Course Content
What is the difference between the First and Second Commandments?
Ever since God revealed the Ten Commandments, there have been serious misinterpretations and misplacements of the Second Commandment. What is the Second Commandment? What is the difference between the First and Second Commandments? Our United Church of God study aid, The Ten Commandments, explains God’s Commandments accurately so we refer you to that study guide for further understanding.
The First Commandment as revealed in Exodus 20:2-3 and Deuteronomy 5:6-7 is: “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.”
The Second Commandment as revealed in Exodus 20:4-6 and Deuteronomy 5:8-10 is: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Large portions of mainstream Christianity and Judaism have combined these two commandments into one commandment. That is, however, inaccurate! Though the two commandments relate to each other and overlap, they are two separate commandments!
The worship of an image would be making the image into another “god” and the First Commandment already says we must have “no other gods.” God definitely forbids the worship of images, but that is already included in the First Commandment! However, one of the many reasons the Second Commandment is extremely important is because utilizing images is a gateway to breaking the First Commandment. Trying to connect with God through an image evolves into looking primarily at the image. The image can gradually become an idol.
What does the Second Commandment forbid?
The Second Commandment forbids anyone from making or displaying visual images with the goal of incorporating them into their worship of God. Many Christian churches and homes display revered religious images, including crosses, crucifixes, statues and paintings that are supposed to be of Jesus or Mary or a “saint,” mystical symbols, steeples, special shapes, stained glass windows with religious designs, etc. Especially problematic is the practice of directing one’s prayers to God through Mary the mother of Jesus or some other “saint.”
Many religious people don’t understand the Second Commandment and the intent behind using images in their worship is sincere. They feel that the images inspire them and help them to feel closer to God. We can admire their good intentions, sincerity and zeal, but we must understand the problem with this practice.
Adding to the issue is the fact that many “Christian” images are in fact inherited from ancient pagan religions! For example, some pagan religions worshipped a “Madonna and child.”
Please understand that the Second Commandment does not forbid artwork showing people and animals or even artwork showing biblical scenes. God commanded intricate artwork to be engraved in God’s temple and elsewhere. But none of that artwork was regarded as representing God.
Why shouldn’t we use religious images?
It is human nature to desire to see, hear or touch God. That explains why people are naturally tempted to look at something they can see to represent God. Furthermore, human nature is lazy. It is mentally challenging to contemplate God as invisible and infinite. The human mind desires to bring God “down to earth” in some tangible form.
Such practices enormously diminish God in people’s minds. The Creator of all things cannot be equated with anything in His creation! To read how strongly God feels about this issue, see Deuteronomy 4:12, 15-19, 23-29; 7:5; 12:1-5!
How do people justify use of religious images?
What justifications do people give for their display of religious images? One common excuse is mistakenly viewing the scriptures that are defining the First and Second Commandments as only one commandment forbidding the worship of idols and false gods! It is easy, then, to think, “We aren’t disobeying this commandment because we are not treating these images as idols and we’re not worshipping them.”
In the scriptures about the Second Commandment, most English Bibles translate the common Hebrew word “pesel” as “carved image.” “Pesel” means any image intended to be relatively permanent which includes statues, paintings, pictures, figurines, stained-glass images, etc.
Some Bibles translate “pesel” as “idol.” That is confusing and misleading because the word “idol” usually means something that is worshipped. Generally, Christians who use images in their worship don’t believe that they regard the images as “idols.” The word “idolatry” refers primarily to breaking the First Commandment.
With the words “bow down to them nor serve them,” God is not referring just to worshipping the images. These words refer primarily to a person’s reverence toward and special care of the images as “holy” and representative of God.
Numbering the Commandments
The Roman Catholic Church and some other Christian churches view the verses of the First Commandment and the Second Commandment together as the First Commandment. (And many Catholic listings condense the wording of their First Commandment.) Then, how do Catholics claim there are still 10 commandments? They divide the last Commandment (against coveting) into two commandments!
Furthermore, in a Catholic list, those last two commandments are usually stated in this very abbreviated form with several words omitted: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife” and “Thou shat not covet thy neighbor’s goods.” Now notice the different word order of the Tenth Commandment in Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21. That difference shows it is just a different way of phrasing the same thing, which is only one commandment. And Paul referred to only one commandment against coveting (Romans 7:7; 13:9).
Present-day Judaism regards “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” as the First Commandment, while it regards all the verses of Exodus 20:2-6 and Deuteronomy 5:7-10 (which actually cover two commandments) as the Second Commandment. In this way, the total number of commandments is still 10.
An important commandment
In conclusion, we must understand that Exodus 20:4-6 and Deuteronomy 5:8-10 are defining the Second of the Ten Commandments. Many churches do not understand this Commandment. Though it might seem relatively unimportant, when we read the entire Commandment, we see that it is extremely important in God’s sight. Rather than glorifying images as part of worship, God calls His people to worship Him only “in Spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).
Don Hooser is a minister for the United Church of God. He and his wife Judy live in his home in McKinney, Texas, during the winter months and in her home in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, during the summer months. His wife Elsie died in August 2020 and he married Judy on January 1, 2022. Mr. Hooser graduated in 1963 from Southern Methodist University with a degree in mechanical engineering, and graduated in 1966 from Ambassador College, Big Sandy, Texas. For most of the time since then he served as a church pastor. From 2011 until his retirement in 2021, his primary responsibility was answering the many letters written to the Church.
