THE FIRST PRECEPT OF THE DECALOGUE.
In quoting from any part of the Scriptures to prove a fact, it is proper to omit if the words omitted are not relevant to that fact, and the scripture is not perverted. For instance, we may make the statement that Jesus taught there is but one God; and we may prove this by quoting a part of a reply of Jesus in Mark 12:29, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." We have in nowise garbled or perverted the text. But to say that Jesus understood Ex. 20:2 as the first word of the Ten Words, and then quote the following to prove it, is a perversion of the truth:— "When He was asked, 'Which is the first commandment of all,' He replied, 'The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.'" Now to quote that in proof of the above claim may be a matter of misunderstanding; but to quote Jesus' statement only in part is a perverting of the Word. In the first place, Jesus never referred, nor did His questioner, to the Ten Commandments, save in summary; but to the great principles on which rests the whole government of God among men. And when He was asked the question by the scribe, He did not refer to Ex. 20:2 at all, but to Deut. 6:4, 5. Neither did He quote as the first commandment the words quoted above, Deut. 6:5, as shown elsewhere. When the scribe asked Jesus, "What commandment is first of all?" Jesus replied: "The first is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." Now the first part of Jesus' words tells us who the Lord is, and shows that His identity should be connected with the commandment; but the actual commandment is the positive injunction to love, as shown (a) by its parallelism with the second great commandment, and (b) by the parallel passage in Matt. 22:36, 37, in which Jesus declares this injunction to love "is the great and first commandment." Verse 38. As to the Decalogue, the second verse of Exodus 20 belongs to each and every word of the law. The First Commandment was connected with it, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." The word "gods" is applied to lesser rulers, to angels, to God's children, those whose direction it might be our duty to heed, but never in preference to God. See Ps. 8:5; Heb. 2:7; 1 Sam. 2:25; Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9; Ps. 82:1, 6; John 10:34, 35. The first command is based on a different principle than the second. Every copy of God's law should include Ex. 20:2, but let the natural division of His precepts stand as marked specifically by enjoined duty, and let His covenant name and redeeming assurance apply to the whole law.