The first commandment is about who we should worship (v3), but the second (v4-6) is about how we worship the One True God.

This commandment is teaching that we must be careful not to make God out to be less that the great God that He is. We can sin by putting up statues of stone or wood and say that God is like that, but equally we can sin by having wrong ideas about God in our minds.

We make this serious mistake when we refuse to accept something that scripture says about what God is like or how He acts. There is always the temptation to ‘tame’ God, to change God in our thinking so as to make God seem more comfortable.

God is perfect in who He is and in all that He does, He can’t be improved on, He needs to be trusted fully. We keep this commandment as we let God’s word constantly refresh and adjust our understanding of God. This commandment can only be kept with an open Bible.

Notice the seriousness of this commandment as you see what the punishment will be (v5). All of us, but particularly those of us who are parents need to beware that our sin will have great consequences on others as well. Praise God, this commandment ends with a great promise of mercy (v6).