BibleProject | The 10 CommandmentsSample

I Pledge Allegiance to …?

The 1st Commandment reads, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3). It declares that Yahweh is the ultimate God. There's no rival. No equal. So offer your allegiance to him.

This one may sound obvious, but it’s not. Because we all tend to make other things our gods.

Everyone has higher ideals: success, security, a polished résumé, a strong portfolio, a good government. These are helpful gifts. But, as today’s video explains, they can easily slide from gifts to gods. They can become higher powers we believe will finally make us OK, so we end up giving our allegiance to them.

You’ve felt it: If I just reach that milestone, then I’ll have peace. Finish the degree. Meet the quota. Get the family settled. Get out the vote! So we pour ourselves into those goals. We serve them as if they have real power.

The problem is that those things may be sources of goodness, but they aren’t the source of true life. They support life but can’t provide it. And serving anything that’s not the source of life will eventually dehumanize and destroy us.

Remember the Eden story, where Adam and Eve tried to follow the instructions of both God and a serpent? The snake promised a better life, and by trusting it instead of God alone, their humanity ends up corrupted and dying (Gen. 3:1-19).

So the first command sets people free from this most ancient, deadly deception. Rather than scattering our trust across a horde of lifeless gods, we rely on the life-giver. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus says, adding that attempts to do so always produce needless worry (Matt. 6:24-26).

So work hard, and love your family well. Invest wisely. Vote for good leaders. But do so with your first allegiance to God, never believing that lesser things can bring freedom. As a human being, you’re already loved by the unrivaled God who sets humanity free. Choosing to pledge allegiance to God alone is probably the best choice ever.

Reflection Question:

• Think of a situation when you felt that reaching a milestone would bring happiness but were mistaken. What did you learn, and how does that experience point to God as the source of true peace?