The REAL meaning of the 1st Commandment

The first commandment says You
shall have no other gods before me.

But are we sure we know exactly what
that means? Because the ancient Hebrew

tells us something that is absolutely
amazing and is relevant for you today.

Hello, everyone, I’m Jim Staley Passion for truth
ministries, and we’re going to uncover the real

meaning of the First Commandment where it says
You shall have no other gods before me. So let’s

turn to Exodus chapter 20, verses two and three,
let’s start off with the commandment itself. And

then we’ll uncover how this commandment can
really impact our lives today. It says this,

it says, I am the Lord your God who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of

bondage, You shall have no other gods before me.
Now what’s really important for you to know about

this is there’s two major Hebrew words here in
this verse. One is the word Lord. All caps LORD.

Anytime you see that in your Bibles, that’s the
actual proper name of God. That’s Yahweh. Yod,

Hey Vav, Hey, in the Hebrew, when it says, Your
God, that word God there is Elohim. So he says,

I’m the Elohim. And then he says, You shall
have no other gods. And that word in Hebrew

is Elohim. So he says, I’m Yahweh, your Elohim,
You shall have no other elohim besides me,

period. So what is the word Elohim mean? Because
it’s critical to understand that in English,

we don’t really get it because it says gods,
but does it really 100% always mean gods,

it can actually mean men, it can mean judges. So
the original word, it comes from Eloha, which in

the plural is Elohim. So Eloha is singular, or El, you might have heard is singular, and the plural

is Elohim. So why is Elohim plural? Well, it’s
very similar to the kings and queens of ancient

England, even today, kings and queens will call
themselves in the mid majestic, plural majesty,

they’ll say, we are going to draw our royal bath,
and they’re really just talking about themselves.

And so the plural of this in Hebrew, okay, is, is
more of the idea of all power in all authority.

So God uses the term Elohim as a, it’s a kind
of letting us know that he has all authority,

all power, there’s nothing else besides Him. That
is Elohim. The reality is, is Elohim truly means

judge. That’s what he is, when you are the supreme
one, when you are all authority, and there is none

besides you, you are the judge. So let’s take
a look at a few Scriptures where it mentions

Yahweh being the judge this Elohim in the form of
judge and see how that connects to us today in the

21st century. Exodus chapter 22, Verse eight says,
If the thief is not found, then the master of the

house shall be brought to the judges, to see
whether he has put his hand into his neighbor’s

goods, that word judges is Elohim. Certainly,
it’s not talking about bringing them before God.

It’s talking about bringing them before the
local magistrates. And so the word Elohim here is

translated as judges. Let’s take a look at another
one. Exodus chapter 21, verse six, it says,

“Then his master shall bring him to the judges,
he shall also bring him to the door, or to the

doorpost, and his master shall Pierce’s ear within
all, and he shall serve him forever.” And so in

this particular scripture, it’s talking about the
bondservant who becomes a bondservant forever,

and he is brought before the Elohim, in that case.
And so in this context, the word Elohim, again,

is judges. This is a critical concept, my friends
because, at the end of the day, God is saying, I

am Yahweh, your judges, You shall have no other
judges besides me. Now, when you put it in that

context, this is this radically changes the entire
meaning of this verse, or I should say, It deepens

the meaning because of course, we should not have
any other gods. We’re not supposed to worship

any other gods. But when you put it in
the context of its ancient language,

in a Cultural Historical context, what comes
out of that is a far deeper meaning than just

serving other gods because I don’t know very
many believers that are serving are worshipping

other gods, of course, so the first commandment
becomes almost a ride off. It’s too easy because

we’re not going to worship another God. But when
you interpret it as beyond worshiping another God

and not letting anyone else be your judge? Oh,
that changes everything, my friend. That brings

us to Matthew chapter seven. So let’s read that.
And verses one through five. It says judge not

that you be not judged, For with what judgment you
judge, you will be judged. And with the measure

you use, it will be measured back to you. And why
do you lack? Look at the speck in your brother’s

eye, but you do not consider the plank in your
own eye? Or how can you say to your brother,

let me remove the speck from your eye and
look, a plank is in your own eye, hypocrite,

first remove the plank from your own eye? And then
you’ll clearly be able to see to remove the speck

from your brother’s eye. This is a very popular
set of scriptures here in Matthew chapter seven,

where it says, Don’t judge lest you be the judge.
The reality here is that when you judge someone,

this is connected to the first commandment, when
you judge someone, you’re becoming their Elohim.

And God says, You’re not allowed to do that. No
one can have an Elohim except for God Himself.

And so God says, Look, don’t play God. Don’t play
Elohim don’t play judge with your brother. Now,

does that mean that you can’t call something out?
Uh, no, of course not. If something’s written in

the Word of God, you’re not judging. You’re just
saying, Hey, this is what the Word of God says,

and in love. You can correct rebuke and encourage
with great patience and careful instruction.

But judgment is a final judgment, you’re not
allowed to do that we as believers are not allowed

to play God and put ourselves in the position of
Elohim unless the Father gives us that authority,

or that person gives us that authority
in their life, to keep them accountable,

and so on and so forth. Let’s take a look at
Romans chapter 14, verse four, it says this,

who are you to judge another servant
to his own master, he stands or falls,

indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able
to make him stand. Look at this, my friends,

God is telling us through Paul, the Apostle Paul
to the church of Rome, and a church of Rome,

we don’t have the right to judge. He says, Who are
you to judge another man’s servant, you’re not the

master. So back off, pray for them, encourage them
and let them be on their own journey. He’s the man

God doesn’t need you to help them stand. God
can make them stand because He is God. He is the

Elohim. And so it’s better to pray that someone
be sensitive to the Spirit of God moving in and

around them so they can hear and feel God and
know that they’re supposed to go left or right.

So again, God says, don’t put any other people
before me, don’t put any other judges before me.

You know, in the end, I want to encourage you
that the real meaning of this verse is, look,

don’t let anyone judge you. Don’t let
them when we fall into the place where

we have to dress like the world because we want to
please the world. We get to drive a certain car,

live in a certain house or act a certain way or
be on social media like everybody else. Because

if we’re not, then we’ll be deemed as different.
The Father says, Don’t get your identity

from anything or anyone else. If you do,
you are putting another Elohim before me.

The Father says I love you with all my heart,
mind, soul, and strength. He says in Psalms 139,

He says in verses 16, and 17: “Your eyes saw
my substance being yet unformed. And in your book,

they were all written the days fashioned for
me when as yet there were none of them.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me Oh, God! How great is the sum of them!

My friends,  look at this before we were even formed in the
womb, God knew exactly everything that He had

planned for you. So why do we spend so much time
trying to impress people that we don’t even like?

And we spend very little time trying
to impress the people that we do.

And we spend even less time trying to impress the
One that we say that we serve? Did you know that

when we tried to do those things, and we try to
keep up with the world, and we feel like we got to

do this and do that so that people will like us?
Ultimately, we are breaking the first commandment

because the original Hebrew meaning of the first commandment is you should not put another judge

before him. And when we are trying to please the
world, what are we doing? We’re letting the world

judge us, we’re afraid that the world is going to judge us or this person is going to judge us,

so we do things to line up to please those people.
And the end result is we’re putting another god

another elohim before the true Elohim!
So my friends, let your identity be found in the Messiah

and nowhere else. Let’s keep a path that
straight a mind that sober and let us

continue to be washed by the water of the
Word. I’m Jim Staley with Passion for Truth

ministries. I can’t wait to get to the second
commandment, we’re going to go through all 10.

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Until then, I’m Jim Staley, and
I’ll see you in the next video.