Elite and powerful people have conspired to sever our society and culture from its religious moorings—from God and the transcendent moral framework that flows from his nature and is revealed both in nature and Scripture.

You shall have no other gods before Me.
(Exodus 20:3)

The first commandment is absolutely foundational, utterly basic, to individual and societal flourishing. The truly good life starts with accepting this command as the rule of life. In Israel’s day, the nations were thoroughly committed polytheists. They viewed their own gods as finite and limited in their knowledge and power, and thought that they could manipulate or appease those gods by means of incantations and rituals. In our day, also we are polytheistic. Although we don’t tend to make statues of our gods and bow before them in a literal manner, we do build metaphorical shrines to our gods—gods such as sex, money, power, and the approval of other people.

How do we identify the “gods” that individuals and even entire communities of people worship? We identify what individuals or communities absolutize or ascribe ultimacy to. Every human being is religious; each of us ascribe ultimacy to something. Further, Scripture teaches that our worship of these gods is done from the “heart.” More than 800 times, Scripture relates religion to the heart and, in Scripture, the heart is the central organizer of our lives. Thus, what or who we worship becomes our life-planner an organizer. Religion begins in the heart but radiates outward into everything we say and do.

This commandment exhorts us to choose decisively for the Lord. This point is repeated throughout the Scriptures. Joshua instructed Israel, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served…” (Josh 24:14). Through Moses, God told Israel, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut 6:1-9). Likewise, Jesus instructed his disciples to love God more than any other person or thing we are tempted to love (Lk 14:25-33).

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