I remember sitting through many Sunday School classes and evenings doing the daily readings when I heard about false gods. I remember thinking how much trouble they caused in the lives of Israel of old; how they just seemed to take them away from God time and time again. We know the Israelites were humans just like us, and what happened with them was written for our instruction. I remember wondering many times what the equivalent to idols could be in our lives in an age where literal idol worship does not seem that much of a pull.
I have notes in the margin of my Bible from a talk equating it with “anything that is allowed to dominate our thinking to the extent that God is excluded from our thinking.” Probably a good definition, but it was still a bit too general for me to see what really in my life was an idol or a false god.
It was recently that I happened to be doing some reading on another subject when it became a whole lot clearer. I was reading how in our lives we can have different centers and how much they can influence what we do and think. Indeed, when it says in the Bible, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21), it is so true!
For instance, if our “center” is money, it will have the most command in our life. If we do not have as much money as we think we should have, we might find it hard to obey the command to give cheerfully, and instead find ourselves giving grudgingly or under compulsion (II Cor. 9:7), which is not what God wants.
If, on the other hand, our “center” is a friendship, we might do things in order to please that person or to seek his/her favor, even if it flies in the face of God’s commands. Paul tells us that if he was trying to do that, he wouldn’t be a bond-slave of Christ (Gal. 1:10).
If, perhaps, our “center” was ourselves, then we would be most concerned with making sure we were taken care of. If there was something we wanted, we might even be unconcerned with stepping on other people, or whatever else was in our way in order to get it for ourselves, instead of obeying Paul’s admonition to “not look out merely for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).
For these reasons, I think it more appropriate to think of these “centers” as “gods.” Right in our very hearts, they demand obedience in such a subtle way that we can even be unaware of their presence. It is a sure thing that when we have other “gods” in our lives, there will be times, perhaps many, when they will threaten our obedience to our God. The one that is our higher “center” will win out.
I started to look at some Bible characters in this light, and couldn’t believe some of the examples that jumped out at me, for instance, Eli, of whom it says, “[he] honored his sons above God.” It seems that his need to be popular with his sons, his family, was his “center.” So even though his sons were living lives that were an abomination to God, he didn’t obey God and stop them (I Sam. 1:29, 3:13).
King Saul was another case. His “center” was his enemy David! Instead of concentrating on being king and helping the people to obey God as a good leader, he spent his time in pursuit of David, searching for him everywhere so that he could destroy him. It so controlled him that the commands not to kill, to love your neighbor, and a whole host of others had no effect.
And look at Solomon and his wives. He so wanted to please all of them that he built altars to all of their gods and in doing so, they succeeded in turning his heart away from God (I Kgs. 11:1-8).
Peter is an interesting example, as at the death of Jesus he was so afraid of others that he denied he knew Jesus at all. But a little while later, he was in front of the leaders of the land proclaiming him with boldness. Suddenly the fear of others wasn’t dominating him anymore.
There are no doubt many more such examples in the pages of our Bibles that I’m greatly looking forward to finding and being exhorted by.
We see the difference when we look at a life with God as the absolute and only center, the life where God is obeyed before anything and anyone else, whether convenient or inconvenient. Our example is the Lord Jesus Christ. We know even his own life was not more important to him than obedience to God. He didn’t live a life of revenge on his enemies — instead he trusted that God would take care of that (II Pet. 2:23). He didn’t honor his family above God — instead he taught how a man must be prepared to leave his family for his sake and love them less by comparison to be worthy of him. (Matt. 10:37). He didn’t honor his friends more than God — instead he said it like it was, even if it meant that many withdrew and didn’t walk with him anymore (John 6:41-66).
I certainly haven’t exhausted the topic by any means; only merely scratched the surface, but it has become very apparent to me that when you have God as your “center,” the reality is that “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). The more you get rid of all the other “centers,” the more you have only one GOD to serve. “Hear, 0 Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your might.” (Deut. 6:4-5).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One