I recently attended a get-together at the home of a very gracious family from India. It brought back memories of my amazing mission trip to India in 2004.
In addition to ministering in a number of churches at various locations in the southern part of the country, and teaching in a Bible school, I visited some folks in their homes. One of those encounters was with a married couple who were college professors. As part of the conversation, I told them I was a Jew who believed in Jesus. The wife responded, “Well I’m a Hindu who believes in Jesus.”
I was ecstatic . . . until I found out she believed in many other Hindu deities as well.
Of course the Scriptures, both Covenants, are replete with statements, quotes and admonishments that our Father in Heaven is the only God, and, in the New Covenant, that Yeshua is His only Son. In fact, a lot of Jewish liturgy includes the oneness of God.
The Aleinu, a Hebrew prayer which is a staple at every Shabbat service, is one of several examples of the inclusion of the acknowledgment of monotheism. One of the lines definitively declares, “Hu Eloheinu ein od, He is our God, there is no other.”
But have we fallen prey to proclaiming faith in the Most High God, then allowing our flesh to be consumed with (worship) the things of this world? Have we created idols in our lives?
I remember praying with a man a couple decades ago after I ministered at a service at his church. His need was financial, and as I inquired about his application of faith to his issue, he gave me an answer I will never forget. He said he walked with the Lord Daily, but business is business.
He was saying he had another set of rules for business. He had created an idol. Indeed, our modern day idols come from many different fleshly desires: money, power, sex, popularity, fear, and so many more. Even sports (uh-oh Jeffrey D.) can be an idol.
God’s remedy is found in many biblical passages. In the simplest and most direct instruction from the Jewish Apostle John, the likely author of 1 John 5:21, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”
Two of my favorite verses give us direction on how to do that. In the Gospel of John, Yeshua proclaimed in 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” Then in Galatians 5:16, the Jewish Apostle Paul writes, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
We have God’s Holy Spirit within us by our faith in Jesus (Acts 2:38), and it gives us life that is not based on our flesh. So when we make the choice to walk in the Spirit, we walk in communion with our Father in Heaven and won’t create or turn to idols.
This, of course, does not mean we can’t enjoy the delights of life. Rather, it’s a matter of priority. As written in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
It’s okay to succeed at business, appreciate the fruits of our labor, achieve victories in life, and so forth, as long as we do so in a godly manner. Proverbs 3:6 specifies, “In all your ways acknowledge Him.”
When we keep God as number one, we won’t have problems with idols.