Article April 19, 1941 Issue

The First Commandment

WILLIAM G. BIEDERMAN

The great importance of the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is stressed by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discover and Founder of Christian Science, on page 340 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she says: "The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the triunity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind."

Christ Jesus, when asked, "Which is the first commandment of all?" virtually quoted from Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, which reads, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." In these Scriptural passages it is seen that the oneness of God is emphasized and the effort made by the Hebrew Lawgiver and by Jesus to impress their listeners with the fact that there is one God. At the time this commandment was inculcated by Moses, the Hebrews were surrounded by peoples whose mythologies presented a variety of deities which were man-made and limited in form and power. The spiritually illumined thought of Moses established the covenant with the one and only God in the consciousness of the children of Israel, renewing and reinforcing the revelations and teachings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the founders of the Hebrew nation.

Of what value, one may ask, is this commandment in the present day? It may be answered that it is a revelation of eternal spiritual law, and therefore applicable and usable in all ages. The false gods of our time, as in all time, are included in the basic error of belief in matter as substance. Christian Science shows the falsity of this belief and reveals the allness of God. Christ Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

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