“You shall not have

other gods beside

Me.”
The First Commandment
This Commandment is “first” not just because
it heads the list but it is the most important.

• We owe to God our beginning. It is our way of honoring Him.

• Every action we do comes from the Lord. Since we come
from God then every act that we do is our imitation of God.
• In the end, we all go back to Him.
• He is our beginning, middle and end or in short He is our Life.
Historical Context
• The belief of a divine deity was never a problem during the ancient times.
• The search for the cause of all things which was the mind set of the
ancient times would always lead them to an Urstoff (primary matter) a
sort of creator.
• These can be clearly seen in many stories of literature on the origins of
the world.
• Philosophers, like Plato, would label such creator as the demiurge. While
other ancient religions would have different names of their gods.
• It is because of this framework that led to polytheism.
Polytheism
• from the greek word polu which means many and theos which means
gods.
• Polytheism was very much prevalent during the ancient times. There
were many gods to choose from to whom one would like to give
offerings and sacrifices.
• Often times people would jump from one god to another especially
when ones prayers are not answered.
• this attitude is seen in the scriptures by the people of God.
• The gods of Egypt when the Israelites were still slaves, the prophets of
Baal, the many altars made by King Solomon and the golden calf.
 The question was not if there was a God
but rather to which God to believe in
• When Yahweh gives his people the Ten Commandments, the first
commandment implies the existence of other gods: “You shall have no
other gods before me”.
• In Exodus 23:32–33 Israel is told not to have a covenant with or worship
other gods.
• The purpose? To established a relationship or better yet to re-
established the broken relationship. From being created to the image
and likeness of God to being liberated from the hands of Egypt.
• It was Yahweh that did all of those things for them. By following the first
commandment the Israelites were showing their gratitude towards
Yahweh.
The shift to monotheism
• When God reveals, he reveals it gradually because if he was to reveal
it there and there no one would accept it.
• Deuteronomy 4:35: “You were shown these things so that you might
know that the LORD is God; besides Him there is no other.”
• Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is
one.”
• Malachi 2:10a, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create
us?”
Christian Context
The First Commandment embraces FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY
FAITH
• The 1st Commandment requires us to nourish & protect our faith w/ prudence&
vigilance, & to reject everything that is opposed to it.
• Our faith is tied in our relationship with the Lord.
• that we are not alone in our journey.
• Sins againts Faith in God:
-Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it.
-Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth w/c must be believed
w/ divine & catholic faith, or is also obstinate doubt concerning same.
-Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith.
-Schism is the refusal of submission to the Pope or of communion w/ members of
the Church subject to him.
Hope

• Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing &

beatific vision of God.
• That everything happens for a reason.
• Helps us cope with suffering and evil around the world.
Sins againts Hope in God
• -Despair makes man cease to hope for his personal salvation from
God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. It is
contrary to God’s goodness, to His justice –for the Lord is faithful to
His promises- & to His mercy.
• -Presumption is either man presumes upon his capacities (hoping to
ably save Himself w/o help from on high) or he presumes upon God’s
almighty power or His mercy (hoping to obtain His forgiveness w/o
conversion, and glory w/o merit).
CHARITY
• Faith in God’s love encompasses the call & the
obligation to respond w/ sincere love to divine charity.
The 1st Commandment enjoins us to love God above
everything.
• Leads us to action.
Sins againts God’s love:
-Indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity. It fails to
consider its prevenient goodness & denies its power.
-Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity & to return him
love for love.
-Lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love. It
can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
-Acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God
& to be repelled by divine goodness.
-Hatred of God comes from pride & is contrary to love of God whose
goodness it denies & whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins
& inflicts punishments.
Excursio
Superstition and occult
• Superstition is a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of
the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of
causation.
• Occultism, various theories and practices involving a belief in and
knowledge or use of supernatural forces or beings.
- Such beliefs and practices—principally magical or divinatory—have
occurred in all human societies throughout recorded history, with
considerable variations both in their nature and in the attitude of
societies toward them.
What happens if we believe in such
things?
Good Bad
• respect for tradition/ elders • we no longer adhere to reason
• Filipino superstition connects us • our belief in God is put into
to nature. question
• it opens ourselves into darker
and more sinister things.
Why does it affect our belief in God?
• It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g when one
attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices
otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or
of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from
the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.
• Some are real and of those that are real are more certainly not from
God. Even if the result are good, e.g restoring of good health, when
the source does not come from God then in the later run would lead
to corruption. Remeber, the devil was once and angel.