The Center of Your Life: A Reflection on the First Commandment

The First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

The modern world is drowning in a veritable ocean of false gods. True, they may no longer take the form of golden idols as they did in the days of ancient Israel, but they are just as real. Instead of cast images of cows, we now prostrate ourselves before money, pleasure, and power. We fall on our faces before idols of efficiency and entertainment. We worship politicians, ideologies, superstars, and ourselves.

We are not an atheistic culture. It is not that we worship no god. It is that more and more of us are worshipping the wrong gods.

The book of Exodus is a story about what happens when someone or something tries to supplant the place ‌reserved for the true God. The consequences are not pleasant. Pharaoh, considering himself a god, forced the Israelites into slavery and made them build his monuments. Then, the Egyptian regime slaughtered male children under a certain age. The Hebrew God retaliates and afflicts Egypt with ten horrible plagues that bring destruction to that once proud people. Finally, the Hebrews are set free and the Egyptian Empire is left in ruin. In Exodus, the worship of a false god brings slavery, slaughter, pestilence, and destruction.

In light of this, is it any wonder that the Law given to the Hebrews by their true God begins with a rather simple declaration? “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3, RSV).

In Exodus, God is that which sets Himself against the enslaving tyranny of Pharaoh. He is the source of true freedom for the ancient Israelites and for us. It is worth pointing out that the famous phrase which Moses passes onto Pharaoh is often misquoted as being “Let my people go.” What God actually tells Moses to say is “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” (Exodus 8:1). The battle in Exodus, therefore, is not between tyranny and a sort of vague “do whatever you want” type of freedom. It is rather between service to a false god (Pharaoh, slavery) or service to the True God (freedom). As the great American poet and philosopher Bob Dylan once sang, “You’re gonna have to serve somebody/It may be the Devil/Or it may be the Lord/But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

In a reflection found in volume 3 of the Word on Fire Bible (page 356), Bishop Robert Barron offers part of his interpretation of the first of the Ten Commandments. He says, “As we see in the third chapter of Genesis, the essence of sin is false worship, turning something less than God into God, confusing creature and creator, accepting the conditioned as the unconditioned. Every other form of moral and spiritual dysfunction follows from this most fundamental distortion. Hence, the necessarily first move in the ethical transformation of Israel is the dethronement of false gods.” I believe, when one views the First Commandment in this light, one understands why it is indeed the First. It is the foundation upon which all the others rest. A violation of any of the other nine commandments is, implicitly, a violation of the First. Indeed, any sin at all violates the First Commandment. In sin, we elevate the object of our sin to the status reserved only for God. If you steal, you have subordinated God and His Law to your desire for the thing you stole. If you commit adultery, you subordinate God’s laws of marriage to your desire for the person with whom you have an affair. The object of your sin becomes the false god on whose altar you have sacrificed True Morality to. If that is not worshipping a false god, I do not know what is.

But this First Commandment is not merely an injunction against a certain behavior or state of mind. There is‌ a “Thou shalt” embedded in all the “Thou shalt nots”. If God forbids the worship of false, lesser gods, it is not because He wants us to worship nothing (which, as we see in Dylan’s and Barron’s wisdom, is impossible). He wants us to worship Him and Him alone. He wants to occupy the center of our lives. He wants to be the most important thing to any of us, that which we are always looking up at and striving toward.

So, with this in mind, I ask you, dear reader, is God the center of your life? Does He occupy a true place of primacy?

Do you make a point of setting time aside each day to talk with Him in prayer? To be sure, someone as important as God is supposed to be to us deserves some dedicated daily time. I do not mean that you talk to Him when it is convenient, or when you need something. God is not your celestial butler. Construct a prayer routine. Appoint a time, every day, where you can reliably speak with Him. Do not allow anyone else to tell you what that time should look like. That is up to you. Perhaps your time of deep dedicated prayer is in the morning after you wake up. Maybe it is after you get home from work. Maybe it is just before bed. Regardless, set a time for prayer every day.

So too with Scripture. Do you give Him a chance to talk back by the study of His Word in Sacred Scripture? Do you have an appointed time to read the Bible and meditate on what it might be saying to you? Surely, we should seek to listen to someone as indispensable and wise as God.

Do you spend time weekly praising Him, worshipping Him, and contemplating Him alongside your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you attend Mass (or worship service, for my non-Catholic brothers and sisters) regularly? After all, it must be a wonderful thing to set aside at least one hour a week to meditate upon that which is highest.

Do you go about your daily life, outside your appointed moments of communion with God, in a way that honors and glorifies Him as the one and only King of your life? Do you strive to behave in a way that reflects your commitment to the One True God? Do you fulfill your duties, obligations, and your vocation with Him in mind? As Christians, the ultimate aim of our life and everything in it ought to be Him. Neither wealth, nor pleasure, nor power, nor honor should animate us. He should. For He, alone, is our God.

To live out your life in obedience to the spirit of the First Commandment means actively placing God at the center of your life. It means living in love, service, and obedience to He who made you in His own image. It means to intimately know Him who is, right now, whoever and wherever you are as you read this, whatever mental, physical, or spiritual condition you are in, actively loving YOU into existence. That is worth repeating. God is, at this very moment, loving you, breathing you, singing you into existence. And He who is Love itself wants only good for His creation, including you. That also means that it is good that you exist, for the God who is also Goodness itself sees fit to continuously sustain your being for the good you might do for Him and for others.

To live in obedience to the spirit of the First Commandment means always aiming up toward God in all things that you do. It means trying, always and everywhere, to orient your life in such a way that everything you say and do becomes another rung on the ladder toward heaven upon which we all climb. It gives a single, unifying purpose to your life that transcends every circumstance you could find yourself in. It is, I believe, the antidote to meaninglessness. It is one way you might find the strength to drag yourself out of bed even on the worst of days and keep going, because it is not any empty idol that calls you forth, but God Himself.

So, place God where He belongs, at the center of your life. Aim at Him. Commune with Him. Obey Him. Love Him. Make Him that which unites all that you are and all that you do. Give your life a purpose that will not disappoint and will never run out. Strive, as best you can, in every moment of your life, little or big, to move closer to the God that made you. Perhaps, in so doing, you will inspire, embolden, and encourage others. Perhaps, in so doing, you will move not just your life but that of your family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors a little closer to heaven and a little further from hell.

And, honestly, what false, empty god could be worth giving all that up for?

“I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”