NOTES for Exo 20:1-17
The first of the Ten Commandments hardly resembles a commandment at all: it is not an order or a request, but simply a sentence in the indicative rather than the imperative: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Only then comes the rule of conduct: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” But these are not merely words; this is a covenant, and relationships are embedded within it. “Your God” presupposes a relationship. He brought us out of the house of slavery, which means that He restored the freedom God originally gave humanity, but which human beings used so poorly when they broke God’s commandments and were driven out of Paradise. The fact that the Lord gives this freedom again means that God trusts us. He believes that if we are given freedom, we will use it not only to sin, but also to love. Freedom exists precisely so that we may love, for if God had created us to love automatically, by nature, it would no longer be love. Love is bound up with choice; we can always cease to love. We are called in freedom to love God and our neighbor, and for this the Lord brought us out of the house of slavery. For this Christ freed us through the Cross from slavery to sin.