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EXODUS 20:3 “THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.” (KJV)
“You shall have no other gods before me.” (NKJV, NASB, RSV, NIV
“You may worship no other god than me.” (TLB)
Obviously, we cannot write about memorizing Scripture without, at some point, referring to the Ten Commandments. I have discovered that Christians who actually know, yet alone have memorized, the Ten Commandments are few. Yes, I know they are Old Testament and we are the “new covenant.” That makes us “free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2) But that certainly does not make us free from the law, as some of us are prone to think.
Jesus came “to fulfil” the law, not destroy it. (Matthew 5:17) I cringe when a well-meaning brother or sister says, “we are under New Testament grace now. We are no longer under the law.” This tends to make us assume that the law no longer applies to us. My honest reply is, “try murdering someone and see if you are no longer under the law.”
I’m not being judgmental. Instead, I would insist that what Jesus meant by fulfilling the law was that although grace may provide forgiveness and restoration from our sins, it does not remove us from obeying God’s commands for His people.
This is probably a very good example of how we need to “harmonize” Scriptures and not take any single one in exclusion of what other Bible verses say on the subject. I would say this is also very good support for why we need to memorize Scriptures in the Bible. With words hidden in our heart, we can balance our understanding of truth as it is applied from the Word.
Having said all this, look at the truth given here from the Old Testament Ten Commandments. God says, we are to have no other gods before Him. New Testament or Old, that truth will always be true.
God recognizes that our natural tendency is to create “other gods” that would take priority or first place over Him in our lives. Look at the photo above. How many of us can be found guilty of “worshipping” the TV, sports or other forms of entertainment? I especially like how the photo almost suggests the raised hands of exuberant praise for the great event that probably just happened.
Our Lord is a jealous God. He wants first place in our lives. Do you put Him first? In every aspect of your life? If we are being honest, in our busy and over-stimulated lives, the Lord probably rarely comes first. Compare the percentage of your day you read your Bible or pray to how much time you spend texting. Does He come first? Does He even merit an hour out of the 24 He has given us every day?
2 Corinthians 5:9 says, “We make it our goal to please Him…” In order to make Him first, have no other gods before me and please Him, I find it important to involve Him in every aspect of my life. Charles Sheldon wrote a book, “In His Steps,” where he proposed that before we do anything in life we would first ask, “What would Jesus do?” When we make a decision, I need to ask, what would Jesus do? Before I give an opinion, maybe I should think, what would Jesus say? Before I go where I would like most to go, maybe think, would Jesus go there?
This verse in the Bible uses the word “gods” in small letters. The people of the world have always searched for other gods, who were not gods at all. The Greeks were famous for coming up with great names for mythical characters to whom they gave godly credits and attributes. The Israelites were always coming upon civilizations that glorified created gods, some even to whom they sacrificed their own children. The Romans were famous for worshipping more gods than anyone could count. When God commanded that we have no other gods before Him, the Israelites didn’t have any understanding what He meant.
So, do we have other gods before our Lord? You need to answer that from your own heart. It is not hard, however, to find icons and symbols that we might easily substitute for he Lord. Our culture seems hasty to pursue the mystical, witchcraft and even satan worship…that certainly would violate the first commandment and close the door to eternal life. More mildly, however, we don’t have to look very far to see even the seemingly harmless ideas and beliefs that attempt to easily dethrone God and put logic in His place. Evolution, cosmology and archaeology can easily mislead those who might search for our creator to follow their logics instead.
We each must examine our own hearts. As we memorize this fairly short Scripture verse, don’t let it be lost on you that we all need to pray regularly that the Holy Spirit would reveal to us any gods…activities, habits, amusements…that we might be guilty of putting before Him. It may not seem like we worship those things. But, let us also not put them first instead of elevating Him to His proper place in our lives and remembering every day, He is God.
Questions to ponder: Do you remember things in your life before you were born again that you could have easily characterized as gods that you put before Jesus? How aggressively should we confront those things in our culture that obviously point toward false-god worship? Can even we, as Christ followers, be guilty of allowing some things to become so important that the Lord might point them out to us as gods that we put before Him? Can the pursuit of wealth and prosperity become a god in our lives?
Scriptures to study: 2 Corinthians 5:9, Psalm 51:10-13, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” 2 Chronicles 33:1-9, Exodus 20:21-26, Exodus 32:1-10, The Golden Calf.
 
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