Q.49. What is the second commandment?

A. The second commandment is: You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep My commandments.

The first commandment teaches who we are to worship. The second commandment teaches us how we are to worship.

The second commandment is very important in teaching the regulative principle, in that we are limited in our worship to do only those things that God commands. The scriptures regulate our worship. Not everyone agrees with the regulative principle. There are those who believe we are allowed to do in worship anything except that which God forbids. But I believe the majority of people haven’t thought at all about what we can and should do in worship, and why.

The second commandment clearly teaches that God is concerned with how we worship Him. He expressly forbids our worshipping with any kinds of physical or visual representations of Him. From our human perspective, these physical representations of God help us worship Him. They give us a concrete focus to our worship, and make our worship more real and active. But they are an offense to Him, because they are contrary to His express command to us of how we are to worship Him.