The First Commandment

The first commandment states: "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." God speaks this commandment to His people. The main meaning of this verse is that God's people are not to obey anyone else before obeying God. God comes first in life. He is the first one we obey.

When teaching children about the first commandment, we need to make it very clear that they are not to obey anyone else before God. They are supposed to obey their parents and their teachers because of the fifth commandment, but they are not supposed to obey their friends.

When children get into trouble, the first thing they try to do is switch the blame away from themselves. If someone else was doing the same thing, the first thing they will say is: "But Johnny was doing it too!" At this point what they are saying is that they are not putting God first. Instead, they were being bad because Johnny was being bad; they were putting Johnny ahead of God. When they sinned, God wasn't first, Johnny was.

This is a good example to tell the children when they are trying to learn to put God first. We must not let ourselves be led astray by the sinners around us. We must not try to please other people; we must try to please God. God comes first. We should listen to others, but only when they are pointing to the Scriptures and saying, "God hath said."