WLC 104

Q104. What are the duties required in the first commandment?

The duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him; being zealous for him; calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to please him, and sorrowful when in anything he is offended; and walking humbly with him.

Proof texts

• 1 Chr. 28:9 — [9] “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
• Deut. 26:17 — [17] You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.
• Isa. 43:10 — [10] “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
• Jer. 14:22 — [22] Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.
• Ps. 29:2 — [2] Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
• Ps. 95:6-7 — [6] Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! [7] For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,
• Matt. 4:10 — [10] Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
• Mal. 3:16 — [16] Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.
• Ps. 63:6 — [6] when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
• Eccl. 12:1 — [1] Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
• Ps. 71:19 — [19] Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
• Mal. 1:6 — [6] “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
• Isa. 45:23 — [23] By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’
• Josh. 24:15,22 — [15] And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” [22] Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
• Deut. 6:5 — [5] You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
• Ps. 73:25 — [25] Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
• Isa. 8:13 — [13] But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
• Ex. 14:31 — [31] Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.
• Isa. 26:4 — [4] Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.
• Ps. 130:7 — [7] O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
• Ps. 37:4 — [4] Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
• Ps. 32:11 — [11] Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
• Rom. 12:11 — [11] Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
• Num. 25:11 — [11] “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.
• Phil. 4:6 — [6] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
• Jer. 7:28 — [28] And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.
• Jas. 4:7 — [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
• 1 John 3:2 — [2] Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
• Jer. 31:18 — [18] I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the LORD my God.
• Ps. 119:136 — [136] My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.
• Mic. 6:8 — [8] He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited 1 Chr. 28:9 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 31 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WSC Q45 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. HC Q92 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q45 · HC Q92