The Sins Forbidden in the First Commandment: Guarding the Worship of the Heart

The first commandment reaches much further than a simple prohibition against bowing before a carved image. It lays claim to our worship, trust, love, thoughts, desires, and obedience. Westminster Larger Catechism Question 105 asks, “What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?” It answers: “The sins forbidden in the first commandment are the following:

• atheism, in denying or not having a God;

• idolatry, in having or worshipping more gods than one, or any god along with or instead of the true God;

• not having and recognizing him as God, and as our God;

• the omission or neglect of anything due to him required in this commandment;

• ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, or unworthy and wicked thoughts of him;

• bold and curious searching into his secrets;

• all profaneness and hatred of God;

• self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or desires on other things and off of him, in whole or in part;

• vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, fleshly security, and tempting of God;

• using unlawful means and trusting in lawful means;

• fleshly delights and joys;

• corrupt, blind, and indiscreet zeal;

• lukewarmness and deadness in the things of God;

• estranging ourselves and apostatizing from God;

• praying or giving any religious worship to saints, angels, or any other creatures;

• all compacts and consulting with the devil and hearkening to his suggestions;

• making people the lords of our faith and conscience;

• making light of and despising God and his commands;

• resisting and grieving his Spirit;

• discontent and impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the evils he inflicts on us;

• and ascribing the praise of any good in us, any good that we have, or any good that we can do, to fortune, to idols, to ourselves, or to any other creature.”

  
  

The Sins Forbidden in the First Commandment Begin in the Heart

God commands, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Yet a practical atheism can hide beneath a religious profession. Some “profess to know God, but they deny him by their works” (Titus 1:16). We break the first commandment whenever we live as though God is absent or irrelevant—organizing our time, money, relationships, and ambitions without reference to him. The question is not merely whether we believe in a God, but whether we acknowledge the true God as our God.

The Sins Forbidden in the First Commandment Include Idolatry

Idolatry replaces the Creator with something he created. Romans 1:25 says that sinners “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” An idol can be anything we love, trust, fear, or obey in God’s place. Money, comfort, approval, family, work, pleasure, and even ministry can receive the devotion that belongs to God alone.

The most persistent idol is often the self. Instead of asking, “How may I glorify God?” we ask, “How can God serve my plans?” The first commandment exposes both visible idols and hidden rivals within the heart.

Neglect, False Belief, and Misplaced Trust

The first commandment forbids not only doing wrong, but also neglecting what God is due. Prayerlessness, forgetfulness, cold worship, and spiritual indifference reveal hearts drifting from him. God told Israel, “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob” (Isaiah 43:22).

We also sin when we distort God through false ideas or pry arrogantly into what he has not revealed. “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Faith receives what God has made known in his Word and humbly leaves his secrets with him.

The catechism also warns against using unlawful means and trusting in lawful means. We must never do evil to obtain a desired result. Yet even planning, medicine, savings, or wise counsel become idols when our confidence rests in them rather than in God. We should use God’s provisions gratefully without treating them as our god (Jeremiah 17:5).

False Worship, Cold Worship, and Rebellious Worship

Religious sincerity does not make every kind of worship acceptable. Peter refused Cornelius’s worship (Acts 10:25–26), and the angel told John, “Worship God” (Revelation 19:10). Worship belongs to God alone.

The sins forbidden in the first commandment also include false zeal and spiritual deadness. Zeal without knowledge can oppose God while claiming to serve him (Romans 10:2), while lukewarmness treats his glory as unimportant (Revelation 3:16). True devotion is warm, humble, and governed by Scripture. Nor may we surrender our conscience to a human teacher. Christ alone is Lord of the conscience (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Discontent and Self-Glory Deny God His Rightful Place

Suffering often reveals what rules the heart. The catechism does not condemn honest sorrow or humble questions; Scripture gives us many faithful laments. It condemns charging God with wrong. Job suffered deeply, yet did not do this (Job 1:22). Faith may weep, but it refuses to put God in the defendant’s chair.

We also sin when we claim God’s praise for ourselves: “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17). Every ability and opportunity depends upon God’s provision. Gratitude keeps gifts from becoming gods and returns glory to the Giver.

Turning from Idols to the Living and True God

Question 105 exposes idols far more respectable than statues: atheism in our choices, idolatry in our desires, unbelief in our fears, and pride in our successes. None of us has loved God perfectly.

Yet this searching commandment drives repentant sinners to Christ. Jesus answered temptation with the words, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). He gave the Father the undivided worship we have withheld and bore the judgment idolaters deserve so that believers may be forgiven.

Repentance is therefore more than removing obvious idols. It is the whole heart returning to God through Christ. The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). By Christ’s grace and the Spirit’s renewing work, may that same turning mark our lives: away from every rival and back to the God who alone deserves our worship, trust, love, and praise.

Soli Deo Gloria