Other Gods

The 1st & 2nd Commandments are:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.

As a unitarian-universalist, I ponder these commandments all the time, especially whenever the topic of Jesus comes up as a proxy for God. (For the record, please don't derail this thread by arguing Jesus is God. Consider that off-limits for the sake of this thread. Thanks in advance.) I wondered how different the interpretations are of these pair of Commandments from the religious community. What follows is my interpretation.

The 1st Commandment is about priority, nothing comes before God, between you and God. Some suppose this command implies the existence of other gods. I doubt that. To understand why I doubt that, consider my take on the 2nd commandment.

I was taught as a Catholic that idols meant some kind of material object of veneration. The contradiction is the Catholic church violates their own interpretation of this with crucifixes and all manner of art work portraying the stations of the cross, the church itself anointing itself as an authority equal to or even superior to the Bible, etc. No, I now doubt this interpretation.

Instead, I think this commandment is a prohibition on idolizing anything in Creation other than God. From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idolize

Definition of idolize

idolized; idolizing
transitive verb
: to worship as a god; broadly : to love or admire to excess</span>

So, the 2nd Commandment is a prohibition against worshipping anything in Creation as a god. And this is where I see so many people go astray.

• Money,
• Sex,
• Power,
• their own ego, glory
• the State, considered by Leftists to be their god,
• Drugs,
• Other addictions, including emerging social media, texting,
• Family co-dependency How often do you hear people say their family/children is the most important thing in their lives?, etc.

A recurring theme in my life lately is that when you start wrong, it is hard to get right. This reinforces my meditations on these 1st 2 Commandments. Taken together, considering the 2nd 1st, and speaking in the 1st person, we get I shall not worship anything in Creation as a god and put God 1st. This juxtaposition shows more clearly I think how one cannot break one without breaking the other. So, who or what do you think the other gods are that is referenced and what is your take on the 1st 2 Commandments?

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Other Gods