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This week’s word is a combination of two Greek words. Monos means “one” and theos means “God.” Put those together and you get monotheism, which signifies a belief in only one God.

The Biblical significance of this word is that we, as Christians, only believe in one God. During the times of the Bible’s writing, there were many people who believed in multiple gods. You’ve probably heard about the Greek gods, for example; Zeus, Aphrodite, Hercules, etc. Other religions had other gods, such as the sun god or the rain god or whatever. The term for this is polytheism - believing in more than one god. But throughout the Bible, God’s people have been instructed to only believe in and follow the one true God.

One of the times God briefly explained this to the Israelites is recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This passage is commonly called the shema, because the first word of it in Hebrew is shema, which is a command meaning “hear.” The Hebrew people, even to this day, commonly recite this verse in Hebrew as a daily prayer. We see, very simply, that God is one. There are not many gods as many of the pagan religions surrounding the Israelites believed; there is one true God.

We see the same concept of there being only one God echoed throughout the New Testament as well. For example, Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” We see this again in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”

Why is monotheism important in your life today? Our culture, especially in the U.S., is a polytheistic culture - in general, people worship many gods. They may not call them out as gods, but they are. There’s the god of money, the god of fame, the god of having the latest tech toys, the god of having a fancy car, etc. We as Christians need to remember that we are called to be truly monotheistic and only worship the one true God. We need to give God 100% of our allegiance, in spite of what society tells us and our own human nature is drawn to. I challenge you to identify the gods in your life, and work at ridding yourself of them so you can fully and completely participate in monotheism by serving and following only the one true God.