ESOCS Devotional 30 December 2023 – Keep Yourselves from Idols
MEMORY VERSE: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” I John 5:21
TEXT: I JOHN 5:13-21
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
Idolatry is the most widespread and contagious sin throughout human history, and the only hope we have of a cure is found in Jesus Christ. Idolatry is not one sin among many; it is the ancestor of every other sin, inherited through the ages to every person, originating with our father Adam and descending to every child in the nursery down the hall. There is not a problem the Bible deals with more frequently. So, this is not a small matter to God. Every single one of us is an idolater, and unless God does something about it, every single one of us is damned because of it.
The reformer Martin Luther said that we don’t ever commit any other sin without first breaking the first of the ten commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.” That means that every sin we commit is a sin first of idolatry. God created every human with a built-in worship center, called the heart. And that’s a good thing because when we worship the right object, our heart comes alive. But our problem is that we often don’t worship the right thing. We should worship God, but instead, we worship idols. Idols aren’t only little statues people bow down to, or something segregated to a certain historical period or a particular group of people. An idol is anything more important to you than God. It can be a bad thing, such as sexual perversion or the love of money. But more often, an idol is a good thing that turns into an ultimate thing, such as family or career. An idol is anything that captures your heart more than God and asks of you what only God rightly deserves. Pastor Erik Raymond defines it in terms of robbery and perversion. It’s robbery because we take what is due to God and give it to something else. And it is perversion because we give the devotion God rightly deserves to other things.
Idolatry is something we’ve all actively participated in. And it’s not because we lack something from God. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden, they did not do it because they lacked anything from God. They did it because they wanted to be God. An idol formed in their heart and the sacrifice it required was a disobedient bite of fruit and a denial of their Maker. All it took to push them over the edge was the devil slithering in and asking, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” That’s not what God said! He gave them all the trees in the Garden but the one, but that’s not what they focused on because they wanted more than what God gave. Humanity has lost its purity. And every time we consider something else to be better than God, even for a moment, we are guilty of the same thing. Idolatry is a sin against God, it’s an abandonment of him, an assault on him, a denial of his goodness. Idolatry is evil because it says to God, “You are unworthy.”
I John 2:15-17; 3: 10 & 4:1-6 tells us not to love the world or the things in the world, not to be deceived by our flesh, to practice righteousness and flee from sin and to test the spirits because some are of the devil. In each case, we are warned because the idols these activities create are terrifyingly alluring, and they’re incredibly deadly. Idolatry is deadly serious. It denies Christ his glory, his people their love, and the church its unity.
- How has God’s love brought transformation to your life and how do you deal with fear as it relates to His love?
- Dear Father, fill me with perfect love for You and help me to reverence You all the days of my life.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 50:1-11; 40:1–20; John 12:20–33
ESOCS Devotional 31 December 2023
