Читать книгу Three Simple Rules for Christian Living - Rueben P. Job - Страница 19

Central to understanding all of the Ten Commandments are the first two—which paradoxically seem to be the ones that do not directly say "do no harm." The first one, with preface, is key to all the others: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2-3). This is the declaration that God has acted out of love to give life and freedom to God's people. Their ultimate loyalty is to God alone. If they give their ultimate loyalty to someone or something else, they will do harm—to themselves and to others. The second commandment against idolatry flows from the first and basically reiterates it. We are to worship God and God alone, not things, not other people, not institutions, not governments, not our own power, and not our talents and ambitions. In other words, God comes first. Although in our time, we don't routinely see statues of gods in our towns, we do have the tendency to make gods of many things. The things we value most may function as our "gods." Sometimes it's been said that if we follow the first two commandments we're not as likely to break the other ones. If our highest loyalty is to God, then we will love what God loves, and that is the foundation of living so as to do no harm.