Exodus 20:1-3 Study Guide - The First Commandment: Devoted Worship

Community Group Study Guide — The First Commandment - Devoted Worship 
Exodus 20:1-3

Study Information:
Whether you follow Jesus or not, you are a worshipper. This seems counter how our culture emphasizes atheism, self discovery and being a free person. Yet, the Bible puts all people into one of two categories, we either worship God or we worship a created thing. Paul said it this way in Romans 1:21–23, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (ESV)” In the ancient world this took the form of worshipping images and statues in temples of worship and that is still the temptation for many in the world today. However, for much of the Western World, our temptation comes not from worshipping an image but instead devoting our lives to something other than God. What God wants from his people with the First Commandment is their undivided love everywhere, all the time, with all they have. This command is because God alone is worthy of that kind of worship and because anything else we give our lives to will ultimately put us back into slavery. Only God is infinite and can satisfy the longings of our heart, and any created thing cannot bear that weight. 

Grace and Freedom are at the Heart of God’s Commands
Exodus 20:1-2
The Ten Commandments are actually named the ten “Words” in the Hebrew text. Typically the commandments have been categorized into “two tablets,” not in a literal sense that the first table contained some commandments and the other contained the rest but rather in an imaginative sense that commandments 1-4 relate to loving God and commandments 5-10 relate to how we love others. The first commandment found in Exodus 20:3, “you shall have no other gods before me” serves as a foundation for the other nine commandments. If we keep our undivided attention on God we will naturally and automatically keep the other commandments. Yet who has ever kept their undivided attention on God the Father except Jesus? How can we even hope to worship God with our full heart and attention? In order to do that it is helpful to understand the heart of the commandments. 

Before God gave his people to “to dos” of their faith he pointed them to the “done.” Grace and freedom came before the law. The first words of God to his people from Mount Sinai was a reminder of his covenantal love for them, that he was “the LORD your God.” His people were his treasured possession and they did not belong to Pharaoh or Egypt or anyone else. Next, God reminded them of what he had done in their freedom from slavery. They were brought out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 20:2). Israel did nothing to earn or contribute to this salvation, it was all related to God’s grace, kindness and faithfulness. God did not save them because of their obedience, he saved them to relationship and gave them these commandments to guide them in their freedom and to be a light to the nations (Exodus 19:5-6). 

If you’re a follower of Jesus, be careful not to get the Gospel and the Law reversed. True obedience to God starts with his grace. God’s grace always goes first and we are never able to earn or deserve the salvation we receive from Christ. The more we are able to realize and understand God’s steadfast love and grace the more that will motivate our obedience to Christ. 

Devoted to God
Exodus 20:3
The first commandment sets up the foundation for all the rest. We are to give God their undivided worship, attention and devotion. The first commandment and second commandment form a strong prohibition against idolatry, the worship of false gods. These commandments were not given because God is arrogant or needy but because he alone is worthy and he alone can actually satisfy the longings of our hearts. Jeremiah 2:13 contains a rebuke from God to his people for how they had forsaken him, the fountain of living waters, and had carved out for themselves broken cisterns that couldn’t hold water. The image here is that God is an everlasting fountain of life and joy, but Israel had instead carved out holes in the ground, cisterns, used for storing up water in a drought and these cisterns were like a leaky bucket with a hole in the bottom. God cares about our undivided devotion because he is worthy and anything else we give our hearts to are like those cisterns, they will eventually be empty and worthless. 

It can be difficult to know if what you’re devoting your life to is related to good and godly desires or if it has taken the place of God. Ezekiel 14:3 warns us against setting up idols, false gods, in our hearts. Jesus talked about how we cannot devote ourselves to both God and money, which he used the name “Mammon.” Paul wrote to the Colossians and warned them against “covetousness which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5).” This points to how our interactions with things of this world are not neutral, we can either use them to honor God or we can pursue them in the place of God. The warning here is to not let your heart slip into being devoted to anything other than God because in the long run you will love what you’re devoted to and hate the rivals (Matthew 6:24). You can tell if something has become an idol in your heart based on what you fear, what you day dream about, what you do in a crisis, areas where sin patterns form and addictive behaviors dominate. Often this is where strong Christian community comes into play because others can see clearly what we cannot. 

What should you do if you find your heart drifting towards a rival god? Each of the study guides in this series on the Ten Commandments will be more specific towards how this is lived out in relationship to those commandments and temptation areas, but to give us a general sense of how we fight idols we can do three things. First, we begin with repentance. This includes identifying and naming the sin pattern or false god and taking steps to turn away from that and turn towards God. This could be removing some of the temptation areas and confessing to others for accountability and prayer. Second we can rest in God. John tells us that we are only able to truly love God because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). This is the reminder of the gospel and helps us to point back to the power of God. Read specific scripture and pray in response to what you read as you seek God for help. Finally, we can replace those idols with practices that help us love God. Paul gives us some helpful practices in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4 for how we can replace these specific sin areas with godly practices. 

To be Devoted to God is to orient your entire life around love for him. God is worthy of your worship and he alone can satisfy the infinite longings of our hearts. 

At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week? 

Discussion Questions:
Read Exodus 20:1-17

What was Israel’s current historical context and how does that influence what we read in Exodus 20:1-2? 

This study guide makes the point that God’s grace comes first before the Law. What would it be like if that was reversed (what if you had to keep the commands of God before you were able to receive his grace and salvation?) 

The foundation of the Ten Commandments is the First Commandment to have no other gods before the Lord. Would it be possible to keep commandments 2 through 10 if you cannot keep the first one? Why or why not?

Spend some time thinking through what you fear, daydream about, the things you think that need to change for life to be joyful, how you respond in a crisis, etc. What patterns do you see and what do you typically find rivals your worship of God? What steps can you take to turn from those idols and towards God this week?