Ten Commandments: I Did It My Way…?
Reverend Fred Klett, CHAIM Ministry

“In the second commandment, God shows us who he is and what he wants from us.”

There is an American popular song you may know called "I Did It My Way." In it a man boasts that he lived according to his own rules. I do appreciate people who have the courage to their convictions. But I think there is a problem with the principle of "I did it My Way." We are to do things God's way! That is the point of the second of the Ten commandments:

"You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Deuteronomy 5:8-10 in the Torah)

In this commandment we see who God is and what he wants from us. Let's first consider who God is.

The first thing to notice is that God is a jealous God! Surprising? Maybe you think jealousy is an expression of human weakness. But think deeper. If a husband cheats on his wife, it is quite natural and appropriate for her to be jealous. Why? Because she has a right to expect her husband to love her and to be faithful to her. If he is not faithful, she is not wrong to be jealous.

In the same way, God has a right to expect certain things because of his relationship with us. He created each of us, therefore he expects that we should love him and be faithful to him. We are not to honor and bow down to any other gods. That is stated in the first commandment. But there is more. There is a specific way he desires to be honored: his way, not ours. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they made for themselves a visual image, the golden calf, to represent the God who brought them out of bondage. This was what every other nation did, but Israel's God did not approve! Their theme song was "I Did It My Way." Today also we hear many people who say: "I honor and praise God in my own way!" Dear friends, God wants us to honor and praise him his way, not our own ways.

We also learn here that God judges disobedience. Does this disturb you? It should! Because each of us, to some degree, are like an unfaithful spouse. Each of us has gone away from God. The good news is that it doesn't end with that. God is also merciful. In the Bible He tells us that he will show mercy instead of anger to you, if you turn to him in love and follow his ways.

How then is God to be honored and praised? This topic came up when Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman. The Samaritans were half?Jewish and they had their own temple on another mountain different from Mount Zion, which is where the Israelites praised God in their temple. Samaritans and Jews bitterly debated which mountain was the right one. The people of Israel did not like Samaritans at all, and vice versa. Now the woman that Jesus spoke with was not a moral woman. Normally any rabbi like Jesus would avoid her. But Jesus came to restore sinners to God. When she started arguing about where the temple should be, Jesus responded:

"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (Gospel of John 4:21-24)

This is our ultimate answer. We are to honor and praise the true God with true hearts and through a real spiritual knowledge and commitment to him. We are not to serve Him just anyway we like. We are to serve Him in spirit and truth, with our whole hearts. The teaching of the New Testament is that those who truly have faith become part of the Spiritual Temple where God lives. This is a Spiritual Temple that is not limited to any physical location. Through Jesus, we can be cleansed of our sins and the idols of our hearts so that we can truly serve the living God. He is the salvation that has come to the world through the Jewish people.