THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Taken from the “Catechism Of The Catholic Church”
Latin text copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Citta del
Vaticano 1993
Edited, abridged, and rewritten in places by DSB
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You
shall not make for yourself a graven 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; you shall not bow down to them or serve them
(Exodus 20:2-5; Deut. 5:6-9).
In response to the devil’s temptation, Jesus said:
“It is
written: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only
shall
you serve’” (Matt. 4:10).
Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: "You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your mind" (Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27). This immediately echoes the
solemn call: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD" (Deut. 6:4).
God has loved us first. The love of the One God is recalled in the
first of the "ten commandments." The rest of the commandments then make
explicit the response of love that man is called to give to God.
I. You Shall Worship the
Lord Your God . . .
God begins this commandment by making Himself known by recalling His
all-powerful loving and liberating action at a point in time in
Israel’s history: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of
the house of bondage." Then God makes it clear that we are to accept
Him and worship Him – alone. And in Deuteronomy 6:13-14, He
adds:
“You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him . . .
You
shall not go after other gods . . . for the LORD your God . . . is
jealous God.”
In giving the Law, the one and true God first reveals his glory to
Israel (Ex.19:16-25; 24:15-18). In revealing His glory first, God was
making it known that we have a responsibility to keep the Law, and in
so doing, make God’s glory known to the rest of the world.
There will never be
another God, and
there has been no other since the world began except He who made and
ordered the universe. We do not think that our God is different from
yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt "by his
powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not place our hope in
some other god, for there is none. Therefore, we place our hope in the
same God as you do: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (St.
Justin, Dial. cum Tryphone Judaeo 11, 1: PG 6, 497).
This first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity (expressions
of love in its many facets, including love toward those less
fortunate).
When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the
same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows from who He is
that we must necessarily accept His words and have complete faith in
Him and acknowledge His authority. He is almighty, merciful, and
infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in Him? Who could
not love Him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love He
has poured out on us?
Faith
Our moral life has its source in faith in God and in His holy
scriptures. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5;
16:26). as a primary obligation of every Christian. He shows that
ignorance of God, willfully ignoring God, disrespect for God, and
ingratitude toward God are the principle causes and explanations of all
moral deviations (Rom 1:18-32). Therefore, our duty toward God is to
believe in Him and then obey Him.
The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with
prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it.
There are various ways of sinning against faith:
(1) Voluntary doubt about
the faith so
as to disregard or refuse to hold as true what God has revealed and the
Church proposes for belief.
(2) Involuntary doubt resulting in hesitation in believing, difficulty
in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or anxiety aroused
by what is not revealed and therefore not known.
Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to
assent to it. Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some
truth which must be believed, or it is an obstinate doubt concerning
some truth which must be believed. Apostasy is the total repudiation of
the Christian faith. Schism is the refusal of submission to the Elders,
or a refusal to be in good-standing with the members of the Church.
Hope
When God reveals Himself and calls us to Himself, we cannot fully
respond to the divine love by our own powers. We must hope that God
will give us the capacity to love Him and to act in conformity with His
commandments. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing for
doing all that God requires us to do; and this hope includes the fear
of offending God's love and of incurring discipline or punishment.
The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely,
despair and presumption. By despair, man ceases to hope for his
personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it, or for the
forgiveness of his sins. Despair is unbelief in God's goodness and His
justice – even though He is eternally faithful to His
promises
and to His mercy.
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own
capacities – hoping to be able to save himself without help
from
on high, or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy
–
hoping to obtain his forgiveness without repentance, and eternal glory
without conversion and sanctification (a holy life).
Charity
Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond
with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us
to love God above everyone and everything else, and for no other reason
than He is our God (Deut 6:4-5).
One can sin against God's love in various ways:
(1) Indifference neglects
or refuses to reflect on and study divine charity for the purpose of
living according to its example.
(2) Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to
return Him love for love.
(3) Lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine
love; it can include refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of
charity.
(4) Acedia (to lack care or concern) or spiritual sloth goes so far as
to care less about the joy that comes from pleasing God and to even be
repelled by God’s goodness toward others.
(5) Hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God,
whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the One who
forbids sins and inflicts punishments.
II. Him Only Shall You
Serve . . .
The godly virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to
the moral virtues. Thus they lead us to render to God what we as
creatures owe Him.
Adoration
Adoration is the first act of the Christian religion. To adore God is
to acknowledge Him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and
Master of everything that exists, and as infinite and merciful Love.
"You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve,"
says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy (Lk 4:8; Deut 6:13).
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the
"nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To adore
God is to praise and exalt Him and to humble oneself, confessing with
gratitude that He has done great things and holy is His name (Lk
1:46-49). The worship of the one God sets us free from turning in on
ourselves, from the slavery of sin, and from the idolatry of the world.
Prayer
The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment
are significantly aided and even accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the
heart and mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God
– be it in prayers of praise, thanksgiving, intercession, or
petition. Prayer is an indispensable source of help for being able to
obey God's commandments. "(We) ought always to pray and not lose heart"
(Lk 18:1).
Sacrifice
It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and
gratitude, supplication and communion. Outward sacrifice, to be
genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice
acceptable to God is a broken spirit..." (Ps 51:17). The prophets of
the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the
heart or not coupled with love of neighbor (Am 5:21-25; Isa 1:10-20).
Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not
sacrifice" (Mt 9:13; 12:7; Cf. Hos 6:6). The only perfect sacrifice is
the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the
Father's love and for our salvation (Heb 9:13-14). By dying and rising
with Him so that we live for Him and no longer for ourselves, we can
make our lives a sacrifice to God.
Promises and vows
In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God.
For example, Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, and joining a Holy Order
always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may
also promise to God this action, that prayer, this alms-giving, that
Bible reading, and so forth. Faithfulness to promises made to God is a
sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a
faithful God.
A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God. A vow is an act of
devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises
Him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has
been promised. For the majority of Christians, this includes the vows
of matrimony.
Standing With And For The
Truth
All Christians are bound to seek the truth, especially the truth that
concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as
they come to know it. This duty derives from our position as creature
to our Creator, and as redeemed to our Redeemer. But be mindful that
this duty does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different
religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which
enlightens all men," nor does it negate the requirement of charity
which urges Christians to treat with love, prudence and patience those
who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith.
Therefore, the duty of worshiping the One true God includes pointing
individuals and society toward their moral duty, the true religion,
salvation and sanctification in Christ, and the Body of Christ. It is
to this end that Christians are called to be the light of the world.
However, nobody is to be forced to act against his convictions, nor is
anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience
in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association
with others, within due limits. And yet, the right to religious liberty
is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supposed right to
practice evil, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil
liberty, i.e., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint
in religious matters by political authorities.
III. You Shall Have No
Other Gods Before Me
The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who
has revealed Himself to His people. It forbids superstition and
irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of
religion. Irreligion is the unholiness of life contrary to the holiness
of religion.
Superstition
Superstition is the deviation of religion from a single focus on God to
include such things as places, objects, traditions, items, or prayers
that are believed to have magical powers. To attribute the efficacy
(capacity or power to produce a desired effect) of certain prayers or
of worship services or of daily Bible reading to their mere external
performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is
to fall into superstition.
Idolatry
The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to
believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God.
Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, (of) silver and
gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshipers empty:
"Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them" (Ps
115:4-5, 8; cf. Isa 44:9-20; Jer 10:1-16; Dan 14:1-30; Bar 6; Wis 13:1;
15:19 ). God, however, is the "living God" (Josh 3:10; Ps 42:3) who
gives life and intervenes in history.
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant
temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God.
Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place
of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power,
pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You
cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt 6:24). Idolatry rejects the unique
Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God
(Rev 13-14).
Divination and magic
God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a
sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into
the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up
all unhealthy curiosity about it.
Therefore, all forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to
Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely
supposed to "unveil" the future (Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8). Consulting
horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots,
the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all reveal a
desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other
human beings. They contradict the trust, honor, respect, and loving
fear that we owe to God alone.
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult
powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural
power over others – even if this were for the sake of
restoring
their health – are gravely contrary to the virtue of
religion.
These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the
intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the
intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible.
Irreligion
God's first commandment condemns the main sins of irreligion: tempting
God, in words or deeds, sacrilege (violation or misuse of something
regarded as sacred, blasphemy, irreverence), and simony (buying or
selling of pardons, benefices, and other ecclesiastical privileges).
Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the
test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself
down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act (Lk 4:9).
Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the LORD
your God to the test" (Deut 6:16). The challenge contained in such
tempting of God, wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator and
Lord. It always harbors doubt about His love, His providence, and His
power (cf, 1 Cor 10:9; Ex 17:2-7; Ps 95:9).
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating or speaking (joking)
unworthily about the scriptures, sincere religious practices, morality,
and other godly traditions, as well as persons, things, or places
consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin in that it shows great
disrespect for God, His dear son, His holy word, sincere religious
practices, and the Body of Christ.
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things (Cf.
Acts 8:9-24). To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual
power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver
perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with
money!" (Acts 8:20) Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You
received without pay, give without pay" (Mt 10:8). It is impossible to
appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their
owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive
them only from Him, without payment.
Atheism
Many of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or explicitly
reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must
therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time.
The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common
form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and
aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man
to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker with supreme control of
his own history. Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the
liberation of man through economic and social liberation. It holds that
religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising
man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging
him from working for a better form of life on earth.
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin
against God and the practice of Christianity. The guilt of this offense
may be significantly diminished in light of the intentions and the
circumstances. For example, believers can have more than a little to do
with the rise of atheism. To the extent that Christians are careless
about their instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely,
or fail to live up to the truth they know and teach others, or act like
unbelievers in relation to money, possessions, power, and fame, it can
be said they are concealing rather than to revealing the true nature of
God, and they are inexcusably offending rather than enlightening
unbelievers.
Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy,
exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God. Yet, to
acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such
dignity is grounded and brought to perfection when man is in right
relation to God.
Agnosticism
Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic
refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a
transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about
which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no
judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or
even to affirm or deny.
Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can
equally express indifference, a flight from the ultimate question of
existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too
often equivalent to practical atheism.