Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
3. Thou shalt. Though the covenant was made with Israel as a whole (Exodus 19:5), the use of a singular verb shows that God addressed each individual of the nation and required of him obedience to the law. Collective obedience was not sufficient. For all time the Ten Commandments direct their appeal to, and weigh upon, each man’s conscience (see Ezekiel 18:19-20).
Before me. Literally, “before my face.” This Hebrew idiom often means “besides me,” “in addition to me,” or “in opposition to me.” Being the only true God, the Lord requires that He alone be worshiped. This concept of but one God was foreign to the polytheistic belief and practice of other nations. God appeals to us to put Him before all else, to put Him first in our affections and in our lives, in harmony with our Lord’s injunction in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6:33). Mere belief alone will not do, nor even the acknowledgement that He is the one and only God. We owe wholehearted allegiance and devotion to Him as a personal Being whom it is our privilege to know, to love, and trust, and with whom we may have blessed fellowship. Dependence upon something else than God, whether it be wealth, knowledge, position, or friends, places us in peril. It is hard to fight against the allurements of the world, and so easy to trust in that which is visible and temporal (see Matthew 6:19-34; 1 John 2:15-17). In our materialistic age it is not difficult to violate the spirit of this first commandment, by putting our trust and confidence in some earthly convenience or comfort, and in so doing forget the One who created the things we enjoy (see 2 Cor. 4:18).
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