Who comes first?

"Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."

1 John 5:21

 

Throughout the entire first letter from John, he is making the argument of the divine nature of Jesus Christ and what a relationship with Him looks like.  Most likely his audience in this epistle letter is new Christians that believed in Christ, but had some misunderstandings.  This is a different type of writing than John's Gospel about Jesus Christ, wherein, the purpose was to convince a mostly Jewish audience that Jesus was the Messiah.  In this first letter, John is more concerned with conveying the love of Jesus and the saving relationship found in Him, rather than simply making a case that He is God.  As you read through the rather short five chapter letter, John uses very theological language to describe Jesus and to tell us of our relationship with Him.  John's main theme is the love of God, and that this love needs to be in us, or we are not sons and daughters of God.  Other overtones throughout the book are the connections in relationship with Christ in regards to salvation and forgiveness.  The style of John's writing in this book evokes deep thinking on our part with regards to our loving relationship with Jesus and not being in relationship with worldly things.  Therefore, I find so interesting the seemingly simplistic statement he makes at end the book.  "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."  The entire letter John is talking about love and our relationship with Christ in rather deep theological language, and then very last thing he wants to convey is the importance of keeping idols out of our lives.  If you are anything like me, the very first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word idol is something like a statue or some object that a person would bow down to and perhaps pray to and meditate on.  This certainly would be one sense of the word that John is warning these early Christians about.  In the late first century middle east, when and about where this letter was written, idol worshiping in this sense was not uncommon.  However for us today, especially to the believer, this is not something that really takes prevalence in our lives.  For us, we need to dig a bit deeper into the idols that we keep in our lives, and for that, I will say that an idol is anything that we put importance, favor, desire, and preferment over God.  This could be your relationship.  Perhaps your husband/wife or girlfriend/boyfriend is an idol in your life?  You base all of your decisions, actions, and center your thoughts around pleasing this person.  Perhaps your idol is your bank account?  Your premiere focus is to increase that number; it consumes your life, thoughts, habits, and relationships.  Perhaps your idol is food?  You get the point.  Idols in our lives are anything we put before God.  A good way of identifying idols in your life is to write down those things that are often in your mind, just write one word or phrase about what is consuming your thoughts.  These things in and of themselves are generally not bad.  We need money and food, and the Lord would desire for us all to be in loving relationships that reflect His love for us.  The problem occurs when these things shift from things we use, to things we worship.  And this is the reason for the final warning from John because when we live lives that worship the creation and not the Creator, our lives become a breeding ground for sin.  When our relationship with a person becomes an idol in our lives, we begin to see that we have absolutely no power over how another person feels or the choices that they make.  However, when these things consume our thoughts and actions, to the point that we are essentially living to worship the relationship, we are severely let down.  Because we can never find in outside idols, the constant, consistent, loving nature that we find in Jesus.  John knew this and this is why he warns the early Christians of this because he knows ultimately worshiping other idols in life leads to anxiety, exhaustion, depression, and despair.  Today be mindful of possible idols in your life.  What are the things or people that you are putting before God?  How are these things affecting your spirit?  Your health, your quality of life?  There is only one true God that is worthy of all of our praise!  Pray and ask Him to lead you and guide you to walk in His will for your life, trusting that He will lead you to an abundant life filled with love and purpose!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!