Monday, October 7, 2024

Properly Defining Idolatry

Scripture: Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Colossians 3:5

Observation: Paul gives the church in Colossae a thorough lesson in proper Christian behavior. Verse 5 provides a list of behaviors to "put to death". Verse 8 then provides a second list of behaviors to "put aside", and lastly, verses 12-17 define both attitudes and behaviors to "put on" in order to be Christ-like.

The two lists of bad behavior are interesting, as they are given different treatment. The second list are activities to "put aside" and generally involve the way we speak. They include anger, slander, lying, and swearing. However, the first list seems to be worse. These are things we are to "put to death", and they fall into two categories:

1) Immoral sexual acts (desire for pleasure)
2) Greed (desire for riches) 

Paul has a provocative summary for these two things. He calls them ... idolatry.

Application: I find it fascinating that so often, we struggle to identify what is "idolatry" these days. So many sermons have been given on the topic! We know that non-believers - and potentially believers who struggle to align their behavior to Christ - are likely committing some form of idolatry, because that is the action God most condemns in history. However, for some reason we cannot come up with a clear answer to what is idolatry.

Well ... here it is! Idolatry involves placing one of these two pursuits ahead of our pursuit for the Lord's will and righteousness. If we desire money to the point that we will set aside a direction in life the Lord has given us, we are making money an idol. If we reject the Lord's will regarding sexual relationship between a husband and wife, we are making sex an idol.

We stand today in a society where the current 'young adult' generation is self-reporting as 30 percent homosexual or bisexual ... it's pretty obvious which of these idols is dominating the United States for this younger generation.

I struggle with elements of idolatry, and I continue to pray for assistance with that. I see my struggles as a curse of my "earthly nature" however, and not something I desire, and definitely not something that I wish to hold up as a defining quality of my life and proof of my strengths (as either evidence that I am successful, or that I am openminded or progressive).

Therefore, while I know I make mistakes, I also now know what idolatry true is, and therefore what issues are dragging our world toward judgment.

Prayer: Lord, I repent of all that could be idolatry. Yes, I desire not to commit any sin, but for the greatest of these, idolatry, I truly wish to remove all elements from my life. You are my God, and the only thing in all the world I worship and honor and cherish. Amen.

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