10 Rules for a Better Life (#1 and #2)

As I explained in the last post, the rules and laws that God gives us help us live the best life possible. Laws have this bad reputation of ruining our fun, but if God's rules can drastically improve our lives if we are willing to follow them.

Following rules isn't easy. Anyone who has tried to get into better shape knows that eating healthy foods and exercising regularly is easier said than done. We know these are good things to do and we know that our lives are improved when our bodies are in better shape. But we still get distracted by unhealthy foods and lazy behavior.

In the same way, God's laws are good for us and we will feel better about life if we actually follow them. In each of the 10 Commandments, God shows that He is looking out for our best interests. If you follow them, I guarantee you'll live a more productive life with fewer regrets than if you simply ignored them.

#1: "You shall not have any other gods before me." Exodus 20:3

Some of you might think that God just made up this rule because He is insecure and He needs you to make Him the most important thing in your life. While it's true that God is pleased when we put Him first in our lives, we are actually the ones who need Him. Sure, you can make other things number one in your life such as sports, music, entertainment, success, relationships, etc. But sooner or later all of these things will fail you. God, Himself, is the only thing in the universe that will never let you down and He lasts forever.
God knows that if you build your life on any other foundation, eventually it is going to crumble. You can save yourself a lot of grief and pain by simply making God your number one priority. It doesn't mean that you can't ever do things you enjoy. But following God still has to come before anything else. This might mean you pass up on things you think are fun, but in the end it will be better for you. If you don't trust that God knows what is good and what is bad for you, then things won't work out very well.

#2: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6

The second commandment goes right along with the first. The first rule basically says, "Don't make anything in your life more important than me." And the second rule says, "Don't worship anything else besides me."

So this rule goes beyond just making idols out of wood, stone, gold, etc. Today, we don't really worship statues, but we do idolize public icons, prioritize entertainment, and emphasize our "right" to do whatever we want.Having a role model is great, but idolizing your favorite athlete, performer, or politician is something else. We might not make physical idols, but we create shrines to "important" public figures. We might not worship pagan gods, but we still call our favorite singer a "rock god" (we have a show called American Idol for crying out loud!). And at the end of the day no athlete is super-human, but we still want to make legends out of men who make a living by playing a game.

We might not have a temple to the gods of entertainment or laziness, but we do have stadiums and concert halls and nearly all of us have a place in our homes where we sit down and pay these gods homage for hours on end. You might actually be able to find some shrines to the goddess of pleasure, but even people who don't frequent nightclubs and other shady establishments still follow her one and only commandment: "You shall do what feels good . . . now!"

The point is, there are still all sorts of things in our society that can easily interfere with rule number one. God is sufficient for you. You don't need to worship Him and something else. Once you build up something up in your mind so much that you think you NEED it to feel normal, then you now have another "god" in your life.

These first two rules establish a foundation for everything else God commands us to do or not do: 1.) Put Him first and 2.) Stay away from anything that gets in the way of rule No. 1. Just those two rules cover a lot and the rest of the 10 commandments (as well as the rest of the Bible) help to point out more specifics.