The document discusses the significance of the first commandment in Christian morality, emphasizing the importance of monotheism and the exclusive worship of God. It outlines violations against the first commandment, such as idolatry, apostasy, and atheism, and highlights true worship as caring for creation and honoring God's image in people. The text also warns against practices like superstition, despair, and ingratitude that stray from authentic faith and worship.

1. “You shall not have
other Gods besides me”
Christian Living Experience 10: Christian Morality

3. Exodus 20: 3-4
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You
shall have no other Gods before Me. "You shall not
make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water
under the Earth.”

4. Exodus 20: 23
“You shall not make other Gods besides me;
gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not
make for yourselves.”

6. The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we
say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the
same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows 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? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at
the beginning and end of his commandments: 'I am the LORD.’
- CCC 2086

7. First Commandment:
• Became the basis or foundation of the other
succeeding commandments
• Monotheism = One God
• Helps us to keep the Great Commandment of
God’s love because it commands us to adore
Him alone

8. First Commandment:
• We must not have other persons or things that
will distract us or prevent us from loving God
more closely.

10. First Commandment:
• Faith is what God wanted us to have. He wanted
us to trust in Him that He could properly guide us
in our lives

11. True Worshipping of
God:• Taking good care of creation as God’s
handiwork
• Respecting the image of God in every person
• Using our gifts (our bodies, our intellect and
freewill, our money, our talents and skills) in
glorifying God.

12. True Worshipping of
God:• Veneration – act of honouring a saint or Mama
Mary
• Adoration – the worship and homage that is
rightly offered to God alone. It is the
manifestation of submission to Him.
• Sacrifice – a sign of adoration and gratitude to
God

13. VIOLATIONS
AGAINST THE FIRST
COMMANDMENT:

14. 1. Idolatry
• It is the worshipping of a god in the form of a physical
image
• Invokes polytheism = worshipping many Gods
• A constant temptation of faith and it consists in divinizing
what is not God
• Worshipping or Reveres a creature aside from God,
power, pleasure, race, ancestors, and money

15. 2. Apostasy
• It is the rejection of Christ by someone who
has been a Christian

16. 3. Divination and Magic
• Divination – seeking future knowledge or the unknown by
supernatural means
• 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.

17. 4. Sacrilege and Simony
• Sacrilege – violation or form of irreverence to
sacred persons, place or things
• Simony – buying or selling of ecclesiastical
privilege; any exchange of spiritual things for
temporal things

18. 5. Atheism
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin
against the virtue of religion. The imputability of this offense can be
significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the
circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the
rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their
instruction in the faith, or present its teaching falsely, or even fail in
their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal
rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion.“
- CCC 2125

19. 6. Despair
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 contrary to God's
goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his
promises - and to his mercy.
-CCC 2091

20. 7. Ingratitude
• It is defined as not appreciating or valuing what
you have, or have been given by God.
• Failure to give thanks to God = Failure to show
appreciation and love to God

21. 8. Superstition
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the
practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship
we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance
in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or
necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of
sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart
from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into
superstition.
- CCC 2111