salvation history. The first commandment begins the Decalogue by providing the authority for all the commandments as well as their purpose.

The commandment begins by establishing God’s own authority and right for imposing commandments on his people: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The Lord is responsible for the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he is in fact their new King who rescued them from tyranny and saved them by his power and might. He now provides his own commandments and rules for the flourishing of his Kingdom. However, unlike in Egypt, his commandments are meant for freedom, not slavery. God has saved the Israelites from slavery and for a life of virtue in the Promised Land.

In the new covenant, this is developed even more. The Lord’s passion is also described as an exodus (see Luke 9:31). This exodus is even greater than the first; this one is meant to win our freedom from slavery to sin for an eternal life of beatitude in heaven.

This is merely the beginning of the first commandment – God’s credentials for the authority to give commandments to his people. After revealing first who God is and what he has done, the commandment continues: “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.”

There is only one God, the LORD, and there are no other gods besides him to be worshipped. As is often quipped, it is easy to get the people out of Egypt, but difficult to get Egypt out of the people. This means that although the Israelites have been removed from the land of Egypt, their habits and ways they developed have persisted – the most prominent and problematic being the worship of false gods and idols. This, of course, is seen a few chapters later in the book of Exodus when the people fall back into idolatry and worship the golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32).

The great Shema, the heart of the faith of Israel is based on the fact that there is only one God, and he alone is to be loved above all else. That is why this is the first commandment because it is so intimately tied up with who God is (the one, true God), what he has done (set the people free) and what he wants them to do (love him with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength). All the other commandments will naturally flow from this – loving God and loving others with the love of God.

The First Commandment Today

With all the talk of Egypt and idols, it might still appear unclear as to how all of this can apply to modern peoples and their everyday lives, however, the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides practical application of this commandment. There are two things that are important to look at for everyday application: the necessity of the theological virtues and the rejection of modern idols.

Faith, Hope, and Charity

In discussing the first commandment, the Catechism considers obstacles to the theological virtues because, as was mentioned above, God sets his people free from slavery (and sin) for a life of virtue. The theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity, are necessary for growth and flourishing in the spiritual life, and there is room every day to cooperate with the grace of God and grow in these virtues.

There are many obstacles that can be mentioned to these virtues, doubt is opposed to faith, despair and presumption are opposed to hope, and indifference and hatred are opposed to charity. The first commandment is about much more than rejecting Apis and Horus and Ra, it is about having faith in the God of Israel, the LORD. It is about hoping in him and trusting his promises because he has proved his fidelity over and over again. Finally, it is about charity, allowing God’s love to dwell in our souls so we might love him and love others with perfect and divine love.

Modern Idols

If this still seems too theoretical and not practical enough, one needs only to look at the many modern idols and gods the world has fashioned. We might not be tempted to worship Baal and Moloch, but anything that we put before the Lord has become an idol and a false god in our lives. Whether it be physical things like cell phones, computers, and TVs, or incorporeal things such as knowledge, fame, and honors.

Many exorcists and demonologists today teach that it is sins against the first commandment that are most responsible for demonic activity. This is because in sinning against the first commandment we remove God from his throne on our hearts and put something else, or someone else, in the King’s rightful place. Disaster is sure to follow.

Idolatry and the Spiritual Life

The fact that God, and God alone, belongs on the throne is something that St. John of the Cross discusses. In his discussions on growth in the spiritual life, he explains that ultimately all our love and devotion ought to be centered on God.  The Lord does not want our love for him to be mixed with alien loves, God alone sits on the throne of our hearts.

St. John draws on a few biblical examples to make this point clear. One example that stands out is the story of how the Philistines steal the Ark of the Covenant (the dwelling place of God) and place it in their temple beside their god, Dagon. Each day, the Philistines would enter the temple to find the statue of Dagon cast to the ground and eventually smashed to pieces. God could not exist in the temple with a false god, there are indeed no other gods beside him and the Lord often demonstrated this in miraculous ways to make this clear.

What St. John gleaned from this, and other stories, is that God has primacy in our lives. He alone should dwell in our heart; he alone should we love (and all others we should love in him). There is a real need to empty ourselves of sin and distraction and lesser loves so that we might be completely filled with the Lord and his love. To grow in the spiritual life, we must be purified of all that is not of God, cleansed of all that is opposed to him, and cast out all that draws us away from him.

Also commenting on the story of the Exodus, St. Francis de Sales makes an extremely important point that even after God freed the Israelites from Egypt, there were times in their desert wanderings that they longed to return to the land of slavery, often saying at least they were not hungry when they were enslaved. St. Francis comments that for growth in the spiritual life, and indeed for perfect obedience to the first commandment, we must not only be purged of all sins but of all attachments to sin. It is not enough to simply avoid sin, we must not even long for sin or desire it. Avoiding sin yet longing for it is likened to the Israelites walking away from slavery, yet still yearning to return for the food of Egypt. Not only must God alone sit upon the throne of our heart, but we must never desire for him to be replaced.

It is clear that the first commandment has primacy because it alone reveals who God is and what he has done, not only for the Israelites but for all of his people. The first commandment lays the foundation for all the following commandments, ordering them towards the love of God and love of neighbor.

In the Christian life, this commandment is followed by growth in the theological virtues – believing in the Lord, hoping in his promises, and loving with his love. In addition, Christians must reflect on what false gods exist in their lives, what things, peoples, and ideas have replaced the one true God on the throne of their hearts, and they must cast them out.

Finally, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de Sales show what this means for the spiritual life – we cannot mix foreign loves with the love of God. God alone is to be worshipped and to be loved, and we can only truly love others with the perfect and divine love of God. We must be purified, not only of sin which can displace God from the throne of our hearts but also of all inclinations and attachments to sin. God has drawn us out of slavery to sin, our response is to worship him with all our hearts.

 

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3 thoughts on “Why is the First Commandment First?”

  1. Pingback: Delving Into The First Commandment’s Deeper Meanings + Genuflect

  2. Pingback: FRIDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit

  3. Also, in the New Testament, Christ provides us with our freedom from being slaves to our impulses. This is not possible without latria entrustment to Christ because this grace flows into us through His Spirit within us.
    Inner peace and temperance are fruits of the Spirit (cf. Galatians 5:16-26).

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