Warding Off Idols

There was a Chinese restaurant in a town I used to live in. As you walked in the front door there was a beautiful (if somewhat gaudy) piece of furniture, something like a bookshelf, but with only one shelf, upon which sat an elaborately carved Buddha figure. Just below the Buddha was a sign that read "Please do not touch this!" I always thought how ironic it was that this little idol had to be protected. Wasn't it supposed to protect the worshipper? But the worshipper had felt it necessary to put the sign up so that people wouldn't be able to profane the protector. The idol didn't even have the power to ward off the curious!

But before you think contemptuously of those who have little idols in their houses, consider that here in America, we have many things that become idols to us as well. How many people here in America neglect their families and their God in order to make more money, or indulge in more pleasure? The truth is that even though some cultures eschew shrines to the gods, they replace the God of heaven with things that they worship in their hearts. I have seen, and I am sure that you have witnessed the same thing, even Christians who, while they go to church and give generously, worship sex, or money, or power, or fame in their hearts; God is a distant second, or even third.

I think that as long as God has set apart a people for himself, that there has been a problem with God's people putting something in the place of God in their hearts. As evidence, consider the words of the apostle John in 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." With these succinct words John ends the book of 1 John. So if last words are important words, this thought was important to John to convey.

The first thing that I would like for you to notice is that John is addressing himself to Christians. We can see this in the way John addresses the readers as, "dear children..." He is speaking to the children of God; those who have been born again through their faith in Jesus' atoning death on the cross. We can infer from this that Christians are in danger of idolatry.

The Christians of John's day may have actually been converted from an idolatrous home; certainly their culture was idolatrous. When Paul went to Athens, he was surprised by the sheer numbers of idols he encountered. Later when he wrote to the church of Corinth it was obvious that there was a problem in the church related to the eating of meats that had been offered first to idols. John may actually have been addressing Christians who may not have seen anything wrong with adding Jesus to the idols they already worshipped.

But that doesn't mean that this verse has no application to us today. As we have already seen one doesn't have to have a little figure to be guilty of worshipping an idol. Anything that takes the place of God in our hearts is an idol....consequently it is important that we keep from allowing anything taking God's place.

But how do we keep away from idols? How do we make sure that a relationship is not more important to us than God, or that money or a job has become more important to us than God, or that the approval of men and women has become more important to us than God?

Well, to answer that question consider what happened to you when you were saved from your sins. What made you turn away from whatever you were trusting to help you make it through life and instead turn to Jesus to save you? Wasn't it because, all of a sudden you came face to face with the Lord Jesus and you knew that you could trust him when everything else let you down?

When I was in high school, even though I was a Christian, I wasn't living for Jesus; I was living for my girlfriend and for the sport of wrestling. But when I went to college my girlfriend broke up with me, and I sprained my knee in the first college wrestling workout. All of a sudden I realized that nothing I could give my life to would be permanent, except Jesus. Not even death could separate us. I knew then that I couldn't go wrong if I gave my life to Jesus....but that I would be disappointed if I gave my life to anything else.

The way to keep away from idols is to come face to face with Jesus every day. Every day you look for Jesus in the Scriptures and you allow the Holy Spirit to bring him into focus. If you are not coming face to face with Jesus on a daily basis you will be in danger of idolatry.