Good Afternoon Friends,

For those of you reading this post every week, we are (and have been) engaged in an examination of ourselves and our regard for God. As people who believe in something or Someone higher than ourselves, we have to be honest with ourselves and agree that having a right relationship with this Someone, namely God, is of utmost importance.

Getting more specific, we all, at various times, have been involved with Christianity. Some of us grew up Catholic, some others Protestant, and yes some of us grew up un-churched too. We believe there is God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We believe there is a Heaven and a Hell for departed spirits… and we’ll (our own spirit will) go to one or the other depending on whether we have been “Saved” or not.

So our time here alive on earth is the time to “get right with God” before our soul is required of us on the day we die. And although we know ignorance is bliss, we deep down do not want to be ignorant of our spiritual condition before Holy and Righteous Almighty God.

And so I have just been leading our discussion so as to stir us to think about these spiritual things, and using the Bible to direct our dogma. Now I am about to lead the discussion into the broad topic of the 10 Commandments.

Please recall what we covered thus far:
1.      There is a God
2.      God is Holy and Righteous
3.      God’s Word is Truth
4.      Loving God means Obeying God’s Word
5.      Understanding the reality of our spirit
6.      Understanding we bear fruits out of our spirit
7.      Examining the fruits of our spirit

Now, you may wonder why we should look at the 10 Commandments. Well, would you be surprised to hear me say that the 10 Commandments can teach us about ourselves? In other words, we can examine the commandments, see how we’ve kept them or not kept them so as to ascertain our spiritual condition. The Apostle Paul wrote…

Galatians 3:24 …the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ…

So let’s go back in time to Exodus 19:16-17:
So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the lower part of the mountain.

Whoah! How would you like to have been there “to meet God”?

Exodus 20:1-3:
Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

1st Commandment: You shall have no other gods (before/ besides/ over against) Me.

Okay, let’s pick out the easy stuff from this commandment to see what we can learn…

“… no other gods…” means God is the only One. If God is the only One, then there cannot be multiple gods. Monotheism and Polytheism are in view here. Are you ready for some dogma… some absolute truth?

Polytheism (many gods) is false. Consequently, polytheistic religions are erroneous.

Pop quiz: What is the 3rd largest religion in the world?

Also, with just one God, there is nothing that should divide our worship of Him. There are no competing gods. Just One, singular and unchanging!

Did you know that Islam says Jews and Christians are polytheistic? How so? Because we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the three persons of the trinity. And yet the three are One God, right? Right!

For example, Jesus said:
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.

That claim caused trouble… and it still does! How do you regard the 1st commandment?

Peace,
Jim