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First Commandment

Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

the First Commandment

"And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; 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; this is the first commandment." Christ's reply was direct and explicit. Supreme love to God is an evidence that the truth is an abiding principle in the mind and heart. The second is like the first, said Christ; for it flows out of it, and is founded upon it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. {ST, September 22, 1898 par. 1} {ST, January 25, 1899 par. 1}

"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." {PP 305.3}
Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the Source and Sustainer of all, is alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other object the first place in his affections or his service. Whatever we cherish that tends to lessen our love for God or to interfere with the service due Him, of that do we make a god. {PP 305.4}

Many are ignorant of the sinfulness of these habits, and their certain results. Such need to be enlightened. Some who profess to be followers of Christ, know that they are sinning against God, and ruining their health, yet they are slaves to their own corrupt passions. They feel a guilty conscience, and have less and less inclination to approach God in secret prayer. They may keep up the form of religion, yet be destitute of the grace of God in the heart. They have no devotedness to his service, no trust in him, no living to his glory, no pleasure in his ordinances, and no delight in him. The first commandment requires every living being to love and serve God with their whole mind and strength. Especially should professed Christians understand the principles of acceptable obedience. {ApM 25.2}

Many are ignorant of the sinfulness of these habits, and their certain results. Such need to be enlightened. Some who profess to be followers of Christ, know that they are sinning against God and ruining their health, yet they are slaves to their own corrupt passions. They feel a guilty conscience, and have less and less inclination to approach God in secret prayer. They may keep up the form of religion, yet be destitute of the grace of God in the heart. They have no devotedness to his service, no trust in him, no living to his glory, no pleasure in his ordinances, and no delight in him. The first commandment requires every living being to love and serve God with all the might, mind, and strength. Especially should professed Christians understand the principles of acceptable obedience. {SA 71.2}

Men who have been set apart by the laying on of hands, to minister in sacred things, often stand in the desk with their mouths polluted, their lips stained, and their breath tainted with the defilements of tobacco. They speak to the people in Christ's stead. How can such a service be acceptable to a holy God, who required the priests of Israel to make such special preparations before coming into His presence, lest His sacred holiness should consume them for dishonoring Him, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu? These may be assured that the mighty God of Israel is still a God of cleanliness. They profess to be serving God while they are committing idolatry, by making a god of their appetite. Tobacco is their cherished idol. To it every high and sacred consideration must bow. They profess to be worshiping God, while at the same time they are violating the first commandment. They have other gods before the Lord. "Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." Isaiah 52:11. {CH 82.1}

The law of Jehovah, dating back to creation, was comprised in the two great principles, "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. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." These two great principles embrace the first four commandments, showing the duty of man to God, and the last six, showing the duty of man to his fellow-man. The principles were more explicitly stated to man after the fall, and worded to meet the case of fallen intelligences. This was necessary in consequence of the minds of men being blinded by transgression. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 13}

Through the obedience of his commandments it is the purpose of God to remove from the heart every species of selfishness. He would barricade the soul from all indulgence in perverted appetites, and expel from the heart all rebellion and ingratitude. Can it be possible that any of us should wish that God would abolish his commandments, when it is for our happiness and life to obey them? What blessing or advantage would man gain by doing away with the commandments of God? Were he to abolish the first commandment, the authority of God would not stand as supreme, as the authority of the only true and living God. What advantage would accrue to man should he gain reputation, learning, wealth, and honor, and yet be one who, while receiving benefits from God every hour, ignored God, and did not conform his practical life to the precepts of Jehovah? Knowledge, power, education, reputation, or wealth is not to be permitted to come in between the soul and God. The Lord must hold the first place in our affections; for "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God gave his Son to the world in order that men might be redeemed from transgression and sin. {ST, September 24, 1894 par. 5}

Satan's chief agent in bringing about the rejection of the fourth commandment, and the institution of the first day of the week as a day of rest, has been the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church does not deny the part she has acted in this change, but makes a boast of her power as shown in the change which she has brought about in the world. Papists acknowledge that the Bible gives no sanction to this change, and that Protestants have no Scriptural authority for Sunday worship. The Catholic Church changed the day of rest from the seventh to the first day, and without the shadow of divine sanction it has been accepted by almost all the Protestant churches, and Rome, pointing to the adherents of her doctrines, claims the supremacy. In changing the fourth precept of God's law, the papal power has thought itself able to exalt itself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. This was the very work that the prophesy foretold would be done by this power. In trampling upon the fourth commandment, the first commandment is broken. Their idolatry is similar to that of Israel's when she substituted a god which her own hands had made, for the living and true God, and followed after the example of Egypt; for when the Catholics substitute a sabbath of their own making for that which God commanded, they too worship that which their own hands have made, and follow the example of the heathen who worshiped the sun on the first day of the week. {ST, November 19, 1894 par. 1}

The work of the papal church was to be of an exactly opposite character to that of Christ. Daniel in holy vision saw that he "would think to change times and laws." The laws of God and the time of God were to be changed by this antichristian power. The laws of God are the only laws which men are prohibited from changing, for secular powers may change as they see fit the laws of secular governments. In the prophecy it is plainly shown that this papal power would with deliberate intention change the law of God. In the Catholic catechisms the second commandment is not taught as obligatory, but for this change they do not hold themselves responsible of intention to change the law, as they declare that the whole significance of the precept is contained in the first commandment. But the change of the fourth commandment, the institution of the first day of the week as the Sabbath instead of the seventh day, is a change for which she holds herself responsible of intention to change, and makes a boast of her power, because the whole professed Christian world acknowledges her mandate in this particular. It is by thus trampling upon God's commandments (sin is the transgression of the law) that the Roman Church has proved its right to the title given in prophecy to one who shall be the "mystery of lawlessness." {ST, November 19, 1894 par. 4}

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