The first commandment declares the significance of putting God above all else, emphasizing the necessity of worshiping Him alone. It warns against idolatry and strange gods, which includes prioritizing wealth, desires, or people over God, and outlines the sins against the commandment, such as sacrilege and superstition. The commandment encourages the practice of faith, hope, and love, reinforcing commitment to God as the foundation of a virtuous life.

1. What is the first
Commandment?
A. The first Commandment is: I
am the Lord thy God: thou shalt
not have strange gods before
me.

2. What does the First Commandment
mean?
“You shall have no other gods before Me”
means we must put God first in our lives.
He is more important than anyone or
anything else.
God loves us deeply, and so we should love
Him with all our hearts.

3. What does the commandment mean by
"strange gods"?
By strange gods the commandment
means idols or false gods, which the
Israelites frequently worshipped when,
through their sins, they had abandoned
the true God.

4. How may we, in a sense, worship
strange gods?
A. We, in a sense, may worship
strange gods by giving up the
salvation of our souls for wealth,
honors, society, worldly pleasures,
etc., so that we would offend God,
renounce our faith or give up the
practice of our religion for their sake.

5. The first commandment we are
commanded:
to give God alone the worship that He
alone deserves.

6. What is the worship of God called?
adoration or latria (Latin adoratio,
Greek latreia, [λατρεία]), which is
due to God alone.
Latria – An act of adoration or
worship due to God (Holy Trinity)
alone .

7. Hyperdulia – An act of respect
towards the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Luke 1:48) Dulia – An act of
respect towards the saints

8. What is worship according to God?
To worship is to show a lot of love
and adoration for something.
Religious believers worship gods,
and people can worship other
people and things too. Worship is an
extreme form of love — it's a type of
unquestioning devotion.

9. what “other gods” do people put
before God?
“Other gods” can be anything—
possessions, desires, goals or even
people—that we treat as more
important than the true God.

10. The First Commandment reminds
us of God’s greatness and how
we should respond
The First Commandment is a
reminder to focus on the awesome
power and majesty of our Creator
God. God’s power was on display
when He thundered these
commandments from Mount Sinai.

11. The First Commandment embraces
the theological virtues:
faith,
hope,
and love.

12. How does commitment to the First
Commandment strengthen our
practice of the theological virtues?
Commitment to the First
Commandment encourages the practice
of faith, putting our trust in an
unchanging source of life and
goodness—in God, who is faithful to his
promises.

13. Commitment to the First
Commandment encourages the practice
of hope. Hope is expecting God’s
blessings in this life and the reward of
Heaven in the next.
Commitment to the First
Commandment leads to love: of God,
others, and self.

14. Sins Against Faith
Voluntary doubt - Refusing to hold
as true what God revealed and the
Church teaches. Doubt is
involuntary when the person
hesitates to believe or cannot
overcome objections to faith.
Incredulity - Neglect or outright
refusal to assent to a revealed truth.

15. Heresy - a belief that goes against
what the Church teaches
Apostasy - Total repudiation of the
Catholic faith. – the abandonment of
one’s religion
Schism - Refusal to submit to the
Pope or to accept communion with
the Church. refusal to be in unity with
the Pope

16. Sins against Hope (2091-2092)
Two sins against hope are:
Despair - The person loses all hope of God's
forgiveness or his help in getting to heaven. This
is against God's goodness, justice, and mercy.
Presumption is committed by someone who
trusts in his own power to save himself; or who
presumes on God's forgiveness without any
need for repentance and good works.

18. Sins against the First Commandment
include:
- sacrilege – disrespect toward sacred
things
(places, objects, persons,words, etc)
- simony - the buying or selling of
ecclesiastical
privileges (sacraments, position in the
Church, etc)

19. The First Commandment forbids:
- the occult – beliefs that are not of
God, but seek to control powers beyond
human nature
- superstition – an irrational belief that
an object, action, or circumstance not
logically related to acourse of events
influences its outcome

20. Examples of superstitious beliefs:
The number of steps of staircases at home
should not be divisible by three.
Turn your plate when someone leaves in the
middle of a meal.
Don't go straight home after attending a wake.
Siblings should not marry within the same year.

21. 1.Friday the 13th.
2.No umbrellas inside. ...
3.Cross your fingers. ...
4.Make a wish on a wishbone. ...
5.Knock on wood. ...
6.666. ...
7.Careful with that mirror. ...
8.Bad luck comes in threes. ...

22. idolatry – the worship of false gods or
idols
- witchcraft– attempting to use
magical“formulas” to show power that
belongs only to God
- cult – a system of misguided beliefs
that center around a leader; these are
often dangerous