By: Dale Weckbacher
1 John 2:15-16
Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all
that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes
and pride of life[a]—is not from the Father but
is from the world.
(ESV)
God hates double-mindedness but loves those placing their
hope in the Word of God and living lives of obedience to it (Psalm119:112-114). As part of the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus taught us not to lay up treasures on earth but to instead
lay-up treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).
While Jesus teaching on what we are to treasure is often used to encourage believers to give to the
work of the Gospel, it also carries a broader call to guard our hearts against
false idols or objects of worship that supplant God from the throne of our
lives.
When we think of idolatry, we often picture someone bowing
down to some statue of a pagan god.
However, idolatry in our modern age is often reflected by placing our
trust or treasure in something of this world, placing it above our trust of
God. The most serious threat of these
objects is that they may appear good and even harmless on the surface but when
we place them above God in our lives become serious threats for even Satan can
disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
Some seemingly harmless objects of worship that can supplant
God in our lives include,
1)
Government and politics – As government’s size
has increased, so has its influence upon the lives of citizens. Unfortunately, this increase in government’s
influence has brought about the encroachment of government into the religious
liberties of citizens. This has
increased the necessity for Christians to become involved in the political
process as a means of defending their Constitutionally protected right to freely
practice their religion in the United States as protected by the first
amendment. (1) However, we must be on guard not to place our
entire trust in the first amendment or government to protect our religious
liberties and remember to place our primary trust in God. In many parts of the world Christians
practice their religion under the threat of oppression and even death and yet
Christianity thrives in these nations. (2) (3) I believe Christianity thrives under these
circumstances because these Christians are forced to place their trust in
God. Prior to persecution in the United
States escalating to this level, we must learn to place our trust in God while
doing what we can through the electoral process to insure the election of
representatives that will protect our Constitutional right to freedom of
religion.
2)
Work and career – Most of us spend most of our
waking hours engaged in our work and career and as a result these pursuits can
dominate our lives. Just as the
increasing influence of government in our lives can cause us to place our trust
in it to solve our problems, placing our trust in our work and career to
provide for our financial needs can become the object of worship in our lives. Scripture reminds us to trust in God to
supply our needs (Philippians 4:19).
3)
Family – While family is important with
scripture reminding us to love and care for our spouses and children (Ephesians5:22-33, Ephesians 6:1-4), making them number one in our lives in place of God
is dangerous. Our spouses and children
must see us living lives in obedience to God and His Word. For this reason, we must insure we all make
daily time with God a priority in our lives in order to lead our families
according to Godly principles.
The true test of what one treasures in their lives is in
what they do when a crisis occurs. In
crisis do we treasure God in our lives by taking it to him in prayer or instead
do we turn to some earthly source like government, work, or career, or even
someone in our family. While these
things may be beneficial, we must learn to make the main object of our lives
our relationship with Jesus Christ and knowledge of His Word.
1 John 2:15-16 cautions us against placing our trust in the
things of this world because in the end, these things will fail us and not
provide for our needs. Let us therefore
learn to make the main object of our worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
1. constitutionus.com. The Constitution of the
United States. constitutionus.com. [Online] [Cited: January 21, 2017.]
http://constitutionus.com/.
2. Melchior, Julian
Kay. China's Christians Thrive, Despite Increase in Persecution. www.nationalreview.com.
[Online] National Review, February 4, 2013. [Cited: August 12, 2017.] http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/339709/chinas-christians-thrive-despite-increase-persecution-jillian-kay-melchior.
3. Brown, Elijah M.
Minority Report: Christian Persecution in Muslim-Majority Countries. fullerstudio.fuller.edu.
[Online] Fuller Studio. [Cited: August 12, 2017.]
https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/minority-report-christian-persecution-muslim-majority-countries/.
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