For the Glory of God -- The Force of Christian Idolatry - Part 2

I have already written on the subject of Christian Idolatry in a pervious post called ‘God Is…’ In it I exposed humanisms effect to create idolatry in the church by basing all things on the idea that everything is about man’s happiness. In that same article I also presented that there must be some other reason or purpose that we must embrace to avoid idolatry.

Before we begin to explore this we need to ask a question. In fact everyone needs to ask this question: Is God a means or an ends to you? If everything is about man’s happiness then that is the end and God and relationship with God is merely a means to that end. I must point out then that even the worship of God could be idolatrous if it is about your happiness. Essentially, you are worshiping your own interests and using God as a means to gain those interests.

But what does it take for God to be an end himself? It takes complete self-sacrifice and there is only one example of this in all of history – Jesus Christ. Jesus himself stated that he did this for the glory of the Father. The only way for God to be an end for your life and not a means is to follow the example of Christ and do all for the glory of God.

Now I hear you skeptics. God is not concerned about his glory you would say. Firstly, I think there are many Scriptures that indeed say this is the purpose of man – most clearly is 1 Corinthians 10:31 – “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.” There are many verses and passages that say much the same thing.

The second thing I would say in response is that you definition of glory is not the same as God’s. When we think of glory; we think of accolades and honors being poured on us. But God’s definition of Glory is ‘holy and righteous’. It is more simply put but Solomon: “The conclusion, when all has been heard is: fear God and keep His commandments…” In addition, Jesus added motive when he tells us to love God and our neighbor. Loving God is reverence and obedience becomes the act of giving glory to God. It is about honoring his name and our relationship with Him through our attitude and actions for His name’s sake. To really do this requires identification with the only one who ever succeeded in doing this perfectly – Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself told us what is required to identify with Him: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” I used to believe that this was for more mature believers that had reached some level of maturity that they wanted to be special disciples of Jesus, but then I realized that is not what it says. If anyone wants to follow Christ AT ALL they must do this. In other words if a person does not do this they are not Christ’s disciple. Jesus is laying out the minimum requirements for being his disciple and they are stiff.

1) Self-denial: To give up ones life for the sake of Christ. In effect to give up all rights and privileges in this world for the sake of Christ is the meaning here. Commitment is all or nothing right out the gate.
2) Take up one’s cross everyday: To identify with the death of Christ. When a man took up a cross he wasn’t coming back to his old life. He was a walking dead man.
3) Follow Christ: To walk in identification with Jesus’ path to death for the glory of the Father. Glory that is not about accolades or pride but is about lifting up the name of God for a dying world to see.

How this changes everything, because the force of idolatry can have no place in a people with such an attitude. Nothing is about their happiness; everything is about the glory of God. Everything is about identification with Christ in attitude and action.

This is what it means to worship God in Spirit and in truth. This is what prevents any force of idolatry from entering a Christians’ relationship with God. It is also the only way to do it.

“God Is …"

The Force of Christian Idolatry – part 1

"God is love and grace, all the rest is extras"’ or something like this has been said to me so many times during vacation that I felt I must engage a topic of Humanisms affect on the church to create Christian idolatry.

To begin with we must define idolatry. Idolatry is the creation of a god or gods from the human mind and heart that suit that human mind and fit that person'’s concepts of what God should be. Ultimately though if you look at idolatry it is the worship of man himself. It is about the forces of flesh given an image and form to worship. Greed, lust, evil desire, and pride are all given worship using these images as mediums of adoration. Humanism is the core of all this. Humanism says that the sole reason for being is the happiness of man. ManÂ’s happiness becomes the object of worship.

Now this is what the world does and I expect nothing more out of them. The unrighteous can do nothing else. But what concerns me is when such an attitude infiltrates the church and boy has it done so. Both the liberal and conservative sides of the church have done this. The liberal says: "‘The goal of religion is man'’s happiness while he is alive"’. The conservative says: "‘the goal of religion is man's happiness after he dies"’. Both are based on the humanistic idea of man'’s happiness being the central goal of life. I submit to this is both unchristian and idolatry in Christian garb.

One way this is displayed is the "‘God is...…"” statements people make. Now most of these statements are true on the surface but the problem results when those statements are looked at through the eyes of humanistic idolatry and when any of them are placed as core of all that God is.

The act of looking at them through humanistic eyes produces what I would call the "‘me centered God"‘. It is looking at a particular attribute of God for the purpose of self benefit. For instance when a person commits a grievous sin as Christian they run with wholehearted passion to the God of love and grace. They argue strongly that this is the central core of God'’s being. Because it is true? No. Because that is what they desire out of God and that is what they need God to be for themselves and THEIR OWN WELL BEING. It is a self-centered image of God created by themselves for themselves. This goes for the "‘God is holy"’ crowd as well. In a world where sin is the dominate profession they need a God that is righteous to make order for themselves and to know that the Lord of the earth will do right. The problem is they think it is about their holiness and not God'’s.

This creating of a single attribute to cover God always amazes me as if God is small enough to be contained by a single attribute. "‘God is...…"’ statements are in the Bible but no single one of them can encompass all that God is. That is why there are more than one of them. God is holy. God is love. God is righteousness. God is mercy. God is justice. I could go on and on because God is all these things and more (Scripture says so) -– all in perfect balance.

The key issue here is to give up the idea that the whole reason for existence is the happiness of man. It is the first step to freeing oneself from this idolatry by discovering the purpose of man and it is not our own happiness. But that will be the subject of another post.

Source: I want site a source for many of my thoughts on this issue. A sermon called "“Ten Shekels and a Shirt"” by Paris Readhead. If you want to hear it is on Sermonindex.net.