Exodus 20:1-6 1 And God spoke all these words: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Love is a two-way street. That is what these first two commandments help us understand. God shows us love by teaching us what is right, by extending Himself to us in salvation and through protection and through blessing our lives with spiritual and yes, at times, physical and material blessings. We, in turn, show our love for God by not behaving in a way that expresses a lack of love, a lack of respect, or a disregard for the precious, eternal love of God. The way we love God is to make sure He is our first-love, our love above all else.
If we can understand that these first two commandments aren’t about breaking a rule, but about hurting our relationship with God, we may be more inclined to think before we act. It is because God wants to have an exclusive, dynamic love relationship with us that these first two commandments are first. I also dare say that if we get these two right, the rest will be “no-brainers.” The rest will simply flow from a life that is spent trying to reciprocate the love of God!
Look at what the New Testament has to say about idolatry:
1 Corinthians 10:14-Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
Paul is saying, “Run as fast as you can from anything that would dilute your love for God.” Dangers must lurk in relationship with idols.
1 John 5:21-Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
As I read this verse, it says to me that living idol-free isn’t a passive process. It is something we have to work at doing. The temptation to turn to things other than God for satisfaction and fulfillment is a daily struggle. To “keep” ourselves from something requires intention on our parts. We literally have to defend our hearts from idols that want to intrude and cut in on our relationship with Jesus. We need not only intent, but we need a plan because if we aren’t careful, one compromise can take us down the road where our love for God is step by step replaced with love for something else.
Look at this passage from Romans:
Romans 1:21-25 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.
When we allow idols to creep into our lives, there comes a point when we trade a relationship with God for a relationship with an idol. It’s subtle. It’s simple. It’s serious.
We need to confess idolatry as sin and ask God to forgive us for allowing idols to creep into our lives and take His place. We need to put some barriers between us and our idols so that we don’t have easy access to them and won’t be tempted to pick them back up. If there is an idol that tempts us, we need to get it off the shelf of our lives. We need to quit looking at it, quit talking to it, quit making room for it in our lives.
What is God saying to you?
What have you recognized that needs to be removed from your life?
What intentional changes can you make right now in order to deal with the idols in your life?
How can you quit cheating on God and give Him 100% of your heart.
God, in love, is reaching out to you today, and He is asking you to reciprocate His love by making Him your first love.
