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8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 9 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.’”
1 Corinthians 10.14; 1 John 5.21
God is jealous of the worship and obedience of His people, for He knows that He alone is worthy of these. He is the Lord, and beside Him there is no other. It is futile and foolish to give worship and obedience to anyone or anything besides God. Therefore, God expressly forbids the making of any images for the purpose of worship, for reasons which we shall see. He alone is to be worshiped and served.
Worshiping God, bowing before Him to acknowledge His greatness and our dependence on Him, is the primary way of showing God that we love Him.
We also show our love for God by the service we render in His Name. As we carry out His commandments we perform that “reasonable service” which Paul commends in Romans 12.1, 2 and extend the love we have for God to our neighbors as well.
All our devotion and all our works of service are due to God only, for His glory, for He is our Creator and Redeemer, and He alone is God. We must not allow anything other than God to receive our humble devotion or to determine what we do in our strength each day. Thus, all our lives and work are subsumed under the headings of worship and service to the living God.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.