The Love Principle - Study 4: Love No Other God

Exodus 20:3 NIV 

[3] “You shall have no other gods before me. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.20.3.NIV)

Now we arrive at a commandment that, for some reason, we often find difficult. 

The commandment itself is somewhat easy to understand. 

But it’s application? That’s another story. 

We should be used to people being quite demanding. It’s an every day reality for anyone working in the service industry. 

It’s also a reality for anyone who has to deal with immigration. My wife is not British born. To bring her to the UK more than twenty years ago took two years of evidence gathering, months of accumulating documents, hours stood in queues in front of government buildings, all to build up a dossier of A4 paper that was over an inch in size and several kilograms in weight. The postage to send this by courier to the UK Embassy was pretty expensive. 

But, by God’s grace and an administrative miracle, we received her spouse visa after two weeks. 

Eventually we arrived at London Heathrow airport, passports in hand, seeking to cross the border into the UK. 

But they wouldn’t let us in. Not until my wife had a chest x-ray to prove she didn’t have tuberculosis. We could have got the x-ray done in the Philippines, but it was plain that they didn’t trust the medical system there, and so we had to go to an airside medical facility in the bowels of the airport to get the x-ray done before they would let us in. 

Of course, there was a bit of concern in the room. X-rays show up things that you can’t see and sometimes can’t even feel yet. But after a few hours of waiting, her x-ray came up clean and we were allowed to enter the UK. 

Demands like that are exacting, but we understand them. They are designed to keep people safe. We get it. 

In this verse, God demands to have first place in our lives. Not first among equals. Not the best of a good bunch. Not the winner of some spiritual competition. He demands that we give Him first place outright. 

Is He entitled to that first place? 

If you have read my last study on why we should love God, you should be giving this question a resounding answer of ‘Yes’. There is nothing and no-one more deserving and neither will there ever be. 

But for the avoidance of doubt, and to give us an indication of what this really means for us, I thought I’d explore the implications of this demand for complete exclusivity in Scripture. 

The first thing we notice is that Other Gods Fall. 

Other Gods Fall 

1 Samuel 5:1-5 NIV 

[1] After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. [2] Then they carried the ark into Dagon’s temple and set it beside Dagon. [3] When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. [4] But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained. [5] That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon’s temple at Ashdod step on the threshold. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1sa.5.1-5.NIV)

Have you ever been a room that has been hushed into silence when someone important has entered? 

Apart from school (when it was usually an indication that someone had done something they shouldn’t have before the teacher arrived), I’ve only experienced it once, in a criminal court. 

Here we see something on a different scale. This is really quite unique. 

The context is tragic. Israel had lost in battle to the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:1-2). They thought they could use the Ark of the Covenant – the symbol of God’s presence among them – as a good luck charm, so they took it with them for the second battle (1 Samuel 4:3-4). 

All it did was embolden the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:5-9). 

The result was a quite terrible, morale-sapping loss: Israel lost both the ark and their high priest on a single day (1 Samuel 4:10-22). 

So the Philistines stole the ark. As far as they were concerned, this wasn’t just a military victory, it was also a spiritual victory: their god Dagon had beaten the Hebrew God. They therefore placed the spoils of war – the Ark of the Covenant – into the temple of their ‘victorious’ god (1 Samuel 5:1-2). 

But God saw things very differently.  

He had not been beaten in battle. This tragic and humiliating loss came from Him as a punishment for the Israelites for their sin and for Eli, their high priest, for not controlling his wayward sons (1 Samuel 2:27-36, 3:11-14). The defeat and the loss of Eli’s sons Hophni and Phineas, as well as Eli’s death and the loss of the Ark, were not at all a sign of God’s weakness. 

Far from it. 

As we can see from our verses, the statue of Dagon fell over onto its face as if bowing down in worship, and it did it two nights in a row. The second night, its head and hands fell off – something that is symbolically significant. 

God was showing Dagon and its worshippers who was boss. 

The thing is, Dagon is not the only idol to fall before the Lord. 

Many people have been to the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey. In this city, in an Islamic nation, there is a powerful and incontrovertible witness to the greatness of God. 

The rapid spread of the Gospel in this city was met with a noisy, riotous response (Acts 19:23-41). The riot was started by a silversmith who made figurines of their local goddess – Artemis, also known as Diana. Her temple in Ephesus was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was spectacular. During the riot, the people chanted in opposition to the spread of Christianity ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ To those thousands of people, she meant everything. They were determined to rid themselves of the Christian ‘menace’, because Christians taught that Artemis was not a god at all. 

But how many people do you know who worship Artemis/Diana? And when you go to Ephesus, you won’t see anything of her temple except one single pillar. For all their noise and threats, almost nothing remains of their religion. It’s died out completely. 

It fell before the Gospel. 

Time after time after time throughout history, this has happened. 

I remember growing up in the 1980s believing that Communism looked to be invincible. It was almost impossible to imagine life without its dark, spectral threat. 

Where is it now? A few crackpots on street corners or manning stalls? A handful of governments who long surrendered its ideals and now make money from state-restricted capitalism, cronyism and corruption? 

Communism is dead. It died and where it lay, the Gospel is reigning. 

The Chinese dictator Chairman Mao is said to have ordered his people to stop killing Christians, because when one died, another five would spring up. 

We should not be surprised at this. Daniel prophesied that it would happen (Daniel 2:44-45). We might not see it now, but one day all creation will bow before Jesus (Philippians 2:9-11), even those who currently bow the knee to someone else. 

Neither should we be triumphalist about it. The victory is God’s, mot ours. We didn’t earn it. 

But we should remember that God is a jealous God and every idol will fall before Him. 

We have to do our best to make sure that we don’t fall with them. 

It’s clear, then, that other gods fall before our God: if they haven’t fallen yet, they will fall in the future. We also see that Other Gods Are Failures. 

Other Gods Are Failures 

1 Kings 18:25-29 NIV 

[25] Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” [26] So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. [27] At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” [28] So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. [29] Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.18.25-29.NIV)

Years ago, we decided to do a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s a pretty chaotic place. Not somewhere I would recommend to rest and adjust to the new time zone after a long haul flight. 

While we were there, we had to visit the palaces and temples. They are what the city is famous for. 

One of the most spectacular of these is Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. In the middle of this temple is a forty-four metre long, gold leaf covered statue of Buddha reclining. It is quite something to see up close. It’s quite impressive. 

Now, I’m not Buddhist, if you haven’t already noticed. I appreciated it from an aesthetic point of view, but there was no way I was about to bow down and pray to or worship a statue of a long-dead guy who was cremated and had his remains distributed across India.  

So there were, taking pictures of the temple while others burned incense and prayed.  

What do you think Buddha did about it? 

Nothing. He’s dead. His statue just lay there. It did nothing. 

I've passed Hindu temples. They are very bright and colourful. Plenty going on with all their gods carved on the outside like gargoyles. What will they do about the fact that I am not a believer in Hinduism? 

Nothing. They don’t exist. 

I have been in churches with incredible icons and statues of the saints. But I don’t pray to them or through them. My Bible tells me that there is only one mediator – Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). 

What do those saints do about the fact that I don’t pray to them? 

Nothing. They’re all dead. 

This subject was already pretty controversial for anyone who believes that all religions are the same. But then, gravity is controversial for those who want to float to the moon or Mars on their own. This teaching is tough, but it is as true and as real as gravity. 

There is only one God. All other so-called gods are failures. 

Acts 4:12 NIV 

[12] Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/act.4.12.NIV)

Our verses in 1 Kings are dramatic. Israel had turned aside to worship Baal under the poisonous influence of Queen Jezebel, the Sidonian wife of the incredibly evil King Ahab.

Elijah, widely recognised as one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, summoned the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal to a very simple competition: he and they would set out a sacrifice on an altar and the first god that responded with fire would be the true God. 

They agreed. 

They really shouldn’t have. 

Their prayers to Baal were noisy, insistent and even featured ritualised self-harm. 

But nothing happened. No fire fell from heaven. 

But then, it wouldn’t. Why would it? Baal was just a statue. Just a humanoid statue.  

What’s more, they had no right to expect anything. Baal was, for them, a weather god. A god who brought fertility and a good crop harvest. Yet Elijah, a human being, had commanded a famine (1 Kings 17:1) and their god had been able to do not one thing about it. 

So getting involved in this competition had been extraordinarily stupid, and now both they and their religion were being made to look ridiculous. 

But Elijah wasn’t done. 

Before he prepared his sacrifice to God, he mocked them relentlessly: 

1 Kings 18:27 NIV 

[27] At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.18.27.NIV)

Elijah really did not hold back. The Hebrews for ‘travelling’ is a euphemism for going to a secret room to perform a bodily function. Elijah was sarcastically hinting that Baal couldn’t answer them because he was on the toilet. 

That was the level of his belittling of what was then a royalty-sponsored state religion.  

But it got worse for the prophets of Baal.  

Having mocked them relentlessly, Elijah had his sacrifice to God thoroughly soaked until water was dripping from the altar. And then he prayed: directly, simply, without any drama. 

And God answered. Oh, how He answered! 

Fire fell from heaven. It consumed the sacrifice and all the water on the altar. 

That was enough. This was how the people responded: 

1 Kings 18:39 NIV 

[39] When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.18.39.NIV)

Elijah then commanded that the priest of Baal, who had led the country astray, be caught and slaughtered (1 Kings 18:40). 

The state religion was dismantled at a stroke. God’s name was exalted once more by His fickle people. 

Now, I am not suggesting that we summon religious leaders to a new Mount Carmel challenge. However, the Bible’s position is clear: other gods cannot save us; only Jesus can.

Which is why we see the command in the Ten Commandments telling us to not have any other gods before or equal to God. Why would we, when they don’t exist, don’t do anything for us and cannot save us from our sins?  

This is not at all God being selfish and demanding our entire attention like a toddler. No, He told us that we should not worship Him because no-one else is worthy of that worship. If we transfer or share that worship with anyone or anything else, we are worshipping worthless objects that do nothing at all for us. 

It just doesn’t make sense. 

So we have seen, then, that we should love no other God because they fall before the One True God and fail to save us. 

The Bible goes even further: Other Gods Are Fakes. 

Other Gods Are Fakes 

Isaiah 44:9-20 NIV 

[9] All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. [10] Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit nothing? [11] People who do that will be put to shame; such craftsmen are only human beings. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and shame. [12] The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. [13] The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. [14] He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. [15] It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. [16] Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” [17] From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!” [18] They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. [19] No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” [20] Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.44.9-20.NIV)

Isaiah 46:1-2 NIV 

[1] Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. [2] They stoop and bow down together; unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.46.1-2.NIV)

Jeremiah 10:1-5 NIV 

[1] Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. [2] This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. [3] For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. [4] They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. [5] Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.10.1-5.NIV)

My mother-in-law likes to shop in certain market places in her nearby town. They sell goods that, on the surface, seem to be genuine. However, further inspection shows that they are fakes – most likely made in China.  

Normally I would not advocate buying fake goods. They are always a copyright violation that harms the reputation of the brand which designed them. The gangs that produce them often do so through slave labour or through criminal acts. They are often a front for organised crime.  

However, what else can you do if your income does not allow you to buy high quality original items? You have no choice at all but to stick with the imitation goods. 

But when it comes to religion and worship, there is no reason to stick with the fakes. 

Both Isaiah and Jeremiah lived at a time when the Israelites were being tempted by pagan idolatry exported from their surrounding nations. Their rituals included absolutely unthinkable acts of violence, both physical and sexual. Both prophets were unflinching in their mocking of those who worshipped idols. They didn’t hold back.  

These statements are entirely politically incorrect. They are unapologetically not pluralistic nor inclusive, and categorically not ‘woke’. 

But they are true. 

You can convince yourself that a banana is really an apple or a fish is really a dog. You can play with semantics and labels all you want. But at the end of the day, reality will set you straight. 

It’s the same with these idols. They were never gods. They were just painted and carved hunks of wood or stone. That’s all. They could say nothing. They could do nothing. 

Look at Isaiah’s first tease. He showed the utter senselessness of idol worship. The craftsman cut down the tree, worked it in fire with tools, carved his god himself, and didn’t even have the sense to realise that the rest of the wood was nothing more than fuel for his fire. 

Look at his second tease. Those gods were so useless and burdensome that they had to be carried about by people or by beasts of burden. Not only were they useless, but they were also heavy. They were nothing more than a burdensome dead weight.

And Jeremiah took this to new depths. He compared them to scarecrows in a cucumber patch – useful only for scaring birds. 

I have passed some temples and shrines that were distinctly imposing: tremendous structures with scary mythical beats carved into them. But at the end of the day, that’s all they were: just carvings. 

And that is the truth. If you have to make a god then it’s not a god: you are god over it. Such idols are useless and hopeless. They are fakes. 

There is only one true God and it is not them. 

Conclusion 

Exodus 20:3 NIV 

[3] “You shall have no other gods before me. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.20.3.NIV)

Perhaps this command is shocking to our modern ears. But should it be? 

We have wedding vows we take where we say that we will ‘forsake all others’. And we think nothing of it. We believe it’s normal for our expression of love for our marriage partner to exclude everyone else – or, at least, it should be. That is what marital love is. There is no place for an affair. 

Yet do we baulk when God makes the same command?  

After all, He has every right to do so, because there is literally no-one else. 

Every other god – literally every single one – is a product of someone else’s skill or imagination or just a product of themselves. They are not, never have been and never will be, anything more that a creation of a creation.  They are not, never have been and never will be God.  

That is just a fact. No matter what we think of it. No matter if we find it palatable. No matter if we agree with it. This fact is as true as gravity, and that the earth is round. Some might dispute it. Some might ignore it. Some might pretend that it isn’t true. Some might wish that it wasn’t true. But it is. Of that there can be no doubt whatsoever. 

Why? 

Because other gods fall before the One True God, since they are failures and fakes. 

They are not God. 

Now, it’s easy for us, as Christians, to make this a cause for arrogance. Our God is real; all other gods are not. That is a fact. 

But to be arrogant about it is absolutely illogical and stupid. It’s not us who are superior. It’s not us who are great. It is God. 

We should never react with pride or superiority or arrogance about what we believe. We are saved by the grace of the One True God, not at all by what we do. We don’t deserve to be saved. We therefore have no reason to boast about anything (Romans 3:27), least of all this. 

No, the fact that so many of this world bow down to idols that are nothing but images carved and created by men should sadden us. We should feel compassion.  We should seek to take the Gospel to them, not put them down. 

But lastly, these verses present a stern challenge. As a Reformed Christian, it’s miles too easy for me to point the finger at my Catholic and Orthodox brethren, who have statues and icons in their church, and point out their idolatry. Because, you see, we might not have those kind of ‘gods’ in our hearts, but we may have set up other ‘gods’: leisure, travel, experiences, wealth, objects and assets, status, position, likes and subscribes, popularity, sexuality, superiority, a feeling of control or comfort. Any or all of these can become a ‘god’ to us when it becomes more important than our relationship with and obedience of the One True God. 

Anything that usurps God’s rightful place as first priority in our lives is an idol. For us to obey this command, we must dethrone that idol, overthrow it, and let God take His place. 

Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength means that we value Him above all others and obey Him before all others. 

After all, who else is there? 

Prayer  

Lord Jesus, I see this commandment is about me. Right here and now I dethrone all other pretenders from my heart and make You my only God. Only You can save me. I know that now. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation 

• Is God right to demand that He is the only God we should have? Why? 

• What does the Bible say about other so-called gods? Do you believe this to be true? 

• Is God really your God, or do other gods hold sway over your life?