The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q48. What are we specially taught by these words “before
me”
in the First Commandment?
A. These words—“before me,”—in
the First Commandment, teach us,
That God, who seeth all things, taketh
notice of,—and is much displeased
with,—
the sin of having
any other god.[1]
[1] Romans 1:20–21; Psalm 44:20–21; Ezekiel 8:5–18.
The phrase “before me” is a most significant part of the First Commandment, yet, it is often overlooked when the First Commandment is recited. Our catechism, rightly, points out that the phrase speaks of God’s omniscience,— that God sees all things, including what goes on in the heart of man. It was in amazement of this thought that David wrote: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (Ps 139:1–4). This being the case, and since God is just and holy, He is much displeased with any manifestation of transgression against the first of His commandments.
John Calvin explains it best: “The phrase… ‘before my face,’ (Hebrew: lit) makes the offence more heinous
because God is provoked to jealousy as often as we substitute our own
inventions in place of Him. This is like a shameless woman who brings in an
adulterer before her husband’s very eyes to vex his mind the more” (ICR 2.8.16).
What should our response be to this doctrine? Calvin is again helpful: “God
proclaim that whatever we undertake, whatever we attempt, whatever we make,
come into His sight. Therefore let our conscience be clean even from the most
secret thoughts of apostasy, if we wish our religion approved of the Lord. For
the Lord requires that the glory of His divinity remain whole and uncorrupted
not only in outward confession but in His own eyes, which gaze upon the most
secret recesses of our hearts” (ibid.).