Commandment
The First Commandment is to put God first in our affections. That's not an option. It's a command.
Imagine buying a child a toy for his pleasure, and having him love the toy more than he loved you. Yet that is what we have done with God. He gave us the gift of life. He gave us freedom, food, family, sight and hearing. He gave us the ability to reason, yet we used that mind to resist the very One who gave it to us in the first place. We have been guilty of the sin of ingratitude.
Have we ever sincerely thanked God for the gift of life? If we have, but we've never obeyed His command to repent, then our "thanks" are nothing but empty hypocrisy.
Everything you have came to you by the goodness of God. Jesus said that we should so love God, that all our other affections—for mother, father, brother and sister, should seem as "hate," compared to the love we have for the God who gave those loved ones to us.
It has been so rightly said, that if the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, then the greatest sin, is failure to do so.
The Bible also says that the First Commandment involves loving your neighbor as yourself.
In the story Jesus told of the "Good Samaritan," the man picked up a beaten stranger, bathed his wounds, and carried him to an inn. He then gave money for his care, and said to the innkeeper that if he spent any more money while he was gone, he would pay his expenses. That is a picture of how we are commanded to treat our fellow human beings. We should love them as much as we love ourselves...whether they are friend or foe.
Jesus didn't call that story the "good" Samaritan. He wasn't good. He merely carried out the basic requirements of the Law.
Have you loved humanity as yourself? You be the judge. Have you kept all the Laws of God? I'm not judging you—I'm asking you to judge yourself. The sentence for breaking the First Commandment is death.
