Over the holidays, I heard a newscaster remind me about Oprah’s favorite things, he expressed how most people “love” the things Oprah loves. I couldn’t help but think how wrong they both are—they love something new every other day.
The world looks through a selfish lens; its definition of love is immediate happiness for oneself. This perspective of love always looks backward at us: what we want, desire, or like—that is what it means to love!
This kind of love comes from anything: power, money, sex, coffee, security, and even family. All of which is what the world views as our worth.
The problem is, none of them will last, they are temporary pleasures of this world. The Judeo-Christian word used throughout the Bible is “idols.” According to Webster, idolatry is “the worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.”—Anything that replaces the one, true God (Psalm 31:6, 96:5).
If you find satisfaction, worth, or hope in anything other than God, you are guilty of idolatry. We’ve all been there. Idolatry has always been a problem for God’s people; the sinful nature of man causes us to worship or “love” greatness.
When we feel loved we’re “in” love, and when we don’t we’re not. That’s not love! Its manipulation and manipulation is a result of selfishness.
Unfortunately, God’s people aren’t immune to this. The Old Testament talks about how Israel walked with God for a time, then turn from Him. It’s like the childhood game Love Me, love me not.
The very first commandment God gave Moses was for His people to have no other gods (Exodus 20: 3) the Christian lens of love shouldn’t be distorted into idolatry like the world’s lens of love.
When I was growing up I was taught, “Love God and people, never things.” Things that are loved are idols and Jesus taught we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).
You will either love God and hate worldly things or you hate God and love worldly things. The Bible is clear on this; there is no way around it.
The Apostle John was exiled from the world as a punishment, but God used it as a blessing to teach him what godly love is. John wrote four letters to the church while he was in exile. John knew this world isn’t our home, no need to worry about climate change!
First John is his warning to the church about worldly love and explains what believers’ hearts should be focused on. Second and third John, are the Apostle’s warnings about false teachers who focus on worldly idols, they don’t love God.
Finally, in the book of Revelation John explains what happens in the end to true believers and those who have worshiped the idols of this world. God knows the future and showed it to John.
John isn’t the only Disciple of Jesus to warn against idols and worldly love, each book of the New Testament contains a warning about idolatry. But John’s perspective is unique because God had separated him from the world and allowed him to look upon the Lord.
Yet, he still loved and pursued God during his exile. I think that itself is a sermon for the 21st-century church, as John would say, “In the world but not of the world (John 8:23). We cannot forget the Apostle Paul’s rebuking of the Corinthian church about what true love is and isn’t (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). The heart of love isn’t self-centered, that is lust and I’m not gone do it.
The lusts of the world are when believers start focusing on the desires of this world and turn from the real God to the false idols which was a bad habit Israel had and God rebuked them for it, wake up!
A fundamental teaching of Judaism and Christian faiths is to love God with all of our minds bodies and souls (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22: 36–40). If we do, there will be no room for idols. We won’t “love” things because we are surrendered to and trust God, cross my heart.
Jesus’s half-brother warned that those who have a little bit of love for things of this world are enemies of God (James 4:4). The dictionary lists 173 synonyms of the word love, which means there are 172 false versions of love, love does not mean like a lot or desire or even enjoy—those are easy misrepresentations of love.
The Bible is clear God is love (1 John 4:16). I believe God loved us enough to create things for us to enjoy—but not to love, that would be idolatry.
When God created the earth, He declared it was good and it was up until man sinned by wanting more. Moses tells us after that the Earth was cursed, everything man had enjoyed up until then was cursed (Genesis 3:17).
God’s plan for us was to enjoy this world has been corrupted by our sin in paradise, and we see this when man makes idols out of the things God intended for us to enjoy—not love or worship!
God blessed sex and told man to reproduce. Today sex is an idol for many, twisted for selfish enjoyment. It is not a sin but can be outside of God’s original plan for it, step into love. That is how idolatry works when our selfish desires focus on what we want and not what God wants.
The older I get the more what I enjoy changes, I still enjoy staying active and cooking, but my view of them has changed. Along with my view of relationships, I can tell God I am yours.
1 Comment
Your post is challenging. Thank you!