The First Commandment.
Which is the First Commandment?
_Thou shalt have no other gods before Me._
What does this mean?
_We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things._
1. We all have been baptized. In Holy Baptism God has received us as His
children. _God is our heavenly Father._ A father gives his children his
commands. He tells them what they should do and not do, how they should
live to please him. So our heavenly Father has given us, His children,
His _commandments._ He tells us what, according to His will, we should
do and not do, how we should live and walk in His sight. As His obedient
children we will gladly hear and learn His will and try, with His
gracious help, to lead such lives as will please Him. It should be our
pleasure to fulfil His commandments, for they are the will of our
Father, who loves us so dearly.--_The Ten Commandments are our
heavenly Father's will; they tell us what we should do and not do._
2. _"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,"_ that is the first of the
Ten Commandments. That is the will of God, our Lord and Father, that we
are to have no other gods before or besides Him. He who is the only true
God should be our God. Him alone, and nobody and nothing besides Him, we
are to have and regard as our God. _"I am, the Lord, that is My name;
and My glory will I not give to another"_ Is. 42,8. When do we regard
God as our God? When is He our God indeed? Our Catechism says: _"We
should fear, love, and trust in God above all things."_ When we fear
God, and love Him, and trust in Him above all things, then He is truly
our God.
3. _"We should fear God."_ A dutiful child fears his father. He
certainly is not afraid of him, but he honors and respects him. In the
same manner we should fear God. He says: _"I am the almighty God."_ Gen.
17,7. He has, through His mighty word, made heaven and earth. Because
God is so great and mighty, we should fear Him. We should not be afraid
of Him,--the almighty God is our Father,--but we should honor and
respect Him above all things.
4. A child shows his fear and filial respect for his father _by not
doing anything wrong,_ because his dear father might see it or hear of
it. He is afraid he might displease his father by disobeying him, yes,
cause him grief. _God is always with us. He sees and hears everything
we do or say, yea, He knows the very thoughts of our hearts._ We should
always remember that He is present wherever we are, and therefore behave
accordingly. We should be afraid to grieve our heavenly Father by doing
wrong. _The fear of God will keep us from doing anything against His
holy will. "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil."_ Prov. 16,6.
_Think of Joseph, in Egypt!_ When he was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he
remembered that God was with him, therefore he told her: _"How, then,
can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"_ Gen. 30,9.
Remember always: God is with me! and you will not do such great
wickedness and sin against your God. _"I am the almighty God; walk before
Me and be thou perfect."_ Gen. 17,1.
_We fear God, when we honor and respect Him, when we walk before Him,
and for His sake keep away from sin._
5. _"We should love God,"_ We all love our parents. We esteem them
highly, our hearts cling to them, because we know how dearly they love
us, and that they are doing all they can for us. God ought to be dearer
to us than everything in this world, dearer even than our parents. He is
our heavenly Father, our greatest Benefactor. From Him we receive all
that we have and enjoy. He loves us first, He has so loved us that He
gave His dear Son for us. _So we should love Him and cling to Him with
our whole heart._
6. _"This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments."_ 1 John
5,3. If we love God, we shall gladly do as He bids us do. Thus our
_Lord Jesus_ loved His heavenly Father. He says: _"I will delight to do
Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy Law is within My heart."_ Ps. 40,8.
_Abraham_ loved God, and therefore he was willing to sacrifice his only
son for God's sake. Gen. 22,1-12.
_We love God when we cling to Him with our whole heart and from love to
Him fulfil His commandments._
7. _"We should trust in God."_ To trust in God means to put our
confidence in God and His promises, to be assured that He will give us
what we need and what is good for us in this life and in the life to
come. We trust in God when we believe that He will not forsake us in the
day of trouble, that whatever He sends us, though it seem evil, will be
for our good. Our Father can and will give us only good and perfect
gifts. Thus _David_ trusted in the Lord when he went forth to conquer
Goliath. 1 Sam. 17. Thus, too _those three men _trusted in God who
suffered themselves to be cast into the fiery furnace rather than deny
their God. Dan. 3.
_We trust in God when we put our confidence in Him and firmly believe
that He will give us all we need, that He will never forsake us, and
that everything which He sends us will be for our welfare._
8. "We should fear and love God and trust" in Him _"above all things,"_
that is, more than in all other men or things. We may, and we really do,
fear and love many things besides God. We fear and love our parents, our
teachers, our friends, and we trust in them. God Himself bids us do so.
For God's sake we fear and love them. But we must fear and love _God_
more than all other things, more than even our parents, or our dearest
friends. _He must be first in our heart and in our life._ If our
parents, or friends, or anything else would separate us from God, or
prevent us from fearing and loving Him, or from trusting in Him above
all things, we must cast them aside. If we fear and love and trust in
anything more than in God, we make a creature our god; then we have
other gods besides God; then we are worshiping idols (other gods that
are no gods), as the heathen do. _"Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy
God, and Him only shalt thou serve."_ Matt. 4,10.
9. Fear, love, and trust God demands from us. Fear, love, and trust are
to be found in the heart. _God claims our hearts in this commandment.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart."_ Prov. 3,5. Together with our
hearts God wants our whole lives, all we are and have. _The First
Commandment is the greatest of them all._ In this all the others are
included. Let us daily pray God to grant us His grace to fear and love
Him and trust in Him above all things, in order that we may have no
other gods before Him.