Thou shalt have no Gods but Me, Before No Idols Bow thy Knee

This week we will focus on the first two of the ten commandments.

1. Thou shalt have no Gods but Me
2. Before No Idols Bow thy Knee

During the time that the ten commandments were given the religions of the ancient world were entirely made up of false gods and idol worship of those gods. The first two commandments in the law seem to be directly related to the practice of idol worship, so are these commandments relevant to us in a modern time when idol worship is far less common? Yes. We have just as many, maybe more, false gods in our days and the same wicked impulses tempt us to worship them.

To examine these commandments are their relevance in our times, let’s think of them as representing matters of the heart and our behaviors.

1. Thou shalt have no Gods but me – A matter of heart, desire, and thought
2. Before No Idols Bow they Knee – A matter of action

The natural man tendencies that so easily beset us cause incongruence between our thoughts and our actions. We are just as capable as people in the past of paying lip service to our beliefs. We can say we love God but our actions may not bear that out. That would be like saying we believe in the one true God while we hold onto some of the gods of the world and bow our knees to them. What are some of these gods of our world that we are often tempted to worship?

Modern gods include: Cults of personality, ideologies, ourselves, worldly knowledge, love our favorite sins, vices, money, power, prestige, reliance on spiritual forces outside of God’s order, material possessions, recreation, and so on.

When we place our hearts and trust in anything above the Lord, we are worshiping our own false gods. False gods or idols include “everything which entices a person away from duty, loyalty, and love for and service to God.” (Spencer W. Kimball) Intangible things make just as ready gods. Whatever thing a person sets their heart and trust in most is their god; and their god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that person is laboring in idolatry.

There are many parallels between the ancient worship of graven images and behavioral patterns in our very own experience. In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had—in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people — the proof of which is in the widespread sin among the professed believer and the unbeliever in our generation — a condition most repugnant to the Lord.

What is the antidote to idolatry? Is it the objects of worship that lead us into idolatry or the order of our desires?

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33

It is the “things” that we tend to put ahead of our duty and loyalty to God and his commandments. But perhaps the sin is not in “things” but in our attitude toward and worship of “things.” Unless an acquisitive person can positively accumulate and hold wealth while still giving full allegiance to God and his plan — unless the rich man can keep the Sabbath, keep his mind and body and spirit uncontaminated, and give unstinted service to his fellowmen through God’s appointed way — unless the affluent man has total control and can hold all his possessions in trust, subject to the call of the Lord, then that man, for the good of his soul, should certainly “go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, … and come and follow me.” (Matthew 19:21.)

In addition to “things” that become idols to us and supplant God in our lives, there are real powers of darkness in our world. In our modern times we dismiss such supernatural power of darkness as mere superstition, which is a flip side of the denial of the power of God generally. Though modern people deny the existence of evil and look upon the real powers of God and Satan as superstitious nonsense, the reality is that the worship of darkness is a real and present idolatry.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” — Ephesians 6:12

If we set our hearts upon the material idols of our time, they will steal our hearts away from God and lead us to sinful behaviors that will darken our souls and cut our hearts off from the light of Christ and the direction of his Holy Spirit until the powers of darkness overcome us. We must believe in the power of God and see clearly the powers of darkness in this world. When we see clearly we can understand the paramount importance of God’s command to put no other God before him in our hearts, nor engage in acts of worship to any idol.

“Set your heart upon the service of the Lord thy God. From this very moment resolve to make this cause and this labor first and foremost in all your thoughts.” — Spencer W. Kimball

Scripture Passages for Commandments 1 & 2:

“Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean.” — Genesis 35:2

“I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.” — Exodus 18:11

“Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God.” — Leviticus 19:4

“Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him… Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.” — Deuteronomy 6:13-15

“If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.” — Deuteronomy 8:19

“Hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” — Deuteronomy 28:13-14

“Put away the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel.” — Joshua 24:23

“If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you…” — 1 Samuel 7:3

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” — 1 Samuel 15:23

“Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands… The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish.” — Isaiah 2:8, 17-18

“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” — Jeremiah 2:11

“Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and ye shall bear the sins of your idols: and ye shall know that I am the Lord God.” — Ezekiel 23:48-49

“But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.” — Daniel 5:23

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” — Matthew 6:33

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” — Matthew 6:21

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” — Matthew 6:24

“But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” — Acts 15:20

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” — Acts 17:28-29

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” — 1 Corinthians 10:12-14

“We walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” — 1 Peter 4:3

“If ye then be with Christ, seek those things which are above… Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth… Mortify (Deny yourself and subdue) therefore your members (the parts and desires of the flesh); fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” — Colossians 3:1-5

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip… How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” — Hebrews 2:1-3

“Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?” — Moroni 8:39, Book of Mormon

“But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also.” — 2 Nephi 9:30, Book of Mormon

“Did indulge themselves in sorceries, and in idolatry or idleness, and in babblings, and in envyings and strife; wearing costly apparel; being lifted up in the pride of their own eyes; persecuting, lying, thieving, robbing, committing whoredoms, and murdering, and all manner of wickedness.” — Alma 1:32, Book of Mormon

“He who is the author of all sin… doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men. And now behold, he had got great hold upon the hearts of the Nephites; yea, insomuch that they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their own ways, and did build up unto themselves idols of their gold and their silver. And it came to pass that all these iniquities did come unto them in the space of not many years.” — Helaman 6:30-31, Book of Mormon

“For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant; They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.” — Doctrine & Covenants 1: 15-16

“And [He] gave unto them commandments that they should love and serve him, the only living and true God, and that he should be the only being whom they should worship.” — Doctrine and Covenants 20:19

“Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” — Doctrine & Covenants 4:2