“You shall not have

other Gods besides me”

Christian Living Experience 10: Christian Morality

Exodus 20: 3-4

"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. "You shall not

make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in

heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water

under the Earth.”

Exodus 20: 23

“You shall not make other Gods besides me;

gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not

make for yourselves.”

The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we

say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the

same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must

necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and

acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely

beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love

him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has

poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at

the beginning and end of his commandments: 'I am the LORD.’

- CCC 2086

First Commandment:

• Became the basis or foundation of the other

succeeding commandments

• Monotheism = One God

• Helps us to keep the Great Commandment of

God’s love because it commands us to adore

Him alone

First Commandment:

• We must not have other persons or things that

will distract us or prevent us from loving God

more closely.

First Commandment:

• Faith is what God wanted us to have. He wanted

us to trust in Him that He could properly guide us

in our lives

True Worshipping of

God:• Taking good care of creation as God’s

handiwork

• Respecting the image of God in every person

• Using our gifts (our bodies, our intellect and

freewill, our money, our talents and skills) in

glorifying God.

True Worshipping of

God:• Veneration – act of honouring a saint or Mama

Mary

• Adoration – the worship and homage that is

rightly offered to God alone. It is the

manifestation of submission to Him.

• Sacrifice – a sign of adoration and gratitude to

God

VIOLATIONS

AGAINST THE FIRST

COMMANDMENT:

1. Idolatry

• It is the worshipping of a god in the form of a physical

image

• Invokes polytheism = worshipping many Gods

• A constant temptation of faith and it consists in divinizing

what is not God

• Worshipping or Reveres a creature aside from God,

power, pleasure, race, ancestors, and money

2. Apostasy

• It is the rejection of Christ by someone who

has been a Christian

3. Divination and Magic• Divination – seeking future knowledge or the unknown by

supernatural means

• All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame

occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a

supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of

restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of

religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when

accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they

have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is

also reprehensible.

4. Sacrilege and Simony

• Sacrilege – violation or form of irreverence to

sacred persons, place or things

• Simony – buying or selling of ecclesiastical

privilege; any exchange of spiritual things for

temporal things

5. AtheismSince it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin

against the virtue of religion. The imputability of this offense can be

significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the

circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the

rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their

instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in

their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal

rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion.“

- CCC 2125

6. DespairBy despair, man ceases to hope for his personal

salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the

forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's

goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his

promises - and to his mercy.

-CCC 2091

7. Ingratitude

• It is defined as not appreciating or valuing what

you have, or have been given by God.

• Failure to give thanks to God = Failure to show

appreciation and love to God

8. SuperstitionSuperstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the

practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship

we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance

in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or

necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of

sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart

from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into

superstition.

- CCC 2111