Nonconformist Chronicles

The First Commandment and American Idols

The first of God's Ten Commandments is "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Does this mean that it's okay to have other gods so long as we remember that Yahweh is top God? Is this a command to keep Yahweh first in rank--as with Zeus in the pantheon?

The command does not mean that Yahweh just wants to be top God, but that we are to affirm him as the only God. The Hebrew word translated "before" can be translated "against" or "beside." There are no other gods next to Yahweh. So God is actually saying that we are to have no other gods "in addition to" him.

Yahweh alone is God. He speaks his proper name in Exodus 20, distinguishing himself from all other gods. He has no divine associates. He is not the chairman on a board of deities. Yahweh alone is God.

So this command obviously prohibits idolatry. But that was an ancient problem, right? We're certainly too sophisticated to bow down to a statue. Is idolatry a problem today, in our modern society?

Not only have recent decades brought an influx of world religions and philosophies to our shores, but there are subtler forms of idolatry. Your God is whatever or whomever has top priority in your life. Your God can be identified by asking two questions: "How do you spend you time?" and "What do you do with your money?"

An idol is whatever we prioritize ahead of God. Among the most popular American idols are materialism, workaholism, entertainment, sex, family, politics, and sports addiction. Within this list are things in which many people place their trust or devote their free time. A good percentage of one's income may go into some of these categories. On this list are categories that quite often distract from a deeper commitment to church.

Idolatry is not just bowing down to a statue. Idolatry is loving or putting trust in something, or someone, above God. It is being preoccupied with anything above the Lord.

While the Ten Commandments are the foundation of all morality, the first commandment is first because it's the foundation of all the others. Rick Atchley has pointed out that "as our society's belief in God as Creator has declined, murder has become epidemic" (Sinai Summit, p. 139). This could also be said in regard to rampant violation of the other commandments. Have not adultery, theft, and rebellion against parents also reached epidemic proportions? Is it mere coincidence that as American society becomes more secular these sins become more prevalent?

People can't be consistently moral while disregarding the command to put God first. Any attempt at morality without God will be subjective and inconsistent---subject to change with the whims of a self-indulgent society. The standard for determining what is moral will be left to fallible humans who will never come to a concensus.

True morality must be grounded in a relationship with God. So as a prelude to the Ten Commandments, God says, "I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out of Egypt" (Exodus 20:2). So the commands are given in the context of a relationship---a covenant relationship with the God who redeemed his people. The relationship is established on the initiative of divine grace.

People won't be motivated to obey God until they are persuaded of his offer to extend merciful loving-kindness. Rules mean nothing apart from the context of relationship. So the gospel proclamation doesn't begin with what we must do, but with the announcement of what God has done for us in Christ. Transformation occurs, not as a mere attempt at adhering to the rules, but on the basis of entering a relationship. Only then do the rules start to make sense.         

Are the Ten Commandments Outdated?

Recent court battles have been waged over whether the Ten Commandments should be displayed on government property. Some Christians have dismissed the controversy as irrelevant, insisting that as Christians we're not under the "old law" anyway. So why be concerned about the legal code of a so-called former dispensation?

But the secularist agenda for retiring the Ten Commandments has nothing to do with our in-house dispensationalist controversies. Nor is the real agenda primarily a concern for separation of church and state. But the secularist agenda is the creation of a thoroughly secular America. This necessitates the removal of the Ten Commandments for they are the foundation of all morality.

Now is not the time (if there ever was one) for Christians to speak disparagingly of the Ten Commandments. They were not nailed to the cross. The indictment that accuses us as law-breakers is what was nailed to the cross. The Ten Commandments have perpetual abiding validity. The principles stated therein were in force before the Law of Moses and they are in force now.

These timeless principles served as a preamble to the law given at Sinai. These principles are explicated in the specific legislation that follows in Exodus 20:22 through Leviticus. These ten principles are of such foundational significance that they're the only part of the law that God spoke audibly to the assembly of Israel (Exodus 20:1). The Ten Commandments are truly the foundation of all morality.

Their timeless nature is evident when Paul speaks of the righteous requirements of the law being fully met in us (Romans 8:4). It is this law that Paul later summarizes as the rule of love (Romans 13:9-10).

So the Ten Commandments are not only foundational, but they are relational. The first four address love for God and the last six address love for neighbor. The commands are given in the context of a narrative concerning God's love for people. We love because he first loved us. God's use of his proper name, Yahweh, indicates that he does not command impersonal compliance with a generic god, but Israel's ethics grow out of a relationship with the God who reveals himself by name.

Prior to receiving the law, Israel is reminded of how Yahweh delivered them from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 20:2). This shows how grace always precedes law. Israel did not earn God's favor by law-keeping, but the law was given to a people already favored.

Law and grace are not mutually exclusive, but the giving of the law was itself an act of grace on the part of Yahweh. A community living by God's law is a community blessed with an increasing measure of peace and tranquility. Imagine a community that takes worship seriously and resists such temptations as adultery and thievery. Where God's law is embraced so is his shalom--the Hebrew word for peace, whose varied nuances include reconciliation, physical well-being, contentment, etc. But shalom is largely elusive in a secularist society.

The purpose of this post is not to argue for or against the public display of the Ten Commandments. It is a call for Christ-followers to affirm the primacy of these commands in our lives and worship. Should Christians care about the Ten Commandments? Absolutely!