Keep Yourselves from Idols

1 John 5:21 “Little Children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

An idol is anything or anyone that takes the place of God in our lives. It is anything that substitutes for the true faith; any human idea that claims to be more authoritative than the Bible; any loyalty that replaces God at the center of our lives. The worship of that thing or person that replaces God at the center of our lives is idolatry. God emphatically commanded us to flee from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14). In biblical terms, idolatry is worship of anything other than God. Colossians 3:5 links idolatry with covetousness; when we want something so much that we covet it, the thing has become an idol (Luke 12:15). We seek it rather than God. God instructed His people, “You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3-5).” That is why idolatry is such a sin. People are possessed by possessions. We put our trust in the “created” rather the Creator. There is nothing wrong in possessions as long as they do not possess us.  Our modern-day idol (object of worship) is money, power, pleasure, prestige, stuff, and even self. These are modern-day parallels to ancient idolatry, and when we understand that fact, Paul’s words “flee from idolatry” in 1 Corinthians 10:14 become much more instructive. It is not wrong to have godly ambition or have things. But the pursuit of the ambition or the things should not take place of God in our lives or be at the expense of losing our souls (Matthew 16:26). The story of the young, rich ruler in Mathew 19:16-23, is an example of man possessed by his many possessions at the expense of losing his soul. We should not follow after the lifestyle of the heathen, whose idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands (Psalm 135:15).