Avoiding Idolatry Through True Knowledge

Deuteronomy 5:8–10 ESV

8 “ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

PRAY

1 John 5:18–21 ESV

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the 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. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Avoid idolatry and avoid crisis (21)

The avoidance of idols is to avoid crisis and to give us the most excellent desire in the world, the desire for God. Those that continue in idolatry will be pierced with many pangs in this age and the age to world. In contrast, those that seek God will experience great joy in this age and even greater joy in the age to come.

Henry Scougal wrote concerning devotion to God and I believe the danger of idolatry:

“Love is that powerful and prevalent passion by which all the faculties and inclinations of the soul are determined, and on which both its perfection and happiness depend. The worth and excellency of a soul is to measured by the object of its love: he who loves mean and sordid things doth thereby become base and vile, but a noble and well-placed affection doth advance and improve the spirit unto a conformity with the perfection of which it loves.”

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Notice John’s tender address to his beloved Christian brothers and sisters. He has great affection for this congregation. Therefore, he is very zealous to tell them there need to avoid idolatry. He ends his letter with a command for them to keep themselves from idols. The way this is written in the original language is very intense for two reasons.

It requires action on the part of the Christian. You will not avoid idolatry by being passive or lazy. We are called to be active in keeping ourselves from idolatry.

The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude The Final Summary, Centering on “We Know”, 5:18–21

The readers are to stand like armed guards, ready to conquer every attack

In addition, the phrase marks crisis. We need to decisively and emphatically avoid idolatry. If we don’t avoid idolatry, we will reap crisis.

What is idolatry?

Worshipping something that is not God

Worshipping God as anything less that he is revealed to be

Worshipping God plus anything else

Worshipping God is a way that the Bible forbids

Tony Reinke

God forbids syncretism. Don’t think that you can mix God with your worship of idols. If you want one-third of God, and two-thirds of other idols, you get none of God. Syncretism is vain thinking about God.

God forbids reductionism. Don’t think that you can reduce God down into something manageable that you can hold in one hand like a household idol or a little golden calf. The earth is his footstool (Isaiah 66:1). Reductionism of God is vain thinking about God.

God forbids presumption. Don’t speak rashly of God. It is vanity to think that we can invoke God’s name to cover over our ignorance of who he really is. Presumption about God is a cloak over vain thinking about him.

The way John closes the letter is vital because he desires them to walk in truth and not error. It seems very important to me that before he gives this strong command to avoid idolatry, he makes three statements of fact that the true church knows and understands. He uses the phrase ‘We know that’ three times to introduce the truth he calls them to remember.

This is the perfect tense in the Greek, which refers to knowledge that was gained in the past and has present reality and significance. How do we avoid idolatry? We remember what we know.

Avoid idolatry by remembering your birth from above and your Defender (18)

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning - We avoid idolatry by knowing have been born from above

We know that our regeneration from God has produced within us the capability not to sin. The true Christian will not keep on sinning. He or she may sin, but the reality of their new life in Christ will bring them back to righteous living.

But he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. - We avoid idolatry by knowing that Jesus Christ is our Defender. The evil one cannot touch us – snatch us; grab us to destroy us

1 Peter 1:3–5 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Avoid idolatry by remembering your Owner and your former owner (19)

We know that we are from God - Our new owner is God. He has remade us in the image of his Son. How can we who are from God practice continual idolatry?

2 Corinthians 6:16–7:1 ESV

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

And the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Our former owner is Satan. We used to be just as the rest of the world lying helplessly in his control. How is the world held in the grasp of the wicked one?

Outside of a relationship with Christ, he blinds us to what would truly make us happy. He offers little treats and pleasures that have a passing and temporal pleasure. He hides the pain behind these pleasures and continues to offer more and more blinding us to their inability to satisfy. The world worships all that displeases God because of the empty promises of the evil one. Even as Christians, he seeks to lure us by little pleasures that quench our desire for Jesus Christ. He tempts us to make idols of sex, money, temporal pleasures, education, knowledge, cars, lands, houses, spouses, children, jobs, raw Bible knowledge, power, a false view of Christ or his grace, our health or physique, gluttony, sleep or anything else he can.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 ESV

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Avoid idolatry by remembering your Savior and your fellowship with him (20)

And we know that the Son of God has come – language came and is still here

Though he has known constant fellowship with the Father for all eternity, though we were created for his glory and rejected him, though we were under the wrath of God, though we were under the power of the evil one, though we continually cursed him to his face, though we long hurled insults at him, though we hated him and loved other things, though we deserved only his displeasure, the Savior arrived to redeem us from take us from Satan’s grip. He arrived to satisfy the wrath of God against us. He was raised for justification, He came to seek and save the lost. He came to redeem us from the curse of the law. Not only has he come, but he is still here with us now. Though living a godly life in the wicked world his hard, though we have Satan shooting fiery darts at us, though we have many trials on the way to glory, he is with us. He is with us when we are on a spiritual high, he is with us when we fail, he is with us when we feel alone, he is with us when we are gathered, he is with us when we are depressed, and he is with us always.

And has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true - He has given us understanding for the purpose of knowing him. We have this understanding because he desires fellowship with us.

And we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. - We are so closely in fellowship with him that we are in him. We are in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:28–30 ESV

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

He is the true God and eternal life - The one whom we are in is the true God and life eternal. We have eternal fellowship with God our Savior.

Isaiah 45:21–25 ESV

21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ 24 “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. 25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Conclusion

To avoid the life of sin or idolatry we do not focus on the sin or the idols themselves. You will find that when you do that, you trade idols. You may stop sexual sin and trade it in for spiritual pride. You may trade laziness in for preoccupation with your body and clothes. You will smash one idol and fashion a new one if you do not fill your life, thoughts, passion, desires and everything on Jesus Christ. How do you get air from a cup? You fill it with water.

Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him? Is not thine a captured heart? Chief among ten thousand own Him; Joyful choose the better part.

Captivated by His beauty, Worthy tribute haste to bring; Let His peerless worth constrain thee, Crown Him now unrivaled King. Idols once they won thee, charmed thee, Lovely things of time and sense; Gilded thus does sin disarm thee, Honeyed lest thou turn thee thence. What has stripped the seeming beauty From the idols of the earth? Not a sense of right or duty, But the sight of peerless worth. Not the crushing of those idols, With its bitter void and smart; But the beaming of His beauty, The unveiling of His heart. Who extinguishes their taper Till they hail the rising sun? Who discards the garb of winter Till the summer has begun? 'Tis that look that melted Peter, 'Tis that face that Stephen saw, 'Tis that heart that wept with Mary, Can alone from idols draw: Draw and win and fill completely, Till the cup o'erflow the brim; What have we to do with idols Who have companied with Him?