First and Foremost: Reflecting on the First Commandment
“You shall have no other gods before me.” – Exodus 20:3
I asked ChatGPT if there were notable artworks or poetry based solely on this first commandment. It turns out that this is a hard commandment to reflect on all by itself. All the worldly technology at my disposal couldn’t find me anything that didn’t include at least some, if not all, of the other commandments. If robots had feelings, I think ChatGPT must have felt sorry for me because it generated a poem for me that it called “First and Foremost.”
We can all rest assured that AI won’t be replacing real poets anytime soon. As an act of love, I will refrain from sharing this creation with you.
I did find it curious that titled this poem “First and Foremost” because that captures the heart of what God is commanding. God directs us to put God first and foremost above all else. This commandment isn’t just about loving God. It’s about obedience to and abundant living with God. Having no other gods is about putting God first in all things, all the time.
It also occurs to me that if we just followed that first commandment, we really wouldn’t need all the others.
If God was truly first and foremost, we wouldn’t need God’s reminder to not tarnish the Holy Name. If God was first and foremost, we wouldn’t be tempted by other people’s words, possessions, or love affairs.
If God was truly first and foremost, when someone asked us about our Sabbath practice, we wouldn’t offer a complaint about kid’s sporting events being held on Sundays to avoid answering the truth that we don’t actually have a Sabbath practice. Even the most faithful of us who sits in their same pew every week doesn’t give God the entire day. We feel pretty good about giving God that hour, maybe two.
Is God really first and foremost? Truly?
Martin Luther wasn’t known for brevity and yet in the Small Catechism he manages to capture the fullness of this commandment with one a single sentence explanation, “We are to fear, love and trust God above all things.”
Above all things. First and foremost.
Is it really that simple?
No, of course not. God realized even as God was giving us the commandments that we would struggle with something so simple that means so much. The first commandment appears simple because it is just a handful of words. The reality is that there are a lot of forces competing to be our first and foremost, and many of those things aren’t even bad for us. Some of them, like family, friends and patriotism can even be described as good. There’s a reason we balk at the story where Jesus tells the disciples to leave his parents behind to follow him – truly putting God first and foremost is hard.
Loving other things and other people isn’t unfaithful. It’s the prioritizing them over God that is. Knowing the difference between having gratitude for the good things God gives us and accidentally idolizing those things is tricky. God knew this first commandment is a hard one to uphold, which is why God gives us the remaining nine commandments. And the other laws found in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Even Jesus helps us flesh this commandment out by reminding us that the only way we can truly love God first and foremost is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Putting God first and foremost isn’t a commandment we can check off like it’s an item on our to-do list. This commandment is a discipline that requires our attention every day of our lives. This commandment doesn’t come first because it’s the easiest. It comes first because it’s like the North Star guiding us on our journey, guiding us to become the person God calls us to be.
Faithfully yours,
Pastor Tina Crog
