The First Commandment

The Ten Commandments written in Hebrew (part of Knesset Menorah, a bronze Menorah in Israel)

The first among the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” This is the first commandment that God gave to His people when He proclaimed the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In the New Testament times, Jesus Christ said that the first commandment is to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind. This is sometimes called the “the greatest commandment.” However, the New and Old Testaments do not conflict with each other in regard to the first commandment. It is because if we love God with all our heart, we will only serve God and no other gods.

There are not many people who fully understand the first commandment. There are even less people who know how to fulfill the first commandment. In the Old Testament, the Israelites, who were proud of their faith in God and love for Him, very frequently worshiped other gods and idols. The first commandment cannot be fulfilled through human thoughts and methods. The way we can worship only God and love Him without worshiping other gods is to keep God’s commandment, the Passover.

The Content of the First Commandment

You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

The first of the Ten Commandments is, “You shall have no other gods before me.”Moses with the Tables of the Law by Guido Reni, 1624

As the first of the Ten Commandments, God said, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:3

The first commandment has two meanings. They are, “Do not worship any other gods,” and “Serve only Me [God].” God did not make a dictatorial request to “worship no other gods besides Him” for no reason. The reason God gave the first commandment is because He is the Savior who saved Israel from slavery in Egypt. So when He gave the first commandment, God said beforehand, “I am God who led you out of Egypt.”

• “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2–3)
• “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Deuteronomy 5:6–7)

The day God led the Israelites out of Egypt was the Passover. Because He led the Israelites with His mighty hand on the night of the Passover, He told them to celebrate the Passover, the day of redemption, and not to worship any other gods except God the Redeemer.

Love God With All Your Heart

The great commandment by Ambrosius Francken I, 1585

When an expert in the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was in the Law, Jesus replied: “ ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ This is the first commandment.”

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Matthew 22:35–38

When we love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, we can worship God only and no other gods. However, just because a person thinks he loves God or says that he loves God, that does not mean that he can be acknowledged by God as a person who loves God with all his heart, mind, and soul.

The Passover Fulfills the First Commandment

The Passover Contains the Promise of Judging Other Gods

The first of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me,” includes the command, “Worship only God,” and “Do not serve any other gods.” The Passover is the truth that allows us to keep these two commands. It is because God established the Passover as the day to judge other gods.

History of the Exodus

The first Passover celebrated at the time of the Exodus

The Passover was first established at the time of the Exodus of the Israelites.

“[I]t is the LORD’s Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”

Exodus 12:11–12

God said that judgment would be brought on all the other gods on the Passover. When all other gods are judged, the only god left is God, who is the true God. When we realize the Passover and keep it, we will automatically serve only God and no other gods. This way, we will be able to obey the first commandment.

Time of King Hezekiah

Hezekiah and the people of Judah destroying various idols after keeping the Passover

Until the time of Hezekiah, the thirteenth king of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the Passover had not been celebrated for a long time in Judah. After Hezekiah was enthroned, he repaired the temple and kept the Passover with the people.

Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. . . . They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written.

2 Chronicles 30:1, 5

After the people celebrated the Passover, they destroyed other gods.

When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

2 Chronicles 31:1

Until they kept the Passover, Hezekiah and the people had worshiped other gods unknowingly, and kept various idols around them such as sacred stones and Asherah poles. However, after keeping the Passover, they destroyed all the detestable gods they had worshiped.

Time of King Josiah

Josiah and the people destroying the idols after realizing the Passover

In the eighteenth year of Josiah, the sixteenth king of the southern Kingdom of Judah, the king and the people removed the idols from the temple after they realized a covenant of God recorded in the Book of the Law. This covenant was the Passover.

The king [Josiah] stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant [Passover] written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.

2 Kings 23:3–4

King Josiah believed in God and tried to live according to God’s will, but he had kept idols in the temple of God for eighteen years since he was enthroned. When Josiah realized the Passover, he destroyed all the idols in the whole country and destroyed the golden calves and the high places that Jeroboam, the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, had made.

• The Sin of Jeroboam

Jeroboam, the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel, tried to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to celebrate God’s feasts, including the Passover. So he made two golden calves, set up one in Bethel and the other in Dan, and said to the people, “O Israel, here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” He also appointed days of his own choosing as feasts. This led the northern Kingdom of Israel to forsake the feasts of God and to worship other gods on the pretext of believing in God. This history also shows that if we do not keep the Passover, we come to worship other gods, not even realizing we are.

Repeated History

Jeroboam Sacrificing to His Idols by Claes Corneliszoon Moeyaert, 1641

God’s promise to judge other gods through the Passover did not only apply to the time of the Exodus. In any age, whenever people realized the Passover and kept it, all the other gods were destroyed. On the contrary, whenever they forsook the Passover, they came to worship other gods though claiming to believe in God. This repeated over and over again.
Until the Passover was celebrated in the days of Hezekiah and Josiah, the people kept idols and worshiped them. Likewise, even though we believe in God today, if we do not keep the Passover, we come to serve other gods unknowingly. That is why the churches that do not keep the Passover observe Sunday worship, the holy day of the sun god, and Christmas, the birthday of the sun god. However, the Church of God, which keeps the Passover by following the example of Christ, does not keep any of the pagan customs such as Sunday worship, Christmas, cross-reverence, or Easter eggs.

Therefore, the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” can only be fulfilled by keeping the Passover.

The Passover Allows You to Love God With All Your Heart

The Sign on the Hand and the Reminder on Your Forehead

By Hermann Struck, 1913: Jews wear Tefillin (תְּפִלִּין, black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses) on their foreheads and hands.

Moses said that the first commandment, “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength,” should be a symbol on the hands and foreheads.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Deuteronomy 6:4–8

However, in the book of Exodus which was also written by Moses, it is written that the Passover should be the sign on the hand and the reminder on the forehead.

“On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips.”

Exodus 13:8–9

What God did for the Israelites when they came out of Egypt is that He destroyed the firstborn of Egypt through disaster and protected the Israelites who kept the Passover. On the night of the Passover, the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. Therefore, this ceremony, which is to be the sign on the hand and a reminder on the forehead, refers to the Passover. These words indicate that the first commandment, “Love God with all your heart,” and the Passover are in fact the same.

Josiah Fulfilled the First Commandment

In the Bible, there is a person who was acknowledged to have loved God with all his heart. He is King Josiah of the southern Kingdom of Judah.

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.

2 Kings 23:25

Josiah was written as someone who turned to God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of God. This means that Josiah fully obeyed all the law, including the first commandment, “Love God with all your heart.” Josiah received this acknowledgment after keeping the Passover which had not been kept for a long time.

The king gave this order to all the people: “Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” Not since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23:21–23

By keeping the Passover, Josiah fully obeyed the first commandment, “Love God with all your heart.”

New Covenant Passover

The Passover of the new covenant kept by Jesus before the crucifixion

The equivalence of the First Commandment and the Passover is not limited to the Old Testament times. Two thousand years ago, Jesus established the Passover of the new covenant. As God who was incarnated, Jesus suffered the shedding of blood on the cross for the salvation of mankind. The last thing he kept with His disciples before His suffering was the New Covenant Passover, which is well-known as The Last Supper. Jesus promised the Passover bread to be His flesh that would be torn on the cross, and the Passover wine to be His blood that would be shed on the cross.

And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” . . . And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup [wine], saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

Luke 22:15, 19–20

The Passover of the new covenant is the truth that allows us to realize the love and sacrifice of Jesus who opened the way of salvation through the pain of being crucified and shedding His blood. Those who are saved through the Passover and realize God’s love are bound to love God with all their heart. Therefore, even in the New Testament times, we come to love God with all our heart when we keep the Passover of the new covenant. Thus, regardless of age, the first commandment, “Love God with all your heart,” can be fulfilled through the Passover.

See also

• Ten Commandments
• Passover
• New Covenant Passover
• New Commandment

External links

• Church of God Official Website
• Christ Ahnsahnghong Official Website

Related videos

• Sermon: The First Commandment & the Passover

• Sermon: You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me