“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
Loving God is more than feelings; it’s what you do. It’s obeying him, choosing to honor him in how you live. The Decalogue, though often divided into “vertical” and “horizontal” rules (meaning, those pertaining to sins against God and those against other humans), can be viewed from the perspective of how each is a sin against God.
The first few are pretty obvious. You shall have no other gods because that suggests that the Living God is on par with the idols (or possibly demons, cf, 1Cor 10:20) which is an insult. God doesn’t share what’s his. If we love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we’ll have nothing left for another god — be it Ba’al or a modern god like money, success, or social acceptability.
You shall not make an image doesn’t just repeat “no other gods” but mainly forbids trying to “tame” God by misrepresenting him as less than he is. YHWH is not a calf. He is also not a grandfatherly figure who simply wants everyone to be happy. Thou shalt not replace God with a more manageable caricature of himself.
You shall not take the name of the LORD in vain because treating his name as common is like treating himself as common. Using his name like a curse word is treating him like a joke. Using his name in a false oath is like making him party to your lie.
Remember the Sabbath may not apply to us anymore, but the idea is still valid. God told them to take a day to rest from their work and focus on him. Failing to do so is not only failing to prioritize him, it’s also a failure to trust him. It says, “I don’t trust you to bless the work of the other six days enough for me to make it.” As well as “I value whatever I can produce on that seventh day more than I value you” and “you’re not worthy of a day of devotion.”
After that they’re less obvious, but we can still see how they’re ultimately about God.
Honor your father and your mother because they are the agents God used to give you life and to provide for you. They are also in authority over you. “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Rom 13:1), which includes your parents. Obeying your parents teaches you to obey God. Disobeying your parents teaches you to disobey God. Failing to honor your parents fails to respect that which God has established over you, which dishonors God.
You shall not murder because only God has the authority of life and death. To take his authority upon yourself is presumption. And man is made in the image of God (Gen 9:6); murder disrespects that image.
You shall not commit adultery because “what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matt 19:6). God not only established marriage, he established this marriage, and violating that disrespects his design.
You shall not bear false witness is like the third commandment. Lying is bad; God hates dishonesty. But this command is really about perjury; perjury is worse. Any perjury corrupts justice, and God is a God of justice. Injustice offends him. Perjury in the name of God to pervert justice disrespects his name in the process of being unjust.
You shall not steal or covet because everything you have and everything your neighbor has is given by God. You do not have a right to what God has given other people, and to take or even desire what they have is to say that God has not given you what he ought, that he has done you wrong.
To sin against people is also to sin against God. Loving God requires not sinning against your neighbor. This is a high standard, and it requires hard work, but we do not do it alone. God has a plan to conform us “to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8:29). He will accomplish this plan. But we can make it easier on ourselves by putting our best efforts into it.
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