Put God First and Love God Most

By Barry Briggs

Thousands of years ago, God gave us ten values to build our lives on. They’re called the Ten Commandments. These are not ten fads that last only as long as people like them or agree with them. These are values that are timeless. They apply to every culture, every generation, every person, in every situation, every time. Likewise, they are not ten suggestions or ten opinions; they are Ten Commandments. They are not optional.

We are living in a time where there are no boundaries, everybody can do whatever they want to do, and we have an extremely anxious generation in Gen Z. Psychiatrists have been saying for years that we need boundaries for emotional and mental health. Kids who grow up without boundaries grow up being extremely insecure. They need to know what’s right and wrong; what the parameters are in life.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7a says, “Never forget these commands that I am giving you today. Teach them to your children” (GNT). God says remember the Ten Commandments and teach them to your children. Do your kids know the Ten Commandments?

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“Our love for God moves us to love others; to embody His love to those around us.”

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God gave us the Ten Commandments — sometimes called the Decalogue (or “Ten Words” in Greek) —  in Exodus 20, when Moses ascended Mount Sinai to meet with God. The order in which the Ten Commandments were given matters. The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God; the final six deal with our relationships with other people. Having commandments in two categories — relationship with God and relationships with others — reflects the interconnectedness between spirituality and morality.

When Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees in Matthew 22, He summarized the Ten Commandments into two concise directives: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). These two imperatives — sometimes called the Greatest Commandments — complement each other. Our love for God moves us to love others; to embody His love to those around us. The love of God always comes first. When you truly love God, you will naturally love others.

Little-g Gods

Again, the order of the Ten Commandments is not haphazard. God intentionally put the first one first because it’s the most important one: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). The principle here is to put God first. God says, “I demand top priority in your life. I’m not going to take a back seat to anyone. I will not be second place to anything. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

No other gods? I thought there was only one God? There is. The word “gods” is written with a lowercase “g.” He’s saying, “Don’t have any little-g gods in your life.”

What is a little-g god? A little-g god is anything that dominates your life. Can a career be a god? You bet it can. Can another person be a god? Yes. Can golf be a god? For many people it is. Even good things that God has created for us to enjoy become gods when you put them first in your life. God says, “Don’t let any of these lesser things dominate your life, and don’t put any of them before Me. Put Me First.”

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“Whatever you want God to bless, put Him first in that area.”

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Principle + Promise

Now, every time God gives a principle, He also gives a promise. The principle is: Put God first. The promise is in Proverbs 3:6, “In everything you do, put God first [that’s the principle], and [here’s the promise] He will direct you and crown your efforts with success” (TLB).

To put it another way: Whatever you want God to bless, put Him first in that area. Do you want God to bless your marriage? Put Him first in your marriage. Do you want God to bless your family? Put Him first in your family. Do you want Him to bless your finances? Put Him first in your finances. Whatever you want to be blessed in, put God first in. “In everything you do, put God first, and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” It’s a simple principle with a huge promise.

This is the foundation: Put God first. It’s why it’s the first commandment. 

The second timeless commandment is this: “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods” (Exodus 20:4–5a NLT).

If the principle of the first commandment is to put God first, the principle of this second commandment is to love God most. Put God first and love God most.

Idols + Influencers

Why would God command us to love Him most? Because you become like what you love. If you love money, you’re going to become materialistic. If you love yourself, you’re going to become more selfish. If you love Christ, you’re going to become like Him. Whatever you love, you’re going to become like, and God wants you to become like Him. So He says, “Direct your affection toward Me, not idols.”

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“There is this human desire, for some reason, to turn objects or people or things into objects of worship.”

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What is an idol? An idol is anything that takes your focus off God and puts it on something else. Some people park their idols in their garage. Some people wear their idols on their bodies. I know some hunters that hang their idols on their walls. Even today we have idols.

Archaeologists tell us that in every culture throughout history there have been idols — little figurines, sculptures, statues. There is this human desire, for some reason, to turn objects or people or things into objects of worship. God says, “Don’t do that.”

In Bible times, there were three primary idols. There was Baal, who was the god of sex. There was Mammon, who was the god of money. And there was Molech, who was the god of violence.

We don’t have those idols today. We just pay billions of dollars to go to movies to watch sex, violence, and money. It’s the same thing.

In those days, their idols were made of stone, clay, metal, or wood. Today, we don’t have metal images; we have mental images. In America, our shrines are screens. We venerate our idols on those little devices we’re constantly holding in our hands.

We don’t worship objects as much as we worship images — images of success, images of wealth, images of status, images of sensuality. The problem is: When those images get your attention, and then your affection, they can influence you and lead you astray. “You know the way you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be influenced and led away to worship idols” (1 Corinthians 12:2 NCV).

Back then they called them “idols.” Today we call them “influencers.” Same thing.

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“If your influencer isn’t influencing you to worship God, it’s a bad influence.”

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A social media influencer is someone with a large online following. They are often seen as trendsetters who influence their followers’ opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions. That’s what an idol does. If your influencer isn’t influencing you to worship God, it’s a bad influence. If they are influencing you to love clothes or food or products or experiences, they are leading you away to worship idols. They are convincing you this thing will bring you happiness, when only God can bring you happiness.

Psalm 115:8 says, “All who made [idols] and trust in them become like the idols they have made” (GNT). We shape an idol, and it ends up shaping us. You will become like whatever is first place in your life, so you better reserve that spot for God. Whatever you idolize will distort and deform you into its image.

Do you remember Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” and how his love for the ring distorted him and changed him — and how he went from sweet, loving Sméagol to becoming a monster? All because that ring became an idol to him; he was so obsessed with it and wanted it so badly. Remember what he called it? My precious. That ring controlled and changed him, and led him astray. That’s what idols do. Every time.

Remaking God in Our Image

So why would anyone want to make God into a statue or a form that they can bow down to? Well, it’s an attempt to reduce God’s power and size: “I’m going to whittle Him down to size.” If I’ve got God in a statue, an image, or an idea (such as God’s only in the Bible) then He’s less imposing, less threatening. He’s not everywhere, and He can’t do everything. He’s more convenient and more manageable.

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“What is your image of God? “

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We have reversed Genesis 1:26 that says, “Let us make mankind in Our image,” and now we’re saying, “Let us make God in our image.” We want to make God like us. Instead of “This is the day that the Lord has made,” we say, “this is the Lord that the day has made.”

Why do we do that? It’s a whole lot easier to change my image of God than it is to change me. So if God says, “Don’t live together without being married,” I just change my image of God. I say, “I don’t think God cares about that anymore, and He just kind of turns a blind eye to immorality these days.” A lot of people change their theology because they can’t justify their lifestyle any other way: “I’ll make God in my image so He justifies my lifestyle, and I don’t have to worry about it.”

We want to make God like us. God calls that idolatry.

Now, to be sure, it’s not easy to put God first and love God most when everything in society is saying, “These are the values you ought to idolize.” Maybe you’re thinking, “I’m a Christian, and my home is Christian. We don’t have any idols in our home.” You might not have them in your home, but you can have them in your heart. You can have external idols or internal idols.

Most of us don’t have little statues that we bow down to. They are not metal idols, but they are mental idols. They are the false images of God we have in our minds.

What is your image of God? Is it the image that God wants you to have, or is it someone else’s image of God?

Some people have an image of God as an unpleasable parent; that if you get straight A’s and one B, God says, “That’s not good enough.” Some people have an image of God as an angry stepparent who doesn’t want you around and couldn’t care less about your life. There are others who have an image of God as a feeble grandparent who lets you get away with murder because He couldn’t stop you if He wanted to.

All of those are false images. All of those are idols. God wants you to know Him as He really is.

So what is God really like? He wants you to know so clearly that He came to earth in human form; 2,000 years ago He came to earth as Jesus Christ so we could relate to Him. I can’t relate to some big Spirit in the Sky, but when I look at Jesus, I can say, “That is what God is like.”

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15a NLT). Do you want to know what God is like? It’s really simple — look at Jesus. And I’m convinced the more you look at Him and get to know Him, the more you’ll want to put Him first and love Him most.

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