You shall have no other gods before Me.
—Exodus 20:3
In Exodus 20:3, Yahweh states, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Your first reaction may be a double-take, asking yourself if God just acknowledged the existence of other gods.
Were these other deities that existed unrelated to, but on a similar plane as, the Judeo-Christian Creator? Were these the supposed angels, like Satan, who rebelled against Yahweh?
One interpretation could take into account the mythological manifestation of certain innate human traits—like Venus or Aphrodite, for example: the embodiment of love, lust, and sexual desire from Greco-Roman mythology.
If what is meant is that you shall not allow the grip of sexual desire to rule over you in a way that interferes with your focus on the Most High, then this is an interpretation I can relate to. Though I have this inner guiding compass that steers me away from promiscuity, there is also a rather loud voice extending from the loins that urges me to indulge in that venture. Although I follow the higher compass (winning the overall war), that lower voice often seems to steer the ship astray in the day-to-day (winning smaller battles). Chatting up those I find attractive in public, for example, or spending time messaging interests through text or social media, or expending energy indulging in fantasy, all fall into this category. Although none of these things are a complete cave-in to promiscuity, the goddess of lust still has a grip that outweighs my focus on my higher calling at times.
That goddess could be any number of things for anyone—like gluttony, greed, anger, or the urge to drink—but none should have a grip so hard that they detract your attention from where your focus should be. Allowing yourself to succumb to the temptation of whatever other “god” you might worship is a diffusion of energy that could otherwise be put toward the higher purpose God is calling you toward.
This, I believe, is a modernly relevant interpretation of Yahweh’s, “Have no other gods before Me.”