Have No Other Gods
By Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam
To many Christians, the 10 Commandments are an
onerous burden. They regard the Commandments as a set of rules that limits
them. This article, however, sets out to show that the 10 Commandments were
given that we have and live a more abundant life.
To live a happy and
successful life, we must obey the 10 Commandments because the God who made us
knows best. When God gave the 10 Commandments to the Israelites, He was giving
them the means to enjoy the freedom of living apart from sinful pleasure of the
world. He had just brought out the Jews out of 400 years of slavery in
But now, they are free. But, for what? To do as they please? No, that was not God’s
plan. He had established a relationship with them and now led them out of
This was His Decalogue. The
root word “deca” means ten as in decade and “logue” stands for “logos” which means the word. The words
drew a boundary within which the Jews had to live. It was God’s law of right
living that clearly spelt out the responsibility involved in relating to God
and to one another. Within this boundary they enjoyed the limitless freedom of
living a life of fullness and where God was supreme. Outside of this life, they
will live a miserable life because of sin.
The Commandments are divided
into two groups. The first four define pour relationship with God and the
remaining six define our relationship with one another. In defining how we are
to behave, God is putting the limits that will keep us from falling out of
relationship with Him. The limitations protect us.
The limitations are God’s
proof of His love for us. He loves us and wants to draw us close to Him.
Through His commandments, He keeps us within the boundary of His love. Hebrews
12:5-6 describes how His love for us is also demonstrated by His discipline of
us. It states: “And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that
addresses to you as sons: ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not loose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the
one He love, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.’ ”
The commandment
are thus God’s strategy for releasing the believer to live the good life
that comes only by obedience. Jesus Himself affirms this when He said in Matt
By restating the
commandments, Jesus showed what the father meant when He gave the 10
Commandments – that building a relationship with God was more important than
mere obedience to rules. The first and foundational condition for the success
of this relationship then is our love for Him. The command to love Him with all
our heart, mind and soul is for our good. This how we can
come to know our God. Upon that basis, He proves that He IS our God.
There can be no other.
THE PREEMINENCE OF GOD
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of
“You shall have no other God’s before me (Exodus
20:2-3)
The first two commandments
can be paraphrased as “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me.” They categorically state, firstly,
that He is the Creator God and there is none like Him, and, secondly, that the
other gods are not to be worshipped because they are God’s of our creation.
God also declares His
preeminent position above all other so-called gods. Therefore, we should
worship none other. If we worship graven images, we are not worshipping the one
and only true living Jehovah God; we are worshipping carved images of our own
finite minds.
There are other Gods; God
refers to them as the other “gods”, but they cannot be substituted for Him. If
we worship them, we offer Satan a chance to step in and keep us worshipping our
own creation without us realising it. He succeeds
because we are not really worshiping the true God. There is, therefore, no alternative to
worshipping the Jehovah God. We must refuse any alternative. This commandment
is a strong imperative. Have other gods and suffer the consequences.
The Commandment Are for Our Good
God created man. The Bible
says: “So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them” (Gen
As the God who loves us, His
concerns are for our good. He has a plans for us and
it is good. He reassures us in Jeremiah 29:11 : “ ‘For I know the plans I have
for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to proper you and not to harm you, plans to
give you hope and a future.’ ”
He must also be preeminent
in our lives because He redeemed us. In 1 Corinthians 6:20, He says: “You were
bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your
body.” God redeemed us with the blood of His precious Son. We belong to Him and
He is worthy of that preeminent place in our lives.
By His commands and the work
He did on the cross, God our Creator and Redeemer has set us free to enjoy all
His blessings and these include living victoriously over our human nature. He
is a jealous God, guarding over us protectively so that we do not go out of the
boundary of His perfect will. He is not
selfish in His motives of wanting to worship Him alone. He knows if we worship
anything else, we open ourselves to Satan’s plans and that would ruin our whole
life now and forever.
THE POTENTIAL TO LIVE
VICTORIOUSLY OVER OUR SINFUL NATURE
Worshipping any other god
will only hurt us. An image of our own creation can also be a god. Such an
image is created according to our own tastes, desires, lust and finite mind. By
worshipping images – other gods – we disobey god and allow Satan a foothold in
our lives. Obedience to His commandments, however, free
us from Satan’s clutches to worship the true and living Jehovah God. When we
obey Him, we can enjoy the full liberty of worshipping Him. In worshipping Him,
we receive and enjoy freedom and blessings of God that makes us victorious.
We must remember we become
limited when we worship other gods. By worshipping them, we submit to their
limitations which really are our own limitations. We become victims of our own
sinful nature. Ephesians 2:1-2 says: “As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of
this sinful in which you used to live when you followed the ways if this world
and of the ruler of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now
at work in those who are disobedient.”
We can now obey Him because
we are no longer dead in our sins and the work of “the spirit who is now at
work in those who are disobedient” does not have a hold on us anymore.
We are no longer enslaved to
the ruler of the kingdom of the air. We have been saved for an eternal purpose,
therefore, we should walk with obedience to Christ, knowing that our lives are
His and He will not short-change us. He is the faithful God who works for our
good. By worshipping any other god, we deprive ourselves of the blessings of
living a victorious Life.
Worship Him alone and let
Him be God of your life. You will then experience the joy of living a more
abundant life.
(All scriptures verses quoted
are taken from the New International Version Bible)
No. 27,
May – June 1994