What is the first commandment?

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. It is written: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”

This means that the faithful must guard and activate the three theological virtues and must avoid sins which are opposed to them:

• Faith believes in God and rejects everything that is opposed to it, such as, deliberate doubt, unbelief, heresy, apostasy, and schism.
• Hope trustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help, while avoiding despair and presumption.
• Charity loves God above all things and therefore repudiates indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth or spiritual indolence, and that hatred of God which is born of pride.

Ref.  CCC 2083-2094, 2133-2134

Taken From The Compendium  – Catechism Of The Catholic Church

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