Tag: idols

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1 Corinthians Devotionals

Pleasing God

1 Corinthians

I have written on this passage before, so I won’t bother to go into the detail that I did then.

But it does strike me that this passage has a strong connection to what Paul wrote in chapter 6.

(It is worth pointing out by the way, that Paul wrote this letter without any chapter or verse numbers.)

As you may recall, he quoted a pet phrase the Corinthians had, namely,

Everything is permissible for me. (1 Corinthians 6:12a)

But right after that, Paul answers by saying,

but not everything is beneficial. (1 Corinthians 6:12b)

And here, we see another example of how some Corinthians were applying their pet phrase: “Because idols are nothing, it is permissible for me to eat food eaten to idols.”

Now Paul actually agrees with this. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6, 8)

But the problem was that their eating food sacrificed to idols was not beneficial to the church because Christians whose consciences were weak were having their faith destroyed because of it. (1 Corinthians 8:10-11)

So even as Paul agrees with them that eating food offered to idols is not in itself sinful, he reminds them,

…for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him. (8:6)

I don’t think Paul said this just to make a theological point. I think he was reminding them of what he said in chapter 6.

You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

And so he warns them,

Now when you sin like this against brothers and sisters and wound their weak conscience, you are sinning against Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:12)

In this case, an action that in itself was not sinful became sinful because it caused their fellow believer to fall.

So let us remember again, “What is permissible” is the wrong question.

What is the right question?

The right question is: “Who do I belong to? And what is pleasing to him?”

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1 John

A sin that leads to death

1 John

John has a somewhat curious thing to say in verses 16-17. He says,

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is a sin that leads to death. (1 John 5:16-17)

It seems to me that John is referring to something that James also talked about. James said,

Is any of you sick…The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. (James 5:14-15)

Most times, illness is not the result of a person’s sin, but is merely the result of living in a fallen world.

But James leaves room for the judgment of God as being a reason for a person getting sick. And he says that if you pray for such a person, God will not only heal them, but forgive their sin.

But in this passage, John adds a caveat to James’ words. He says don’t bother praying for people whose sin leads to death. What does he mean by that?

I think we find the answer in verses 18-19.

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (1 John 5:18-19)

One thing that John warns us of again and again is willful, deliberate sin. Again and again he tells us that a true child of God does not make a practice of sin.

In verses 18-19, he says the reason for this is that Jesus himself works in us, and that though the whole world is under the control of Satan, we are not.

The world may not be able to resist the temptations Satan throws at them, but through the power of God, we can.

For the brother, then, that makes a constant practice of sin, with no sign or remorse or repentance, they are headed for death.

That can mean one of two things. First, that God will bring physical death upon them for their sin. We see this in more than a few places in scripture (Acts 5:1-10, I Corinthians 5:5, 11:27-30)

The other thing it could mean is that such people were not truly ever saved, and that they are headed for eternal death.

They knew the truth, they claimed to believe it, and yet by their lives proved they never belonged to God. And he holds them especially accountable because they know the truth. There is no excuse for their behavior. (Hebrews 10:26-31)

In short, not all sins are alike. All of us sin. And as John said, all wrongdoing is sin. But there is a difference between falling into sin and deliberately plunging ourselves into it.

If you fall into sin and repent, God will forgive you. But if you refuse to repent and turn from your ways, there can be no forgiveness for that, only judgment, either in this life or the next, and possibly both.

But John has better hopes for us. He says,

And we know that Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life. (20)

In other words, Jesus has come and has opened our hearts and minds to his truth. Now we know God and are in Jesus Christ. He abides in us and we in him, and because of that, we have life.

And so John concludes,

Little children, keep yourself from idols. (21)

John’s telling us, “You belong to the truth now. You belong to the true God. So don’t deliberately offer yourselves to sin and the things of this world. They are mere counterfeits of all that God wants to offer you.

Run from sin. And run to Jesus, offering yourself to the one who truly is Life.”

Who are you offering yourself to?

Categories
1 Corinthians

Participating with demons

1 Corinthians

In Japan, one of the things that many Christians struggle with is how to deal with Buddhist funerals and memorial services.

There is some disagreement in how to handle it. Some people avoid the funerals and memorial services entirely.

Others attend but will not offer incense or follow the other outward rituals of prayer.

I can see both sides, and for the most part, I think attendance is a matter of conscience. But I do think we need to be very careful about how far we go.

Whereas a person may go from one drink of wine and slip into becoming drunk or even becoming alcoholic, I think it can become easy to slide into compromise when attending these services.

Some might start to think, “Well, I may be offering incense, or follow the outward rituals of prayer at the Buddhist altar, but I don’t really mean it. And after all, they are just things, not really gods.”

The Corinthians had a similar issue. Paul had told the Corinthians it was perfectly okay to eat meat offered to idols.

But some had perhaps taken it a step further. Not only were they buying meat from the market or eating meat at friends’ houses, they were also actually participating in the feasts celebrating these idols.

Perhaps they were thinking, “Well, I’m not really worshiping the idols. I’m just having fun with my friends and family.”

Some may have even used the excuse, “I’m just showing love to my family and friends by celebrating with them. And besides, these idols are nothing anyway. They’re not really gods.”

But Paul says,

My dear friends, flee from idolatry. (1 Corinthians 10:14)

He then points out two things.

He points to communion first, and says, “When you are joining in these communion feasts, aren’t you participating in the blood and body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)

In other words, “By taking the bread and the wine, are you not showing the communion that you have with Christ? That you now have a relationship with him through his sacrifice on the cross?”

He then points to the sacrifices the Israelites gave in the Old Testament.

One of the offerings they gave was the “peace offering.” They would actually take part of the burnt sacrifice home and the family would eat it together, as a sign of the peace and communion they now had with God.

So, Paul says, when you take part in these feasts, are you not doing the same? Are you not showing that you are having communion with these idols?

What was the real problem with these idols? They were just metal or wood after all.

Paul tells us, saying,

Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. (1 Corinthians 10:19-20)

In other words, when they participated in these feasts, they were really having communion with demons.

And when people offer incense and pray at Buddhist altars, they really do so to demons. Can we do that?

Paul’s answer is an emphatic no.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:21-22)

I think we would do well to remember to be careful whenever we deal with spiritual things, to think about what we are really dealing with. God? Or something else?

Not only with idols, but with things like astrology, Ouija boards, or tarot cards.

Some Christians think they are just games. But in reality, they are participating with demons.

Let us not do that. Rather, as Paul would say in another letter,

Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)

Categories
Ezekiel

What we let enter our hearts

Ezekiel

When I was a kid, there was a song we used to sing in Sunday school: “Oh be careful little eyes what you see. Oh be careful little ears what you hear.”

Basically, it was a simple song about being careful about what we let into our hearts and minds.

Why is that so important? Because as I mentioned in my last blog, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

And so God told Ezekiel to command the people,

Give attention to the entrance of the temple and all the exits of the sanctuary.

Say to the rebellious house of Israel, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel!

In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant.” (Ezekiel 44:5–7)

Apparently, the people had allowed ungodly foreigners into the sanctuary where only the priests were allowed. As a result, they ended up worshiping idols in the temple itself, desecrating it before God.

Because of this, those Levites whose ancestors had worshiped idols in the temple were prohibited from becoming priests. Only those who had been faithful to God were able to be priests before God.

What about you? What do you allow to come into your temple gates, through your eyes and ears? And what do you allow to dwell within your heart?

What do you watch on TV? What kinds of messages and music are you listening to? And what do you let reign in your heart?

When we allow what is ungodly into our hearts, it pollutes the temple that God dwells in.

When we let the idols of money, possessions, sex, or whatever else it may be reign in our hearts, it desecrates the temple God dwells in.

Let us never do that. May we shut our doors to that which would pollute our hearts.

Instead, let us open our hearts wide to God, giving him the throne of our hearts that he might dwell there.

Categories
Ezekiel

Two-faced: How not to find God’s will

Ezekiel

Nobody likes a two-faced person. Least of all God.

And that’s what he addresses here when some elders of Israel came to find out if God had something to say to them. He told Ezekiel,

Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces.

Should I let them inquire of me at all? (Ezekiel 14:3)

He was saying, “Here these men are, claiming to want to know my will, but at the same time, they are worshiping idols. I won’t have it.”

And so he went on to say,

Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Repent! Turn from your idols and renounce all your detestable practices!

When any Israelite or any alien living in Israel separates himself from me and sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet to inquire of me, I the Lord will answer him myself.

I will set my face against that man and make him an example and a byword. I will cut him off from my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ (Ezekiel 14:6–8)

How about you? Do you, on one hand, pray to God asking his will, all the while seeking the things of this world and making them your gods?

Or do you sometimes look at your horoscope or tarot cards, trying to seek what will happen in the future through them?

We cannot be two-faced when we seek God. Either we do so wholeheartedly, or we don’t do it at all.

He will accept nothing less.

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Isaiah

No other

Isaiah

If there is one thing that God impresses on his people in Isaiah 43–44, it’s this: “I stand alone. There is no other God besides me.”

In Isaiah 43:10–11, he says,

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.”

And now again in chapter 44 verse 6, he again says,

I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.

I suppose that it’s for this reason that Christians are considered “narrow-minded.” Because we won’t consider the idea of other gods.

But the question is not whether we’re narrow-minded. The question is whether we’re right.

If I insist to my child that 2+2=4, I’m not being narrow-minded, I’m simply telling it like it is.

And God takes great pains here to try to convince the Israelites that he alone is God.

First, he says,

Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one. (Isaiah 44:8)

First, God points to prophesy, that time and again he told the people what would happen and it happened.

Then he goes to his own personal knowledge. That he who knows everything and created everything, knows of no other gods.

As he said in Isaiah 43, while he created many things, he created no other god. Nor was there any god existing before him.

Then from verses 12–20, he challenges the people to think. The same wood they use to make their idols is the same wood that they burn to keep themselves warm. It’s the same wood they use to cook their food.

And yet they worship this piece of wood?

He asks them to consider the fact that it’s a human that brings the idol into existence. And yet, though the human created this idol, now he bows down before it asking it for help?

Is the created then greater than the creator?

And so God says,

Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.

I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you.

I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.

Return to me, for I have redeemed you. (21–22)

What he told the Israelites, he tells us today.

“Remember that I alone am God. I’m your creator. And I’m your redeemer. Return to me. For I have paid the price that your sins may be forgiven.”

Let us always remember that He alone is God. There is no other.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: The God who cannot be shaped

In the first command God gave, he revealed himself as the God who stands alone. There is no God besides him, and he will not accept people worshiping any “gods” besides him.

In the second command, God reveals something else about himself: He is a God who cannot be shaped.

He commanded the Israelites,

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them. (Exodus 20:4–5)

The idea is twofold.

Number one, we are to worship the Creator, not created things.

In Isaiah 44, God mocks those who would worship created things, especially things they created with their own hands.

They cut down a tree, and with half of the wood they heat their houses and cook their food, and with the other half, they make an idol and fall down and worship it, praying, “Save me. You’re my god.”

In verse 19, God says,

No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,

“Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” (Isaiah 44:19)

In Romans 1, Paul talks about how people stopped worshiping the true God and started worshiping images made to look like humans, animals, or reptiles.

In doing so, Paul said,

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. (Romans 1:25)

So God makes it very clear. Don’t worship created things. Only one person deserves our worship—our Creator.

In the old days, worshiping created things often meant worshiping the sun, or moon, or idols.

These days it might mean worshiping money, or our car, or our possessions.

What dominates your thought life? What do you think about as soon as you wake up? What do you think about as you go to sleep?

Whatever dominates your thoughts—that’s your god.

But the other idea God is trying to get across in this second command is, “I am not a God that you can shape.”

Of course this means that we shouldn’t make idols and worship them as if they were gods.

But I think it goes beyond that.

God demands that we recognize him as he is, not as we want him to be.

What does that mean practically?

Well, for example, a lot of people like to think of God as a God of love.

“Oh yes, God loves me. He accepts me. He loves everyone.”

That’s true. But how many people like to think of God as a God of justice?

How many people like to think of God as a holy God who must punish evil?

How many people like to accept the fact that there are people who will go to hell because they won’t put their faith in Jesus Christ?

Most people don’t.

Honestly, I don’t like the idea of hell. I’d like to think that everyone would go to heaven.

But I can’t just shape God to make him as I wish. He is holy. He cannot tolerate sin.

And because of that, there are people who will go to hell.

Not because God isn’t love, but because God is holy and cannot just let sin go unpunished.

Other people try to shape God in other ways.

They almost see God as their personal servant. They believe if they just have enough faith, God has to give them whatever they wish. Money. A Mercedes-Benz. A mansion. Whatever.

Or they believe that if they’re sick, but they have enough faith, God has to heal them.

But God cannot be coerced. He is sovereign. We are not.

And yet, so many people don’t want to see God that way. Instead, they try to control him.

They try to bend God to their will instead of bending themselves to God’s will.

But in trying to control God, they’re not worshiping God; they’re making themselves God. And God won’t accept that.

How do you see God?

Do you see God as how you want to see him?

Do you try to shape him into the image you want?

Or do you worship him as he has revealed himself? Do you worship him as he truly is?

God won’t accept anything else.

Categories
Exodus

Ten Commandments: A God who stands alone

Who is this God?

Back when Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go to worship God in the desert, Pharaoh asked, “Who is this Yahweh? Why should I listen to him?”

Though thousands of years have passed since Pharaoh first posed that question, people still ask the very same question today.

“Who is this God? Why should I listen to him?”

God’s answer to them is the same one he gave to Moses at the burning bush, when he said, “I am that I am. Tell the Israelites ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.”

Even the name “Yahweh” is essentially a derivation of the Hebrew word “to be.”

As I’ve mentioned before, God was basically saying, “I’m the eternal one. I always have been, and always will be.”

Another way to put it is, “I am the only one,” because God is the only one who can make the claim that he has always been and will always be.

So the answer to the question, “Who is this God?” is essentially, “He is the only one. There is no other because he has existed from all eternity, and there is no other that can make that claim.”

And so when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, the very first one was, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Another way to translate that is, “You shall have no other gods besides me.”

The reason being that God is the only one that exists, and there is no other. Any other “gods” are not gods at all.

So don’t seek after them as if they can provide for you what God can provide.

Namely, don’t seek meaning in your life from them because only God can provide that.

He is the source of everything in life. He is the one who created you, and he is the one who provides meaning to your life.

So often as people seek the meaning of life, they look everywhere but at God.

Many look to money, power, or pleasure.

Some look to family for meaning in their lives.

Others look to their career.

But only God can provide meaning in your life because he is the very source of life.

What are you seeking in life? What gods are you pursuing, hoping they will give meaning to your life?

Money?

Pleasure?

A career?

A family?

They’re all good things, but they won’t provide the meaning to life that you’re seeking.

So stop pursuing them as if they can. Don’t set them up as gods in your life.

Instead, seek God.

He stands alone as God, because he’s the only one who has existed from all eternity.

And he is the only one who can bring true meaning to your life.