This is probably the most widely understood and spoken on of the commandments. Jesus placed it as one of the two parallel commandments that are to determine our actions in life, and declared that the whole of the Law and the Prophets depended upon this very thought, which we see echoed in Jeremiah. The ramifications are clear. Nothing - absolutely nothing - is to have a higher place in our attention than God has. Nothing - absolutely nothing - is to have that degree of sacrifice and devotion which God is to have.

We know this, we understand this, and yet… How many idols do we create in our lives? How many things do we allow to crowd out our time with our Lord? Work, house, family, church, education, sports, causes. None of these things are bad things, any more than the Law itself is a bad thing. Yet all of these, like the Law, present a potential base of operations to sin, as they all present to our minds one more thing that can distract us from our proper worship. We all know that God wants all of us. We all know that He is not offended when we are involved in good things. We all know that a good thing pushed to extremes becomes a bad thing. And yet we do it all the time.

"You can't have too much of a good thing" may be one of the biggest lies of our time. Of course you can. There's only one good thing you can't have too much of, and that's God. He's got to be the priority, the focus, the director and finisher of all we are and all we do. God, help us to make it so in our lives.

The commandment echoed

Dt 6:5

12 Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. 13 But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim 14--for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God-- 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice; 16 and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

We must utterly destroy the very possibility of outside influences that would poison our devoted service to God. We cannot afford to share God and some other. It's not just our own soul at stake, it's the souls of our children, who will follow our example far better than they follow our words. We must set the example! What will it take for this to become a matter of greater concern to us than death? We have lost the will to martyrdom in our comfortable age. We are more concerned with living to a good old age than in living in faithfulness to our God!

As we noted before, this is one of the two foundational commandments of God's declared will for man. Serve no other, and don't fail to serve Him who made you.

The danger shown real

2Ki 17:28-35

28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. 29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived. 30 And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the LORD and appointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places. 33 They feared the LORD and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.

34 To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel; 35 with whom the LORD made a covenant and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.

Succoth-benoth

The mistress of Marduk, served by 'temple' prostitution

Nergal

a god of war and hunting

Ashima

worshiped in the form of a hairless goat

Nibhaz

dog-worship

Tartak

god of the underworld

Adrammelech

sun-god - still present in some forms of devil-worship in the 18th century.

Anammelech

moon-goddess - partner of the above. (later references to Moloch may come back to this pair)

Israel had been tasked with cleansing the lands of such gods as these, and had not only failed to do so, but had fallen into serving them, even as God had warned would happen. This led to the punishing exile to Babylon, and that exile, in turn led to a new pollution in the land. These new gods were if anything worse than had been there before. Prostitution and child sacrifice were now sharing the land God had chosen for His people. We can only wonder what might have been, had Israel held true to this one command of God. We can only shudder to think what may result from our own failure.

This ought to be a strong encouragement to us to do our utmost to not only put away, but put to destruction, anything that seeks to draw our attention away from wholeheartedly serving God. It may seem innocent enough to us, but we don't know the whole picture as God does. We don't know what darkness may come of our acceptance of less than God.

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!'" 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' 5 "For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

8 "Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9 "Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say,' We are delivered!'-- that you may do all these abominations? 11 "Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the LORD.

12 "But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

We must be careful not to fall into this same trap. We know ourselves to be the temple of God, we know ourselves delivered from the power of sin. Yet, God has shown over and over again that He will not tolerate the abuse of His good name. He will not tolerate those that would use His mercy as an excuse to continue in sins.

8 "And many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?' 9 "Then they will answer, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.'"

God will not be mocked.

Contrasting examples

21 And on an appointed day Herod, having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and began delivering an address to them. 22 And the people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

By contrast, the apostles, the disciples, the angels are ever careful not to take one bit of God's glory away from Him. When others attempt to glorify them, they are quick to turn the praise back to its proper place.

From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

• "The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.
• "The first commandment forbids the denying, or not worshipping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.
• "These words, before me, in the first commandment teach us, that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God."

From Calvin's Institutes:

God alone is to be the authority for His people. Nothing of His is to be transferred to another. Those things that are His are our adoration, our worshipful submission to His greatness; our trust and assurance which arise from recognizing Him as all wisdom, righteousness, truth, and goodness, and power; our calling upon Him as our only support in time of need; and our thanksgiving for all good things. These are to be His and His alone. Not only are these things to be kept from any other, but the are to remain His.

It gains us nothing to cease from all gods. Our worship, trust, calling and thanks must be to the One true God, "For it is unlawful to take away even a particle from His glory." Nor is there a place for personal inventions, here. All that we do is before His face. When we set up our own creations for worship, it is done in His sight, provoking Him to jealousy, even as an adulteress bringing her consort into the home of her husband. Even our thoughts ought be kept pure if we are to expect God's approval.

Conclusions

God's law is an expression of what God is. God is righteousness. The Law is the description of righteousness. God cannot change, therefore the description of God cannot change, the Law cannot change. What is right is right because God is God. Throughout history, He has been seeking a people that will live according to this revelation of what He is. He seeks a people whose actions reveal His Law upon their hearts. Why? For the very simple reason that this is the only way people will be able to see what God's character is like. We are called to witness to the fact the God alone is worthy. If our actions don't proclaim the glory of God, what use will our words be?

What does it mean to have no other god? It means that we do all we can to know what the true God desires from us. It means that we do all we can to give Him all that He is worthy of. It means we will take great care not to take away from Him anything that is His by right. It means that in all things we will look to Him, whether for help or as the one to receive our thanks. It means we will submit to Him absolutely, and that we will not submit to any other in any degree. It means we will do all that is within our power to destroy anything and everything that seeks to take us from attentively serving Him. It means being a living sacrifice. (Ro 12:1-2)