1st Commandment ...

Monday, Jan 29, 2018. What is the most important thing in life? What is your first thought when you think about your day? Usually, we are busy with some immediate needs. We think about our morning at work, or our morning with the kids. Or we think about our loneliness, our illness, our most pressing problem.

The bible expresses an invitation, to think about this first place in our life. Let us look into the most prominent commandment, which takes up this most important question: what is our life build upon? What is holding it? What is giving it its spinal column?

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The Lord, your God …

When we look into the bible, the New Testament and the Old Testament, a core part is the ten commandments. They build the core of the “old” testament, this first contract which God make with the people of Israel. And they build the core of the New Testament, the background on which Jesus and his salvation operates. Let us read!

1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before1 me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Ex. 20, 1-6)

This is the first commandment with its explantory text. God is the Lord, our God. He is the creator. He is the initial force. He is the liberator. He is the guide. He is a loving father, justice himself, love himself, a burning fire!

My Life …

(Roland Potthast) ... further texts