“Little children, keep yourselves from
idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:21, KJV)
When we read the statement, “keep away from idols,” we feel pretty
confident that we do not have any idols in our homes or even in our lives. It might be hard to find in all the homes we
know of … a single life sized stone altar with a golden calf perched upon
it. That would seem bizarre to us. Yet, we all know people that worship
everything from Hollywood and sports celebrities to their successes at business
or in their careers. Hedonism, pleasurable pursuits and countless other indulgences
can be just as elevated as any ancient god ever was. Things new and improved
can be a consuming importance in our lives evidenced by the raging materialism
in our world. The things that keep people
from God might not be called idols in our society but don’t these pursuits of
pleasure, material things and idealizations keep many people from God? They certainly do.
It is quite ironic and simply very sad,
that people spend numerous hours in front of the TV or the computer every single day and sometimes not a single minute
reading their Bible in any given week. Anything that keeps anyone from giving
God His rightful place in their hearts is an idol. We just prefer not to call
them idols.
There are countless other ruses, vices,
attractions, lies, relationships, material things and sins that are really
idols even if we do not call them such.
There are hundreds of temptations, addictions and multitudes of sinful
behaviors that people give their very lives to but yet they would never call
them idols. They may not be idols in our
language but they steal from us our faith, our relationships and our true
identity in God.
In the scope of life on earth, all of
this stuff and all these idols can keep us away from God and His presence. It is the fellowship and relationship with
God that was our created place and it becomes again our restored place through
Jesus Christ. God’s place in our lives is
walking in the “abundant life” that only Christ can give. God should be
elevated and held as the greatest love and desire of our hearts and lives. Followers of Christ, give up things in their
lives that are really worthless and temporary to have things that are priceless
and eternal. We must keep away from “anything that might take God’s place in our
hearts.” It is the way we find the
life of God. We lose nothing and gain
everything, by living this way.
“Dear children, keep away from anything
that might take God’s place in your hearts” (1 John 5:21, NLT).
Suggested Reading … 1 John 5
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