And God spoke all these words, saying: "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 20:1-3
This first commandment (and the first of the first table of the law regarding worship of God) is not hard to understand. Only those bent on breaking it will misunderstand it, purposely, in order to rationalize it. For instance, some have incorrectly seized on the words “before Me,” allowing for the recognition of other gods, as long as God is first, and other gods are not ahead of Him. This is foolishly incorrect, which I trust you can easily see.
This first commandment is obviously a prohibition of recognizing anyone or anything as a god. A shorthand version of this commandment could be stated: “There is only one God.”
That the Bible refers to a Person who is called the Father and is God; a Person who is called the Son and is God; and a Person who is called the Holy Spirit and is called God, does not mean that Christians believe in three Gods. No, we believe in one eternal God, who is eternally three distinct (but never separate) Persons.
Errors about God are fundamental errors. Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs), for example, believe that Jesus is “a” god, but not Jehovah God. This is clearly a belief in more than one God. Challenged with this they will routinely refer to 1 Corinthians 8:5, insisting that “the Bible says there are many gods”. True to their confused ways, they conveniently ignore the context which points out that there are many false gods! The JWs’ false religion is fundamentally wrong in that it they believe in more than one God—and that Jesus is not God.
Then there are the Mormons (LDS). Their fundamental error about God is that God was once a human and that human beings can become gods. The LDS’ false religion is fundamentally wrong in that it they believe in more than one God—and that we can become gods.
One last example: the modern religion of “me-ism.” The devotees of this popular religion imagine what they think God should be, and that god of their imagination becomes their god. When adherents of the religion of me-ism hear truths about God from the Bible that are contrary to the god of their imagination, they like to sanctimoniously say, “MY god would never do that.” Well of course their god wouldn’t do what the only true and living God would do because their god must do what they would do. After all, they created their god in their own image!
Though you may be secure that you are neither a Mormon nor a JW, is there any me-ism in your life and beliefs?