Breaking the First Commandment
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3). God places enormous importance on this First Commandment. We can read of accounts where Almighty God slew thousands of His chosen people for going after other gods (Josh. 7:1-26). Why did God deal so harshly with His people? Was He jealously obsessed with self-adoration? Was He self-righteously frustrated by watching those puny specks of life called "men" flagrantly flout His magnificent Law? Or, just maybe, could God's anger have been caused by a sincere, loving concern for His creation?
We can answer these questions by compiling the factual evidence of exactly what happens when man breaks God's First Commandment. Who really gets hurt?
Mankind today is fragmented by the worship of thousands of "major gods" (and millions of "minor gods") scattered throughout the myriad of ritualistic platitudes and sanctimonious charades which have been palmed off as "religious truth" on a gullible world. The more well-known religions — Moslem, Zoroastrian, Shinto, Taoist, Confucian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Christian — are all divided within themselves by splits, offshoots, mixtures, combinations and re-combinations. Compounding these difficulties, national and racial characteristics add new flavors to each mongrelized hodgepodge of a religious system. However you'd like to worship whatever kind of a "god" you want, there's some religion made to order.
Primitive religions are as numerous and different as individual tribes themselves — worshipping anything from spirits in sticks to relatives in animals. In Hinduism alone, "The Hindu heavens teem with 330 million gods which some Hindus regard as separate deities while others look upon them as infinite aspects of the one Brahmin" (Life, Feb. 7, 1955). Hindu worship comes in many forms: Mind-blanking contemplation, begging priests, extreme self-mutilation (piercing the body with slivers of wood and metal) — take your choice.
In so-called "enlightened Christianity," there seems to be more darkness than anywhere else. Ponder the conglomerate of worldly Churchianity — Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox-ism, and Protestantism, with hundreds of its own conflicting denominations and sects.
"Don't bother us," many are probably saying. "What's the harm? As long as we all believe in God, what's the difference, why the big fuss? It doesn't hurt anyone!" Oh? It doesn't hurt anyone? Let's see!
Proof — Personal Ills
Each year hundreds of thousands of once-vibrant human beings choose to terminate their own lives around our "fun-filled" world. People kill themselves. It's called suicide. You don't hear about very many because most are covered up by families anxious to avoid embarrassing questions.
Think about it — people kill themselves! That should sound absurd — but it doesn't. We have grown accustomed to suicide. In every country, from every walk of life, from every stratum of society, people decide to end their own existence.
Why? The cause is often an emotional ailment: Depression — one of America's deadliest diseases. Depression has goaded over two million Americans just this year to try suicide unsuccessfully. Mental depression presents an ugly picture: The victim feels an overpowering sense of grief. He is so drained and fatigued he can barely move his body. "Dr. Nathan S. Kline, Director of Research at Rockland State Hospital, Orangeburg, N.Y., said recently: 'MORE SUFFERING HAS RESULTED FROM DEPRESSION THAN FROM ANY OTHER SINGLE DISEASE . . ." (New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 16, 1965).
Why this epidemic of depression? The answer is tragically simple. Man doesn't know why he is here! He doesn't know the purpose of life. And he doesn't seem to care. Human beings are confused. They stumble and bumble their way from one day to the next, going around and around in a never-ending circle, with no understanding and devoid of sense. Life without the knowledge of the True God and His phenomenally exciting Purpose is useless, hopeless, frustrating, transitory, boring, depressing, morbid, and literally invites suicide as a welcome relief.
Perhaps this is a picture of your life — a monotonous existence of doubt, insecurity, drudgery and anxiety. You might have wondered what is the problem.
The problem is basic: ignorance of God's First Commandment. Here our Creator succintly informs us that our primary and predominant thought — the one overriding goal in our life — must be "Elohim": the God FAMILY. Once we realize that our personal reason for living on earth is to learn about, qualify for, and grow towards Sonship and Rulership in God's Family as a literal God ourselves, then our present physical life will explode with enthusiam and pulsate with purpose.
Result — No Stable Government
By ignoring God's First Commandment, mankind rejected God's government — and so chose to suffer horribly (it hurts) under every weird variety of his own perversely devised governments. Monarchs, czars, dictators, military governors, political rulers, party rulers, class rulers, and even our so-called representative governments all have had weaknesses which have always led to great injustices to the subjugated peoples.
And today, the international strain among the 130 or more "independent" nations has brought humanity to the breaking point. Each separate government is divided from every other government by varying degrees of fears, jealousies and distrusts. What will your numerous enemies do? You don't know. Therefore, the strength and energy of your nation must be diverted away from economic and social development and poured into gigantic armament programs. Your enemies see what you are doing and are forced to do the same thing. The result? A spiraling arms race that sooner or later must topple into ravaging warfare.
So what's the product of breaking God's First Commandment? International insanity. Hysterical leaders.
Frenzied populaces. Worldwide paranoia. And the ultimate end? World suicide — cosmocide!
That's why God hates sin! He knows the ultimate end. This is the reason God dealt strongly with the ancient Israelites when they broke His Commandments. God loves His creation and He wants man to understand His purpose in life. God longs for you to be happy (Deuteronomy 5:29).
Breaking the Fifth Commandment
The foundation of any sound society is a stable family. Yet today divorce is rampant. Young people are running amok. The entire family structure is decaying. Why?
"Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth" (Eph. 6:2-3). The Apostle Paul made this statement, not merely quoting the basic content of the Fifth Commandment but revealing the natural result if it is obeyed!
Today's youth, disgruntled with family life and abhorring their parents, have turned to the streets. Drug addiction, promiscuity, alcoholism, gang criminality, rioting, theft, murder, rape — these have become the spirit of youth today in all too many cases. Because of this debauchery, venereal disease has reached epidemic proportions. Diabetes, heart disease, etc. , once reserved for the old, now strikes the young.
Youngsters grow old quickly. Many die young! Those who do not pay attention to the Fifth Commandment pay the price — sickness, social unrest, frustration and premature death!
Warning From Experts
Joseph M. Kennick, past president of the National Conference of Juvenile Agencies, and for over 18 years head of the Long Beach Juvenile Bureau, wrote recently:
"Somewhere along the way, as parents and as a nation, we went wrong in the rearing of our children. We are now paying for having produced a generation heavily populated with hostile, rebellious, and lawless youths who have no respect for themselves or for us.
"Motorcycle mobs take over entire towns, rioting students bring the activities of great universities to a virtual halt, high school students attack teachers in the classrooms, gangs interfere with policemen who are trying to perform their duty.
"Almost 50 percent of the arrests for serious crime involve juveniles. (One of every six American boys under 18 has been taken to Juvenile Court for at least one offense) The costs of all this soar at a dizzying rate. Loss of life by violence robs us of more and more of our human resources; property losses mount to staggering proportions; state and federal budgets for police and detective facilities have become prohibitive.
"In California the Youth Authority's institutions are so crowded that the state may have to start rejecting prisoners." (Oakland Tribune, June 29, 1966 — and it's four years' worse today!)
What an incredibly ludicrous situation! It astounds those of us who grew up even in the 1950's. But the prophet Isaiah wouldn't have been surprised. He saw it all — God enabled him to look down the corridors of time to our day and to our peoples. "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths" (Isa. 3:12). God spells it out: The cause of our frustrated, rebellious, destructive youth is flagrant disobedience of the Fifth Commandment. Children dishonor their parents. Father is scornfully disdained. Mother is wantonly disregarded. It's that simple.
If even this one commandment were kept, today's youth would experience a life of fulfillment and purpose. Remember, the Fifth Commandment is the first one with promise. What promise? A happier, longer life! (Eph. 6:3.)
Yes, Sin Is Bad
If you insist on sowing the seeds of sin, you will harvest a crop of insecurity, worry, frustration, anxiety, emotional disease and physical sickness. Your mind will be ridden with anguish and your body will be racked with pain.
The fruits of sin produce misery, harm, chaos, and finally destruction and death (Rom. 6:23). Personal disintegration! A total breakdown of society! A world cascading toward self-extermination! God's Word cries out, "Sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34).
Why does God hate sin so intensely? Because it destroys His most majestic creation! You are that creation! God has poured out His love by giving you the chance to share His own breathtaking, God-plane Eternal-life existence. That's what human life is all about. And as a loving Father, God has revealed exactly how we can enjoy such an abundant life — a life to the full, abounding with excitement, drive and happiness — both now and forever. How? God has given us His "course of instruction" — that's what God's Law really means. It's the way to fun and success, fulfillment and purpose.
Sin is just the opposite. It's the way to depression and failure. Sin is the transgression of God's Teachings.
For your own good, bring your life into harmony with God. Hate sin as He does. Recognize how sin harms people. Deplore it, hate it — flee from it. Obey God's Law — and reap the fruit of contentment now, and life eternal in the wonderful world tomorrow.
Send in for our free, vitally important booklet on The Ten Commandments. It will magnify the benefits of God's Law and explain how you should keep it.
Now remember, obedience to God's instructions is much more thrilling than the "don't-do-that-do-this" children's story we are all tired of hearing. God's Law is His comprehensive "order of teaching" for His entire massive Plan.
Who's teaching the world about God's Plan? God's Work!
Participation in God's Work is a fundamental component in keeping God's Law! That makes sense since outgoing love is the fulfilling of the Law (Rom. 13:10) and the whole purpose of God's Work is to serve and teach all nations by publishing and preaching the Good News of Christ's soon-coming world-ruling Government (Matt. 24:14, Mark 13:10). God's Work seeks to help others — help yourself to this Truth we serve, and help us serve it to others.