Please Just Stop Breaking The First Commandment

The First Commandment Is The Most Important Commandment

The First Commandment is as follows:

I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:2-6

What does this mean?

Many people think this Commandment just forbids worshipping other “gods” or literal idols.

This is false. This Commandment forbids putting anything before God. The following is proof.

The Baltimore Catechism, written in the late 19th century, states:

Q. 1142. How may we, in a sense, worship strange gods?

A. We, in a sense, may worship strange gods by giving up the salvation of our souls for wealth, honors, society, worldly pleasures, etc., so that we would offend God, renounce our faith or give up the practice of our religion for their sake.

Baltimore Catechism

Thus, any time we put something, and it doesn’t have to be a literal idol, before God, we break the First Commandment.

Sometimes we even make idols out of sin itself and idols out of ideologies, as I will show in the next 2 sections.

Every Sin Indirectly Breaks The First Commandment

Firstly, by breaking the other nine Commandments and sinning, we indirectly break the First Commandment.

Let’s look at this together:

Did we break the Second Commandment and blaspheme God? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put our feelings before God!

Did we break the Third Commandment to skip Sunday Mass to watch sportsball? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put sportsball before God!

Did we break the Fourth Commandment and disobey legitimate authority? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put what we wanted to do before God and His will.

Did we break the Fifth Commandment and unjustly hurt or murder someone? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put unjust harm of someone before God.

Did we break the Sixth and Ninth Commandments and commit impure sin? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we made impurity more important than God!

Did we break the Seventh and Tenth Commandments and desire or take something that wasn’t our own? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put that object before God.

Did we break the Eighth Commandment and bear false witness? Well, we also broke the First Commandment because we put our lie before God and His Truth.

To sum up, any sin against the other nine Commandments always indirectly breaks the First Commandment.

Idolatry Of Ideology

How about popular ideologies? Can we make them more important than God and His Church?

Yes. Pope Pius XI refers to idolatry of ideology in 2 encyclicals.

In 1931, Pope Pius XI, referring to Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, says the following:

For [Rerum Novarum] boldly attacked and overturned the idols of Liberalism, ignored long-standing prejudices, and was in advance of its time beyond all expectation, so that the slow of heart disdained to study this new social philosophy and the timid feared to scale so lofty a height. There were some also who stood, indeed, in awe at its splendor, but regarded it as a kind of imaginary ideal of perfection more desirable then attainable. [emphasis added]

Quadragesimo Anno

Moreover, the same Pope Pius XI wrote this against the Nazis in 1937:

Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community — however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things — whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds. [emphasis added]

Mit Brennender Sorge

Therefore, the First Commandment means no ideology comes before God and His Catholic Church.

Let me give several examples of things people say and do, to put ideology before God:

Have you heard people say something like, “The Bible says this, but I don’t agree with that…”?

They are putting some ideology before God’s Scripture.

What about, “Well, the Catholic Church says this, but things are different now…”?

Again, this is breaking the First Commandment because they put some ideology before Church teaching.

Those people that think abortion “rights” are more important than what the Church teaches are breaking the First Commandment.

Moreover, those people that think that appeasing sodomites by telling them what they do is okay, when the Church condemns their sin, are breaking the First Commandment.

Affirming “transgenderism” also breaks the First Commandment because God created a person’s sex as He wanted.

Likewise, feminism breaks the First Commandment because God and His Church teaches distinct, complementary roles for men and women.

Also, assenting to socialism and communism breaks the First Commandment, since the Catholic Church condemns those ideologies.

Moreover, those dissenting against Church teaching on fornication, contraception, divorce, self-abuse and other sexual issues are breaking the First Commandment by putting their judgement over God.

And before anyone accuses me of being one-sided here, let me be clear: I am seeing a new far-right kind of reactionary emerge.

These far-right Modernists also break the First Commandment.

It usually goes like this: They realize the Church says that all races have equal dignity, but call non-whites subhuman.

Or they realize the Church says migration is a natural right and dissent. (Don’t misunderstand. Migration as a natural right has limits, and does not mean that the Catholic Church condones the Great Replacement in any way, shape or form).

So then these far-right Modernists dissent, and they put the teachings of the Church below their treasured “white nationalism.”

That’s breaking the First Commandment. And it’s a mortal sin that will incur eternal Hellfire!

And it doesn’t even stop with Catholic social and moral teachings.

So-called “Catholics” do things all the time to hinder and hurt each other in teaching orthodoxy and taking Catholic Action.

I have had several people in my Traditional Catholic circle argue against me and subvert my in-person Catholic Action efforts.

Even if I show them where Vatican I and Pope Leo XIII solemnly affirm that it is the duty of men to take Catholic Action, if they reasonably can, they will straight up reject the call.

Moreover, they will actively work to get others to not participate in Catholic Action as well.

This is the sin of scandal on top of sins of heresy and cowardice or lukewarmness!

Also, some guy in one of my social media groups recently said he was banned from a popular so-called “Catholic” group for sharing a link that was an anti-abortion signup!

Yes, they had the audacity to ban him because he was trying to ask Catholics to help stop abortion in a Catholic group!

Likewise, most of my readers know I have been banned from several so-called “Catholic” social media groups for merely pushing orthodoxy.

And I know other Catholics who have been persecuted by other so-called “Catholics” for similar reasons.

These are all forms of breaking the First Commandment.

And usually, it comes from pride: The desire to protect one’s own ego.

Anyways… It’s mortally sinful behavior!

Again, it all comes down to people putting something else before God, His Church, and spreading Catholic Faith and morality.

Let’s Put God First

If we are putting something before God and His Church then it is an act of hate towards God!

And we will be damned if we don’t stop it and repent!

So please, for the love of God, and the salvation of our own souls, we must stop putting things before God!

Stop trying to be “god”, pope and the definer of truth! That’s not our place!

Put God first. We must ask what God wants of us, first. Put His Church first.

Follow Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium.

If we love God first and foremost, obey Him and His Church, and put everything after that, then we are on the right track.

It’s hard, and I struggle with it too, but this is necessary to stay on the straight and narrow path.

God will help us if we let Him in, and ask Him to help us keep Him first.

So do it! Join me! Let’s go to confession, and confess all the times we broke the First Commandment.

Then make the change, and work with with me to create a society where we put God first.

Let’s build the Social Kingship of Christ, under the guidance of the Holy ghost, together!

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