Different Life: 1st CommandmentSample

Today we want you to read the 10 commandments. Get a lay of the land, especially if you’re unfamiliar with them. You’ll find them listed in two places: Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. As you do, think about them more like a table of contents or root directory. They’re ten basic concepts summarizing major aspects of life with God and each other.

The first is the most important. And it doesn’t even start with a command. Just a statement about what God did for you: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Exodus 20:2).

It all starts with what God has done for you. Out of that flows the 1st Commandment–God and God alone. It’s the head of the pack and an invitation to a relationship with God. Like a marriage, this relationship is meant to be close, committed, and intimate. God wants it to be monogamous.

Think about this first commandment like a spring from which all the other commandments flow. How should you treat God? How should you treat other people God loves? Let the 1st guide you into that different way of life.