by Reagan W. Cocke, Associate Rector at St. John the Divine Church in Houston
So, what is the truth about idols?—about God’s warning to us in the second commandment: You shall not make for yourself any idol. Paul doesn’t want Christians to be ignorant about our breaking of the second commandment. That is why he is writing to our all time favorite brothers and sisters in Christ, those getting-it-all-wrong-and-lovin’-it Christians in Corinth. You may be thinking, “I’m not ignorant like these Corinthians,” but if you are a Christian living in 21st Century America, then you are. Our collective ignorance is inescapable, and God’s word acts as a warning and correction. Like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we aren’t living holy lives. I see it day after day in this church. So often God takes a back seat, and we set our hearts on evil and participate in evil things.
But we’ve been saved by Christ and given God’s word to know the truth about Him and about ourselves. What we read in the Bible is there for our instruction. God’s word is full of life and we are foolish if we ignore it, or worse, reject it. It is to those who have knowingly rejected God’s word that Jesus will one day say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
We all participate in sin. Perhaps you think you are alone in your private issues, problems, temptations, and sins, but God’s word tells us something very different. We are all in this together. Satan wants you to think, like he got Eve to think, that somehow God’s word isn’t exactly for you and that your problems and temptations are different than everyone else’s. But, as Paul writes, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. God’s plan is for us to escape and endure temptation by fleeing from idolatry, by keeping the second commandment. What keeps us from fleeing from idolatry? Ignorance and immaturity and our continual participation in sinful behavior.
The mark of immature Christian thinking is that faith is all about me and my individual salvation and relationship with Jesus. Immature Christians focus on themselves and what they can get out of their faith and out of their God. Mature Christians begin to understand that the church is a community of Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered believers, set apart by God for worship, proclamation, evangelism, and disciple-making. One of the marks of mature Christianity is to be fruitful, not busy. There is always a temptation to be busy in the church instead of being fruitful. Part of busyness is constant reaction. The church exists to react to things that happen. There is a need, we jump. There is a demand, we meet it. Somebody wants something different, we make it happen. The temptation of busyness is to let people drive the mission of the church. Busyness becomes a false idol. It is Jesus’ Great Commission that is to drive the mission of the church, anything else, especially the social gospel of inclusivity, becomes an idol.
Another temptation is to be people pleasers, to be golden retriever-like, co-dependent Christians, fetching all sticks thrown our way. The squeaky wheel drives the church. The demanding, loud, opinionated people get their way. They walk into clergy offices unannounced as though we are in our offices just waiting for someone to drop in so we can do something. Or, they go behind peoples’ backs instead of confronting them face to face as biblical ethics demand. And because our limited vision of Jesus is someone who always responds to other’s demands, we try to please all people all the time in all things. Here’s some news: Jesus was not a people pleaser—that’s why he got himself crucified. Therefore we can say no to the temptation of pleasing people because people-pleasing is a false idol.
A third temptation is to be independent. I can do whatever I like. I don’t have to be part of adult education and in a small group on Sunday mornings, that’s for others and not for me. I don’t care that the vision of our church requires that I am grounded in God’s word, that I learn in community, that I am called to commit to being in weekly worship and to serving Jesus through his church. People have their excuses, but the temptation at our church to be independent and non-committal is huge. People find excuses right and left to opt out of significant participation. I am not going to correct my independent nature because I don’t recognize authority. No one here has the authority to intrude on my life, tell me how, when, and why to read the Bible, and I can do what I want to do. If that is you, repent. You were bought with a price. You are not your own. Jesus is the authority of your life. Flee from the idolatry of being in charge of yourself. God is in charge. You are a slave to Christ. You want to know whose you are and how you should live, what you should be? Read God’s word.
Lent is the perfect time to focus on being intentional in your faith. Retreat from your daily unreflective life to focus on your walk with the Lord. The temptation is to be distracted from intentionality. Satan wants us distracted from reflecting on the root cause of our sins.
Here’s some truth: Idolatry is the underlying cause of all our sins and temptations. Martin Luther said if we didn’t break the first two commandments, we wouldn’t break the next eight. Bad fruit comes from bad roots. Idolatry is the root cause of sin. Even though you say you are a Christian, you have other gods you are following that lead you into sin. The way to overcome temptation that leads to sin is to flee from idolatry.
We were made to worship God, to enjoy him, serve him, love him, and engage with him forever. But because we are all born in sin we are tempted to worship created things rather than the Creator himself. Whatever you hold in highest esteem, highest regard, whatever person or thing, that becomes your functional god. It can be a car or a weekend house or your golf game or even education. We parents have taught our children to worship the god of education. We have, in a sense, sacrificed them on the altar of academia. Now, is education a bad thing? No, but it is when it consumes our children. It is when public and private schools give them a worldview that is not biblical and is actually anti-Christian. It is when they spend more time advancing in math than they do reading God’s word and learning discipleship. It is when they stay home of Sundays to do homework. It is when you care more about your child’s grades than their salvation.
Have I offended everyone yet? I told you Jesus wasn’t a people pleaser, and you can bet your life that Jesus would never put education before salvation and the discipleship of our children. Education is an idol. I know because so many people spend more on private education than they do giving to the Lord. Look at where your money goes and you will locate your idols.
Idolatry is the taking of a good thing and elevating it to a place is does not belong. Idolatry is enslavement to someone or something we love. It can be our children, our spouse, our house, our job—it is something good that becomes more important to us than anything else.
So, how do we figure out what our idols are? Let me ask a probing question to assist you in identifying them: What is hell to you? Is it growing old, getting fat, becoming poor, being unmarried, being childless, being lonely? In order to be saved from these personal hells, we start worshipping and focusing on that which is not God. We say to God that we will not be content until we are rescued from this personal hell. Let’s get to the root of our idols by considering some more questions. What are you most afraid of? What is your greatest fear? That can tell you what your idol is. What do you long for the most? What motivates you? What are you most passionate about? Where do you run for comfort at the end of a long and difficult day? To time spent in prayer? Or to drugs, food, medication, despair, alcohol, TV, shopping, the internet? What do you complain about most? Your family, your spouse, your kids, job, boss, school, church? What angers you most? What makes you the most happy?
Idols are usually good things that we give ourselves to because they calm our fears, fulfill our passions, bring us comfort, soothe our anger and make us happy. Christians addicted to idols tend to be Christians who understand Christianity as doing rather than being. Doing something to have your best life now rather than being and resting in Christ. We tend to turn to idols because somehow God has failed us. We are ticked off at him. He is too slow to respond to our needs. So we turn elsewhere. God has not brought us a spouse, a child, a job, money, our specific prayer requests. He’s not working for us. He doesn’t answer our demanding prayers, and so we turn elsewhere. If you have unanswered prayers, consider that God may be holding back, not answering your demands, because he knows you don’t need any more idols in your life.
If you could have anything right now, what would you choose? To be rich, to have another spouse, a larger house with more closet space for your possessions, a new car, a better job, a bigger 401k; to be skinner, prettier, buffer; to be out of debt, to receive a compliment from your spouse, your parent, your teacher, your boss, your priest? How about righteousness, holiness, sacrificial love, a greater ability and more opportunities to proclaim the gospel? Did anyone think to ask for these? What do you want to master and control in your life? What do you want under your sovereign lordship? That will probably tell you where your idols are. We are all sinners. We all have idols. We do have to repent of them, but how do we turn away from them so that we can be healthier in the Lord?
John Calvin said that the human heart is an idol factory. Idolatry is the opposite of grace. It is about making us into something we are not so that we can become somebody. Idolatry functions as works righteousness. If you work harder, get yourself fitter, prettier, smarter, healthier, nicer, skinnier, more famous—let’s just say everything that Oprah tries to equip us to become—then you will become someone, but only if you do the work, buy the product, live the disciplined life, get off alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs, fattening food, and internet porn. Yes, you can do it if you only try; you can live your best life now. But this is the opposite of the gospel of grace. The real deception of idolatry is that it supplants our justification (who we are in Christ through grace) with our sanctification (the life-long process of the Holy Spirit making us holier). We then think God will love us more if we are holier and better. This is sick. It causes us to define our own hell and worship a self-made savior. If we fall short, we fall into despair and depression. If we accomplish what we think we need to do, then we are victorious and become prideful, Christian champions. The end result is that we are left with either pride or depression.
Instead, we are to be content. Christianity is about being, not doing. The good news is that we are saved by Jesus and not by ourselves, by our actions or choices or decisions or free will. Jesus saves us from idolatrous, works-based righteousness. He changes our hearts and turns us to himself that we may worship him and nothing else. He says to us, “Come to me all who are weary of works-based righteousness and I will give you rest. God sent me into the world to show the world real love, that I will die for you and that you will come to faith in me for salvation, finding it nowhere else. This is a true saying and worthy of all who God will draw to me, that I came to save sinners, not the righteous. And because you are sinners I am your Advocate before the Father, seated right next to him, interceding for you. I am the perfect offering for your sins, and not for yours only but for the sins of the whole world.” If we don’t raise our hands to Jesus, we will worship something or someone else. I guarantee you that people who do not regularly worship on Sundays are worshiping something else. It may be hunting or skiing or fishing or sleeping or shopping or eating or talking or studying or a weekend house.
We have to turn from our idols, break them, smash them, abandon them and repent and turn to Jesus, to Him alone. If God has changed your heart this morning, you will become a Christian today and abandon works righteousness and false idols and turn to Jesus who died for your sins and receive him by grace through faith. You are repenting right now of your idols and believing that Jesus is the true Savior. If you are a Christian like me, we can repent today of our idols and return to our first love. You don’t need to earn righteousness and your salvation. It has already been given to you. Jesus has already given you all things. He dwells in you and you dwell in him and that is all you need, period. Worship him and him alone. Quit worshiping false idols. Quit worshipping yourself, thinking that you somehow chose Jesus and participated in your own salvation through your own free will. You did not and cannot. Jesus chose you before the foundation of the world and loved you before you ever loved him and died for you even though you don’t deserve it because he is the definition of love and he is grace and he is God.
Father God, thank you that you don’t tell us to jump on the treadmill and work ourselves into shape, but that you placed us in Jesus where we find our real shape, real satisfaction, real comfort, real happiness, real contentment, real peace, real beauty, real salvation, real rest, and all of this by His grace. Thank you that grace flows from Jesus’ throne, and that through the power of His Spirit, we can repent this morning of the false idols we have been following, and we can acknowledge that in Jesus we find rest and contentment and peace because in Him you have given us all things.
