False Worship

False Worship

You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.

Ephesians 5:8

IN WORD We just love the end of the gospel, but we hate its beginning. We don’t dwell there long. Why should we? It includes everything we hate about ourselves.

The beginning of the gospel, of course—at least our experience of it—is the fact that we desperately need a Savior. Our original condition is never sugarcoated by the Bible, or even by our gentle Jesus. No, the human heart is “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9, KJV); “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10, NKJV); and here in Ephesians we were objects of wrath (2:3) and not only children of darkness, but darkness itself (5:8). As such, we were idolaters. False worshipers. People who gave glory and honor to things that were not worthy, while neglecting the glory and honor that should go to the One who is. That hurts.

It’s a brutal assessment, but we have to own up to it. We don’t like to think of our flirtation with impurity or materialism as idol worship, but it is (5:5). It places value on something that is ultimately without value, and it ignores the ultimate worth of the One who created everything we lust after in the first place. The absurdity of our misplaced affections is mind-boggling in heavenly places. We just don’t notice the absurdity because it is so common in our world.

IN DEED Is it really false worship to enjoy things and people and ideas? That depends. If we enjoy them as gifts from God in their proper place in our lives, then the answer is no. But if we seek them with a higher priority than we seek the mind and will of our Creator—and we often do—then yes, we are idolaters. Whatever we pursue with a passion greater than our love for our God is a false form of worship.

But then there’s the end of the gospel to encourage us. There is sufficient grace to cover our every idolatry. We must not let those false adorations persist, but they have been covered by grace. What’s our response to such a liberating thought? To live as children of light.

Idolatry: trusting people, possessions, and positions to do for me what only God can do.

—BILL GOTHARD