For generations, the Christian model for teaching obedience and discipline has centered around the Ten Commandments. But as I was studying those laws recently, an exciting emphasis was revealed to me. While I was reading, “Thou shalt not,” a different emphasis was given to the words shalt not—in my head I heard God saying: “There is no way! Not in a hundred, million, billion years would I ever allow you to experience any other god. In My creation there is no room for you, My exact identity, to ever have any other god before Me. It is impossible! It can’t happen!”
When asked by a lawyer what the greatest commandment was, Jesus offered a two-part answer: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (see Matt. 22:35–40). When we understand just a fraction of God’s principled love for us, it’s easy to imagine that Jesus was joyfully announcing the same idea—the impossibility of clinging to any other point of view or position.
Wow! What a change in viewpoint that emphatic shift brought. It reminded me of something that happened years earlier when I was teaching the primary class in a Christian Science Sunday School. At different times, concerned parents confided that they didn’t want their young children learning the Seventh Commandment, which deals with adultery. I understood their objections while also understanding that those well-intentioned parents were focused only on a mortal, limited view of God and man. I assured them that a simpler, yet relevant, meaning would be explored.
