Idealizing

DEVOTION 1 JOHN IDEALIZING 1 John 5:21 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. NIV The last statement in this letter written by John as he was inspired by God has just a simple idea, yet says an awful lot. It would be good to determine just exactly what an idol is if we are to grasp the true meaning here. Within the Greek word for idol, it does expressly mean any heathen god, yet that in itself could mean anything which is worshipped. What is it that we worship or consider worthy our given homage to? Does that correlate with what we place value on? Although value seems to go along with treasure more than with idols, but are we in danger of accepting the ways of the world which certainly are a form of idol worship? We absolutely would never worship any foreign god such as the multiple gods of the Hindu faith. We certainly would not accept Buddha as our god either, or any other of the gods people around the world worship if it is not the one and true God. But what about ideas, ideologies and what about things, do we practice some form of worship of these? Sure we may not gather together and raise our hands to them. We surely would not sing songs of praise and worship to them, but in our own subtle way do we give them a certain place of honor within our heart and mind? Do we value and honor the education of this world over pure and simple faith in God? Do we place value or honor in a degree of ministry or even a Christian education over simple faith in God? Do we worship in some form or another of famous people, movie stars, the beautiful people? Do we worship the physical form, and practice an assortment of methods in order to enhance our physical form, even justifying it by claiming scripture to prove our efforts? What else could we worship? Do we worship nature instead of the one who created it? There are many things we could become so involved with that in some sense we would begin to worship them. Yet God desires that he is the one and only that desires our worship. We should not idolize anyone or anything other than God.