“You shall have no other gods before me. “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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, . . “ (Exodus 20:3-5a)
The First commandment is one that has been disregarded by many if not most in our world. If we look at what is valued as portrayed in the media, academia, and government, Almighty God is not the central focus. What is valued is the individual human as god, the self, a god who determines right and wrong, good and evil without reference to the Commandments or to anyone or anything other than self.
Yet we Christians maintain that the 10 Commandments are the essence of God’s Law for they are a demonstration of His holiness. His law is intrinsic to His nature. It is meant to be obeyed so that human beings may enter into and enjoy proper fellowship with Him. The Commandments were the part of the covenant the people pledged themselves to keep. God had already pledged Himself to the covenant and shown them His faithfulness and love by delivering them from Egypt. Now they must show their love and faith by obeying what the Lord commanded.
Many human beings subscribe to some or all of these commandments, at least in theory, but fail to follow them to perfection.
The commandments of God are meant to produce in us the love of God and love of our fellow man. But, since in actual practice, no one can keep the Commandments to the degree that the Lord desires we all need a mediator, someone to keep them for us. We have such a mediator in Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Thus the Law becomes not just a curb which tells us what is right and wrong, but a mirror that shows us our sinfulness and a guide which leads us to Jesus as our Savior. All humans sin and all fall short of God’s glory. Only by faith in Him can we truly have fellowship with God and live in righteousness.