Ten Commandments Part I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The First Commandment

 

               The first commandment is “I am the Lord your God you shall not have strange gods before me."  If we were to worship a statue or a creator instead of God we would be committing idolatry.  We honor God by believing in him, praying to him, worshiping him, and loving others.  An example of the first commandment is when Moses went to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments.

"When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us.  As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."  Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD." 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. 7 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:1-8)

 

              When people deny or reject God’s existence they are committing atheism.  When we live out the first commandment we believe in God.  We love God and all His creatures.   We are here and we have been created by God because “God has loved us first.” (CCC, 2083)