The First Commandment

Core ideas

- Obedience stems from a relationship. God says, “I saved you…now have no other God’s.” The relationship already exists. Why is that important. This is not a list that tells you how to earn God’s love and favor. It is a list that shows you how you can live your life in response to God’s love and forgiveness.
- God acts first, and then we respond.
- When God, is kept in the as God over and above everything else, it gives us a sense of peace and meaning we can’t find anywhere else.


Exodus 20:1-6
20 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Also see - Deuteronomy 5:6-10


Large Catechism - Luther Quote
A “god” is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.

Questions.

What do I rely on to find meaning in my life?
- Good Job, accolades, friends,

What do I trust in for my peace?
- Good Job, 401k, investments, my kids, myself.

Notice none of these are bad things….they are just not the ultimate thing. Why? They are just as fragile as we are.