The First Commandment is, “You shall have no other gods but me”, and the Catechism explains this by saying, “My duty towards God is to believe in him, to fear him, and to love him, with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength…”. (1)

To believe in him

“To believe in him, to fear him, and to love him”.  As we grow up, the first thing we learn to do regarding God is to believe in him.  We believe that God exists; we have evidence of his existence all around us – the sun and the moon and the stars above, the trees and birds and flowers, and our own selves.  All of these things must have been planned and made by Someone, and that Someone we call God.  But merely to believe that there is a God who has made us is not enough.  As St James the Apostle says, “You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe – and shudder” (NRSV, 2:19).