Q.50. What does the second commandment require?

A. The second commandment requires us to receive, respectfully perform, and preserve completely and purely all the regulations for religion and worship that God has established in His word.

This week’s question drives home the point that the second commandment goes far beyond just not making a physical idol. We haven’t fully kept the commandment if we don’t carve a block of wood or fashion a golden calf and say it is God.

This commandment shows that God is very concerned about how we worship Him, and to fully keep this commandment we need to carefully observe all the rules God has given for our worship.

To put it as Jesus did to the woman at the well, we must worship in spirit and in truth.

John 4:23

²³ “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”