To the Hebrews, someone’s name, particularly the name of God, represented that person’s character. So, the name of God represents God Himself. So, when we take God’s name in vain or show contempt for His name, then in a sense we are insulting the person of God Himself.

If you don’t trust God, you’re going to end up creating something that you will trust, because God has created and wired us to trust. If you don’t trust God, then there’s going to be something or someone that’s going to give you your self-worth or self-esteem other than God… and that always disappoints.

The principle behind the second commandment is that of trusting God. What, or who, are you going to trust in? Are you going to trust in the true God? Or are you going to trust in an idol, or an image of what you think God might be like? Only God will ultimately bring you a sense of true love, joy, peace, and fulfillment.

Love is the motivation for keeping the commandments as well as the motivation God had in giving the commandments. When you think about it, if you love God, you won’t have any problem with this first commandment, which is to have no other gods before Him.

As an introduction to this series on the 10 Commandments we start with a biblical understanding of "Truth". Truth is fixed, universal, and absolute. The most important truth for any of us to know is that God loves us.

God, in the very first commandment, says that we’re going to have something that is the ultimate priority of our life. He also spells out what that priority should be: "You shall have no other gods before Me… I am the Lord your God." That means we can have a personal relationship with God!

The Ten Commandments may be the most famous Scripture in all of the Bible. We always think of them, though, in the negative because they are stated negatively. The fact is, there’s a positive principle behind each of these commandments!

God shows Jonah a contrast between what’s important to Jonah and what’s important to God. The issue really is Jonah’s narcissism, his selfishness, his pride. We learn through this story that God's mercy and love is wide enough for everyone, even people we are tempted to view as wicked!

The root of Jonah’s problem when you get right down to it, was his own pride. Pride is the basis of prejudice and most sin.

Thankfully God's love, compassion, and mercy for every sinner (all of us) can change the heart of a single person and an entire city!

At times, believers are like Jonah, running or drifting from God. When you’re away from God as a believer,

you have two choices, you can either run to God, or you can run from God. Which is it going to be?