It is certain that if the two greatest of all the commandments had always been observed by all men, there never could have been a State on the earth.
There would have been society, but no State. The government would have been altogether the government of God; He, the only King, the only Governor, on earth even as in heaven.
There would have been society, but no State. Because, men loving God with all the heart, and all the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength, and their neighbors as themselves, the will of God would have been done on earth even as in heaven. All would have been one united, harmonious, happy, holy family.
There is an essential distinction between society and the State.
"Society is the union which exists between men, without distinction of frontiers -- without exterior restraint --and for the sole reason that they are men.
"The civil society or State is an assemblage of men subject to a common authority, to common laws, -- that is to say, a society whose members may be constrained by public force to respect their reciprocal rights. Two necessary elements enter into the idea of the State: laws and force" (Janet, Elements of Morals, p. 143).
This distinction, however, though clear and easily evident, is seldom recognized. Indeed, it is not recognized at all by those who are anxious to secure the union of religion and the State.
But men did not observe these two "first of all the commandments." They would not love God with all their heart; they would not love their neighbors as themselves. They rejected God as their only ruler, their only sovereign, and became ambitious to rule over one another. And thus originated politics and the State.
The Scripture outlines the story of this: "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind" (Rom. 1:21-25, 28).
Note that at the first men did know God. But they chose not to glorify Him, not to honor Him, not to give Him the first place in all their thoughts and actions. Knowing God, they did not like to retain Him in their knowledge.
The next step was that they became vain in their own imaginations. They professed themselves to be wise, of themselves. The consequence was that they became fools; and their foolish heart was darkened.
In their vain imaginations they made gods of their own. And then to assist themselves in their worship, they made images of the gods which they had imagined.
The image was always the outward, tangible form of the god which they had already conceived in the imagination. Imagining is simply mental imaging. The outward form of the god, whether it is the shining sun in the heavens or a hideously-shaped block of wood or stone, is only the outward form of the imaging that has already been performed in the imagination.