WLC 105

Q105. What are the sins forbidden in the first commandment?

The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, atheism, in denying or not having a God; Idolatry, in having or worshiping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God; the not having and avouching him for God, and our God; the omission or neglect of anything due to him, required in this commandment; ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of him; bold and curious searching into his secrets; all profaneness, hatred of God; self-love, self-seeking, and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal security, tempting of God; using unlawful means, and trusting in lawful means; carnal 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 men the lords of our faith and conscience; slighting and despising God and his commands; resisting and grieving of 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 we either are, have, or can do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or any other creature.

Proof texts

• Ps. 14:1 — [1] The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good.
• Eph. 2:12 — [12] remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
• Jer. 2:27-28 — [27] who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ [28] But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.
• 1 Thess. 1:9 — [9] For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,
• Ps. 81:11 — [11] “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
• Isa. 43:22-24 — [22] “Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of me, O Israel! [23] You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings, or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, or wearied you with frankincense. [24] You have not bought me sweet cane with money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities.
• Jer. 4:22 — [22] “For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ‘wise’ — in doing evil! But how to do good they know not.”
• Hos. 4:1,6 — [1] Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; [6] My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
• Jer. 2:32 — [32] Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
• Acts 17:23,29 — [23] For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. [29] Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
• Isa. 40:18 — [18] To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
• Ps. 50:21 — [21] These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
• Deut. 29:29 — [29] “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
• Titus 1:16 — [16] They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
• Heb. 12:16 — [16] that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
• Rom. 1:30 — [30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
• 2 Tim. 3:2 — [2] For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
• Phil. 2:21 — [21] For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
• 1 John 2:15-16 — [15] Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world.
• 1 Sam. 2:29 — [29] Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
• Col. 3:2,5 — [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [5] Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
• 1 John 4:1 — [1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• Heb. 3:12 — [12] Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
• Gal. 5:20 — [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
• Titus 3:10 — [10] As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
• Acts 26:9 — [9] “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Ps. 78:22 — [22] because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.
• Gen. 4:13 — [13] Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
• Jer. 5:3 — [3] O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.
• Isa. 42:25 — [25] So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
• Rom. 2:5 — [5] But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
• Jer. 13:15 — [15] Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the LORD has spoken.
• Ps. 19:13 — [13] Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
• Zeph. 1:12 — [12] At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.’
• Matt. 4:7 — [7] Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
• Rom. 3:8 — [8] And why not do evil that good may come? — as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.
• Jer. 17:5 — [5] Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
• 2 Tim. 3:4 — [4] treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
• Gal. 4:17 — [17] They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.
• John 16:2 — [2] They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.
• Rom. 10:2 — [2] For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
• Luke 9:54-55 — [54] And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” [55] But he turned and rebuked them.
• Rev. 3:16 — [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
• Rev. 3:1 — [1] “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
• Ezek. 14:5 — [5] that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
• Isa. 1:4-5 — [4] Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. [5] Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
• Rom. 1:25 — [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
• Rom. 10:13-14 — [13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” [14] How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
• Hos. 4:12 — [12] My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
• Acts 10:25-26 — [25] When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. [26] But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.”
• Rev. 19:10 — [10] Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
• 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.’”
• Col. 2:18 — [18] Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
• Lev. 20:6 — [6] “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
• 1 Sam. 28:7,11 — [7] Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a medium at En-dor.” [11] Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” He said, “Bring up Samuel for me.”
• 1 Chr. 10:13-14 — [13] So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. [14] He did not seek guidance from the LORD. Therefore the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
• Acts 5:3 — [3] But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
• 2 Cor. 1:24 — [24] Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
• Matt. 23:9 — [9] And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
• Deut. 32:15 — [15] “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
• 2 Sam. 12:9 — [9] Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
• Prov. 13:13 — [13] Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.
• Acts 7:51 — [51] “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
• Eph. 4:30 — [30] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
• Ps. 73:2-3,13-15,22 — [2] But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. [3] For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. [13] All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. [14] For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. [15] If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. [22] I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
• Job 1:22 — [22] In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
• 1 Sam. 6:7-9 — [7] Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. [8] And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way [9] and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.”
• Dan. 5:23 — [23] but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.
• Deut. 8:17 — [17] Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’
• Dan. 4:30 — [30] and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
• Hab. 1:16 — [16] Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited Ps. 14:1 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 71 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