That there is a close relation between obedience and spiritual vision is evident from the statement, "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he." (Proverbs 29:18) The same is indicated by the prayer of the psalmist, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." (Psalms 119:18)
Spiritual vision illuminates the law, and obedience to the law increases spiritual vision until its revelations are wonderful. Viewing the decalogue under the magnifying glass of spiritual vision convinces us that it is so "exceeding broad" that it embraces "the whole duty of man," and that on the two tables which set forth man's duties to his Creator and to his fellow men "hang all the law and the prophets."
The law is indeed a summary of divine revelation. It is the Bible in miniature. Jesus came into the world to "magnify the law," and to "make it honorable," and it is through His teachings that our eyes are open to its spiritual import. The gospel always magnifies rather than nullifies the law. "Do we then make void the law through faith?" asked the apostle Paul. He then answered, "God forbid: yea, we establish the law." (Romans 3:31)
Divisions of the Law
The decalogue was divinely divided into two parts, as indicated by the two tables of stone on which it was written by the finger of God. The purpose of this division is clear. The first table, with its four commandments, regulates man's duty to his Creator. The person who loves God with supreme affection will observe these precepts. The second table, with its six commandments, regulates man's duties toward his fellow men. If we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we will naturally observe these commandments.
The law is also divided into ten separate precepts. (Deuteronomy 4:13) It is for this reason that the law is called "the decalogue." Deca indicates ten, and logos means words. It is the ten words or laws. There has been a difference of opinion as to the identity of some of the ten. The Jews generally count the preface as the first commandment and unite the commands against idolatry and image worship. The Roman Catholics and the Lutherans make one command out of what is usually known as the first two and divide the command against covetousness, following the custom of Augustine. Protestants in general use the division adopted by the Greek and Reformed churches. This division was accepted by Josephus, Philo, Origen, the Protestant Reformers, and most of the modern Bible students.
The First Commandment
"I am the Lord thy God. ... Thou shall have no other gods before Me," or "beside Me' (Revised Version), is the first of the Ten Commandments. In this precept the Lord proclaims Himself the true God. He is therefore the one true object of worship. Pagan Rome would gladly have accepted Jesus Christ as one of their many gods, but they were unwilling to acknowledge Him as the Son of the one and only true Deity. It is even difficult for many who claim to worship the true and living God to sing from the heart the closing stanza from William Cowper's beautiful hymn, "O, for a Closer Walk":
"The dearest idol I have known,
What ever that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee."
At the time of the giving of the law the Lord had just demonstrated His supreme power over all other gods by a series of mighty miracles in the deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage, and He prefaced His commands by reminding Israel of that great fact: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shall have no other gods before Me."
The revelation to man of the one true and eternal God, who alone deserves worship and divine honors, is the first and most important of all the articles of the Christian faith. To reveal to man the true and ever-living God is the whole purpose of the Scriptures, the gospel, and the first advent of the Son of God.
Summary of the Law
Just as the decalogue is the summary of the Scriptures, the first commandment is the summary of the whole law. In principle it prohibits all kinds of idolatry and everything in the nature of false worship. Jesus gave a summary of man's whole duty when He said to the tempter who offered Him the dominion of the world for an act of worship, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve." (Matthew 4:10)
It was idolatry, or false worship, that excluded man from Paradise, and the passport to Paradise restored is the worship of and obedience to the only true God. 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Revelation 22:14)
Because He is the Creator, the supreme right of the Lord in this world is the recognition of His sovereignty and the reverent obedience of His subjects. The first and greatest of all the obligations of man is to his Creator, in whom "we live, and move, and have our being." In the first commandment, therefore, is the foundation of the whole law, the basis of all the commands that follow.
The decalogue, like the Lord's prayer, begins at the place of all beginnings with God. That is where the Bible begins" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The New Testament begins at the same place: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) The Gospel of John is just as truly the beginning of the New Testament as is the book of Matthew.
There is no other place to begin, but with God. Jesus declared Himself to be the "first," the "Alpha," the "beginning," and "the beginning of the creation of God." On the banks of the Jordan, Moses repeated the first commandment in the words, "Hear, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deuteronomy 6:4)
He then added, "And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Verse 5) It was in these words that Jesus summed up the first table of the decalogue. (See Matthew 22:36-38)
The apostle Paul declared that "we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)
Evidence of Divinity
The Lord does not leave us without proof of His divinity and supremacy over all other gods. He issues two challenges to false gods, which they are unable to meet. The first and greatest evidence of Deity is the power to create, and Jehovah challenges all other gods to prove their right to be worshiped by exhibiting the power of creation. (See Psalms 95:3,5,6; 96:8-10; 86:8-10; Isaiah 45:18-22; Jeremiah 10:10-15)
It is because Jehovah is the Creator that the sinless inhabitants of heaven worship Him. In vision the revelator saw these creatures "fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou has created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." (Revelation 4:10,11) There is no other true basis of worship. No created being has a right to worship or receive worship from another creature. Since no creature has creative power, the Creator alone is the true and only God.
The Lord also issues another challenge to false gods as a proof of His divinity and the right to command and receive worship, namely, His ability to see and foretell the future. (Isaiah 41:21-24; 48:3-6) Only the members of the Godhead can foresee and forecast future events. All prophecy originates with the Father, and is revealed to man by the Son through the agencies of the Holy Spirit, the angels, and the prophets. (See 1 Peter 1:10,11; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Revelation 1:1)
The angel Gabriel, the most exalted creature in the heavenly host, refused to receive worship from the prophet John, because he himself was likewise a creature. He told him to "worship God." (Revelation 19:10) Paul and Barnabas indignantly refused worship and divine honors from the people of Lystra because of a miracle they had performed in their midst. "They rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." (Acts 14:14,15) In accepting worship, Satan or any of his followers exalt themselves to the place of God.
Polytheism Condemned
The first command is a condemnation of, and a warning against, polytheism, or the worship of many gods. "There be gods many, and lords many," said Paul. It has been estimated that the Greeks worshiped thirty thousand gods. The Babylonians "praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone." (Daniel 5:4) The gods of the Egyptians were almost innumerable. The Romans had so many gods that in the city of Rome they built a temple called the Pantheon, or the temple of all the gods. They were so numerous that the priests of the temple could not name or enumerate them all. Modern India is said to have more than 330,000,000 gods, and they are almost as numerous in China. The Israelites had just been delivered from a nation where polytheism and pantheism reigned supreme, and from which the Jews were never completely delivered till after their return from Babylonian captivity. The Promised Land was filled with nations that were polytheistic in their worship, and whose gods became a snare to the children of Israel. Polytheism is the religion of the vast majority of the inhabitants of the modern world, and the first commandment of the decalogue is just as applicable and up to date as when given thirty-five hundred years ago. The law of God is universal. It belongs to the whole human race in all ages. Even in countries where idols or graven images are no longer worshiped as such, gods in other forms constitute an idolatry no less displeasing to Jehovah.
Idolatry Defined
The apostle Paul defines idolatry as the exchanging of "the truth of God for a lie" and the worshiping and serving of "the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25, R.V.), or "more than the Creator." "They had bartered the reality of God for what is unreal, and had offered divine honors and religious service to created things, rather than to the Creator," is the Weymouth translation. In other words idolatry in its broad meaning is false worship of every kind. Any object of adoration and worship that takes the place of God or comes between us and God is an idol.
Creature worship is just as popular and universal now as when paganism reigned supreme. It began at the dawn of human history when man first sinned. Adam set up an idol in his heart when he served and obeyed Satan instead of the Creator by eating of the forbidden fruit. That was the beginning of idolatry and false worship in the earth. Self and Satan took the place of God. Creature worship supplanted Creator worship.
Idolatry in many forms became prevalent among the descendants of Adam and Eve. It was the great sin of the antediluvian world. It was reintroduced after the deluge by the great rebel Nimrod. Babylon became the cradle of an idolatrous and spurious worship that has come down to modern times. The counterfeit religion of Satan is still divinely called "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abomination of the Earth." (Revelation 17:5)
Modern Idolatry
For the vast majority of earth's inhabitants there has been no change in the forms of pagan idolatry. The same gods without change even in names are being worshiped in heathen and pagan lands. In countries influenced by the gospel the old gods are still present but in different forms and under new names. The only graven images known to many of us are those seen in museums or exhibited by missionaries returned from heathen lands. There is not the least danger of our worshiping images in these forms of gross idolatry, but the devil is cunning and deceptive. He has hidden the identity of the old gods in new and more attractive garments, and they are worshiped with as much fervor and devotion as were the gods in days of yore.
The instinct to worship was divinely planted in human nature. It is not even necessary to command worship, for all races of mankind, whether their civilization be high or low, have had deities and forms of worship. Voltaire declared that "if there were no God, it would be necessary to invent Him." And Theodore Parker truthfully said, "Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. If he worship not the true God, he will have his idols." Job recognized the universal instinct to worship and the inherent principle of idolatry in fallen man when he said, "If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence. If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also was an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for 1 should have denied the God that is above." (Job 31:24-28)
In this text gold and wealth in which men trust is reckoned as idolatry, along with the worship of the heavenly bodies. The god of gold is one of the chief gods of modern idolatry. The ancient name of this god was "Mammon," and Jesus declared, "You cannot serve God and Mammon." Today the rule of gold is more powerful than the golden rule in the lives of the majority of human beings.
The Lord is "a jealous God" who refuses to share worship with any other god. The worship of the true God cannot be mixed with the worship of false gods.
An ancient proverb declares that "when the half-gods go, the gods arrive." When we dismiss all the lesser gods, the great God Himself arrives to claim our allegiance and worship. With Him it is all or none. He accepts no half-hearted service. We must seek and serve Him with all the heart. The promise is, "The Lord is with you, while you be with Him; and if you seek Him, He will be found of you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you." (2 Chronicles 15:2) We are then told that the Jews "sought Him with their whole desire; and He was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about." (Verse 15) Jesus laid down the same principle when He said, "He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad." (Matthew 12:30) One writer has recently said:
"We of today do not believe in these lesser gods. But in spite of that fact, we are as truly polytheists as they. We no longer think of Mars as a person, but we worship the things for which he stood with the same loyal devotion of those of the long ago. We no longer bow at the shrine of Venus, but that for which Venus stood still lays its enslaving and defiling hand on millions. We would never dream of worshiping Bacchus, the god of drink and revelry, as a person. But perhaps he has never been shown greater respect, nor had more willing worshipers, than in wet America today."--Clovis G. Chappell, Ten Rules for Living, p. 22.
Some of the forms of modern idolatry have been aptly stated by another writer:
"While spurning gods plural and poor, and while acknowledging the sole superlative Jehovah, man may be, and often is, offering only a divided allegiance, a partial worship, to the one true God. What, for example, though we know and assert that there is no such being as Bacchus, if we put ourselves under bondage to that of which Bacchus of classical lore was the acknowledged deity, and become slaves to dissipation, in one or other of its many forms?
What matters it, if Plutus, in mythological person, is discredited and disowned by us, if, on the other hand, we are actual, or even would-be, worshipers in the temple of Mammon, which is prominent, if not pre-eminent, in the life and interest of today? If we have long ago deposed Hygeia, the goddess of health, from her godhead, do we not all today worship at the shrine of Hygiene? Nay, do some of us accord more reverence and service to the cause of bodily health than we do to that of the welfare and peace of the soul?'--John Burr, Studies on the Ten Commandments, pp. 17, 18.
An Up-to-Date Law
The first commandment, as well as the other nine, is as up to date now as when first spoken. It is indeed strange that some believe and even teach 'that this great code of morals was set aside by Christ. Some of the Jews accused Christ of this purpose, for which He gave them the following severe rebuke: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19)
This statement precludes the possibility of even it the least" of these ten commands becoming obsolete or being eliminated from the decalogue. It goes still further and declares that not even "one jot or one tittle" the dot over an "I" or the cross of a 'T' will ever "pass from the law." Jesus declared that the smallest people in the estimation of the inhabitants of the universe are those who break even the least of them and that the man who teaches others to transgress is a little man engaged in little business. On the other hand, the truly great in this world are those who carefully obey every command and by precept and example lead others to loyalty to Jehovah by living in harmony with the fundamental law of His kingdom.
Speaking of the first of the Ten Commandments, Ferdinand S. Schenck said:
"It is claimed by some that the Lord Jesus Christ has abolished the Ten Commandments. On the contrary Christ claims that He came not to destroy but to fulfill the law. The law can give no ability to keep it--that is not its province. It shows the rule of duty, awakens the conscience, holds before us God's lofty ideal, incites all the power within us to highest action; but there its mission ends. It evokes all the power within, but confers no power from without. ... Christ abolish this commandment! And God no longer claim the highest place in man's thoughts and affections! No, never! Man may degrade himself, but God will never degrade him. Christ came bringing divine power to restore man from degradation to the high nobility of keeping this commandment. His glorious work is not to set it aside, but to re-establish it as the rule of life to all His followers."--The Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, pp. 24, 25.
Not only a return to religion, but a return to the worship of the only true and living God is the demand of the gospel and the call of the hour. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent,". Were the words of Jesus in His prayer to the Father as recorded in John 17:1 This is the very essence of true knowledge, the acme of real education, and to seek for it should be our first work.