God First

Exodus 22 involves property laws and moral principles. These laws covered theft, dishonesty, and careless destruction of property. In some cases the penalty was restitution amounting to double the loss. The remaining laws of this chapter deal with moral principles and thus offers protection for vulnerable people such as virgins, widows and orphans. But the one mandate that stands out is found in Exodus 22:31 "And you shall be holy men to Me...." We are to respect God and put Him first in everything. Jesus summarized this in Matt.6:33. If we truly love God with all our hearts, we will have no desire to hurt others. But if God is not first, we will start exploiting people to get what we want. We are supposed to worship God, deny self, love others, and use things. Unfortunately, today we have turned this upside down. Today, people worship self, ignore God, love things and use people. And if God is not first in your life, you will migrate toward this flawed model. Let's be sure to put God first in our lives each and every day.