Lessons #333 and 334
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Prohibition of idolatry and reasons (1 Cor 10:14-22)
14 Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf. 18 Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. 22 Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
This passage of 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 is concerned with prohibition against idolatry and various explanations or reasons the Corinthians and so all believers should not be involved in idolatry. It is not difficult to perceive that the section is concerned with prohibition against idolatry, but it may be difficult to recognize that it is also concerned with reasons the Corinthians and so all believers should not be involved in idolatry. So, at the appropriate time in our study, we will show how we know that the passage is also concerned with reasons for prohibition against idolatry. Meanwhile, we present to you the message we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to convey to you regarding this passage. The message is this: Believers should avoid idolatry since everything associated with it is incompatible with the Christian faith, exposes one to demons, and so harms one’s fellowship with the Lord. It is this message that we will expound as we examine this passage of 1 Corinthians 10:14-22.
The passage of 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 is indeed a conclusion of the subject the apostle dealt with in the previous section, that is, 1 Corinthians 10:5-13 although it is possible that this section concludes the subject of idolatry introduced in the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians. This notwithstanding, we maintain that our present passage of study concludes the subject of 1 Corinthians 10:5-13. In that passage, the Holy Spirit conveyed to us that God killed some Israelites that enjoyed His blessings in the desert for displeasing Him which death serves as an example and a warning against displeasing Him. We contend that our current passage of study concludes the subject began in the preceding section. How can we be sure that 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 concludes the previous section? There are two reasons that substantiate our assertion.
A first reason that indicates our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 is a conclusion to the subject the apostle dealt with in 1 Corinthians 10:5-13 is the very first word of 1 Corinthians 10:14 Therefore. The word “therefore” is translated from a Greek conjunction (dioper) that is a conjunction used to state the conclusion of a previously mentioned matter and so means “therefore” or “for this very reason.” The word appears only twice in the Greek NT in 1 Corinthians. The other usage of the Greek conjunction is 1 Corinthians 8:13:
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
In the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians the apostle dealt with food sacrificed to idols. He made three points about the subject. First, he indicated that dealing with food sacrificed to idols requires differentiating knowledge and love. Second, that it is affected by knowledge one possesses about supernatural beings, Third, that the subject of food sacrificed to idols is governed by care for the weak in the faith. After making these points the apostle ends his teaching with what he stated in verse 13 where he used our Greek conjunction translated therefore in 1 Corinthians 10:14. Hence, verse 13 of 1 Corinthians 8 is a conclusion to what the apostle had taught regarding the believer with knowledge eating meat sacrificed to idols that causes problem for a weak believer. Since the apostle had so far in the tenth chapter been teaching about the example God made of the Israelites who sinned in the desert, it makes sense to accept that the word therefore is used to conclude what the apostle taught in 1 Corinthians 10:5-13.
A second reason that indicates that our passage of 1Cornthians 10:14-22 is a conclusion to the subject the apostle dealt with in 1 Corinthians 10:5-13 is the command of verse 14 flee from idolatry. This command flee from idolatry is essentially the same command the Holy Spirit issued through Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:7:
Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.”
The command Do not be idolaters and the command flee from idolatry as we have said are essentially the same so that we should recognize that the apostle was still concerned with the failures of the Israelites that serve as a warning to us since “idolatry” was the first sin the apostle identified in the preceding section that caused God to kill some of the Israelites in the desert. However, as we noted, the apostle began verse 14 with the Greek word that we indicated is used to state the conclusion of a previously mentioned matter. Consequently, because of the Greek word translated therefore in 1 Corinthians 10:14 and the similarity of the commands in verses 7 and 14, we are confident that the section of 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 concludes the subject Apostle Paul addressed in the preceding section of 1 Corinthians 10:5-13.
Be that as it may, before we examine the command issued in our passage, we should note that the apostle addressed the recipients of the command in the phrase my dear friends. The expression “dear friends” is translated from a Greek word (agapētos) that pertains to one who is the only one of his or her class, but at the same time is particularly loved and cherished and so means “only, only beloved.” Thus, it is the word God the Father used to describe God the Son during the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus as recorded in Matthew 17:5:
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
The sentence This is my Son, whom I love is literally This is my beloved Son. The word may pertain to one who is dearly loved hence means “dear, beloved, prized, valued.” The word is a favorite one used by writers of our NT epistles to address group of believers that were the original recipients of their epistles. Apostle Paul used it to address the Philippians before his instruction regarding their being careful to ensure that their salvation is reflected in their lifestyles as we read in Philippians 2:12:
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
By the way the expression continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling is not a teaching of salvation by works nor is a teaching that the believer can improve or enhance his/her salvation as that is the work of God from start to finish. Instead, it means that the believer must work out his deliverance from sin in his daily life and everything that will hamper him from enjoying fully his salvation in this life. That aside, our Greek word translated dear friends in 1 Corinthians 10:14 is used by the human author of Hebrews to address the recipients of his epistle before giving them the assurance of what God does as it relates to salvation in Hebrews 6:9:
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation.
James used our Greek word to address the recipients of his epistle before instructing them as we read in James 1:19:
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
Apostle Peter used the Greek word to address the recipients of his epistle before instructing them to avoid a life of sin in 1 Peter 2:11:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
Apostle John used it to address the recipients of his epistle before he instructed them about testing of spirits in 1 John 4:1:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Jude used the Greek word to address the recipients of his epistle as we read in Jude 17:
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
The word is used not only to address groups of believers but individual believers. Thus, Apostle Paul used it to describe Philemon in Philemon 1:
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker,
Likewise, Apostle Paul used it to describe Timothy as his spiritual son in 2 Timothy 1:2:
To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thus, one gets the idea that the word “dear” is an argot (an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom or slang peculiar to a particular group) among the early church. It is not just a word but one that conveys love to each other. Unfortunately, most of us modern Christians have lost sight of how dear we should hold each other in our minds. This was not the case with Apostle Paul. He considered the Corinthians as highly valued and beloved by him.
Love for a person manifests itself in wanting the best for the one loved. I am saying that if you love someone, you will want what is best for that person. The thing that is best for a person may involve something that the individual may consider negative but, in the end, protects the person. For example, it is love, that drives parents to discipline their children as love is the reason the Lord disciplines those who are His as we read, for example, in Revelation 3:19:
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
The point is that love manifests itself sometimes in a negative or painful way but only so the beloved would be blessed. Because love manifests itself in wanting the best for the one loved, Apostle Paul after he conveyed to the Corinthians how he values them or how beloved they are to him that he gave the command of 1 Corinthians 10:14 flee from idolatry.
The command flee in the Greek form (present tense of the Greek word (pheugō)) that it is used in our passage is found in the NT only in the words of an angel, the Lord Jesus, and that of Apostle Paul. The command when used by an angel or by the Lord Jesus involved primarily ensuring a person or group of persons’ safety. So, when Herod threatened the life of the baby Jesus, an angel used our command to address Joseph to take an action that ensures the baby’s safety as we read in Matthew 2:13:
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
In this passage, the Greek word used is translated “escape” which is also the meaning of the Greek word in negatively describing the fate of the Israelites that paid no attention to God’s word through Moses, as recorded in Hebrews 12:25:
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?
The Lord Jesus used the command to instruct His disciples what to do because of persecution that will come to them since they will always face persecution as we read in Matthew 10:23:
When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Apostle Paul used the command twice in his first epistle to the Corinthians. He used it to command avoidance of sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6:18:
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
The apostle used the command flee twice in his epistles to Timothy. He used it to instruct Timothy as one who represents God, to shun any kind of wrongdoing and the desire to be rich, among other sinful conducts that are not fitting for a person that represents God as we read in 1 Timothy 6:11:
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Some English versions used the word “avoid” or “shun” in the sense of to keep from doing something by avoiding it because of its potential damage, in translating the Greek word the NIV translated “flee.” These meanings are saying essentially the same thing. Another usage of the command flee in Apostle Paul’s epistle to Timothy is what he must do if he were to be a vessel for God as we read in 2 Timothy 2:22:
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Thus, we see that the command flee when used in the Scripture involves avoiding something that threatens physical life but more so the spiritual life of a believer. In the case of the apostle’s use of the command in his epistle twice to the Corinthians, it involved two sins of idolatry and sexual immorality for which the Lord killed some of the Israelites in the desert according to the information in 1 Corinthians 10:7–8:
7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
The command flee of 1 Corinthians 10:14 as we have alluded previously is given in the present tense in the Greek. The implication of the use of a present tense in the Greek of the command given here in the word flee is one that should be repeated. In effect, the Holy Spirit expects us to flee again and again from idolatry in such a way that it can be said that we have trained ourselves to find it repulsive to be involved in idolatry regardless of the form it takes. It is not merely that you should run away from idolatry, your whole person should abhor it. Of course, this again comes from the practice of repeated flight from idolatry and having proper teaching on the subject.
Anyway, the command the apostle issued to the Corinthians and so to all believers again is given in 1 Corinthians 10:14 flee from idolatry. The word “idolatry” is translated from a Greek word (eidōlolatria) that refers to “image-worship” or “the worship of a material representation of a deity.” The word is used four times in the NT, three of these by Apostle Paul and one by Apostle Peter. Apostle Paul used it to describe vices associated with sinful nature in Galatians 5:20:
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
He used it to equate idolatry to greed in Colossians 3:5:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Apostle Peter used it to describe the sinful activities of pagans in 1 Peter 4:3:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
Interestingly, Apostle Peter described idolatry with the word “detestable” that is translated from a Greek adjective (athemitos) that may mean either “forbidden” or “disgusting.” The meaning of the Greek word translated “idolatry” reveals that we should not think of idolatry only in terms of worshipping objects but focus on self as that is one of the reasons for greed. We are saying that idolatry in the modern time does not necessary involve man made images, but it could involve preoccupation with anything other than God.
Why did the apostle issue the command to the Corinthians and so to all of us flee from idolatry? An obvious reason for the command based on the context is that some of the Corinthians were still attracted to some of the activities associated with idolatry. For us, the reason is that we are prone to idolatry in the sense of placing someone or something above God. That aside, the apostle gives reasons for prohibition against idolatry beginning in 1 Corinthians 14:16 that in my understanding assumes that a person already knows of the strongest reason for general prohibition against idolatry. This strongest reason for prohibition against idolatry we have considered when we studied 1 Corinthians 10:7 but because of the importance of this subject, let me repeat the strongest reason for a general prohibition against idolatry. It is that idolatry is one sin that stands above every sin because it is a direct assault to the person of God. We see how serious God views it in that the first two codes of the Ten Commandments concern the subject, as we read in Exodus 20:3–6:
3“You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The giving of the Ten Commandments is an act that followed the Lord’s appearance and speaking to Israel in Mount Sinai in such a way that Israel did not want to hear directly from Him because of how terrifying it was for the Lord to manifest Himself to Israel. Thus, they requested Moses to get words from the Lord and communicate to them. Remember that Israel had been delivered from Egypt where there was idolatry. So, the Lord wants Israel to recognize that it is not permissible for anyone in a covenant relationship with Him to be involved in the so-called other gods. It is for this reason that the first two codes of the Ten Commandments involve prohibition against idolatry. Even after giving of the rest of the Ten Commandments, the Lord immediately focused Israel’s attention to the fact that idolatry was not tolerable by Him, as indicated in Exodus 20:22–23:
22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.
Consequently, the Lord not only began Ten Commandments with prohibition against idolatry but before any further communication of His word to Israel, He reinforced the prohibition against idolatry. Therefore, it should not be difficult for us to understand that the Lord takes idolatry to be a serious challenge to His glory that He conveyed through Prophet Isaiah that He would not share it with anyone, according to Isaiah 42:8:
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Anyway, a reason to recognize the gravity of the sin of idolatry is that it is the concern of the first two codes of the Ten Commandments.
Another reason we know that idolatry is a grievous sin before God is that it was considered the great sin of Israel and its kings. During the exodus, Israel committed several sins that included failure to believe the Lord, maligning the Lord and His servants, Moses, and Aaron, as we can gather from the people’s confession in Numbers 21:7:
The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
Despite the many sins of Israel in the desert, none of them was described as “great sin” but when the people got involved in idolatry by the worship of the idol, Aaron made at their request, their sin was repeatedly described as “great sin” by Moses. He first stated that in Exodus 32:21:
He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
His further description of the sin of idolatry as “great sin” is given Exodus 32:30 -31:
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”31 So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.
When Israel got involved in full blown idolatry because of King Jeroboam, their sin of idolatry was described as “great sin” in 2 Kings 17:21:
When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin.
Later in the history of Israel, the Lord threatened great punishment through Prophet Jeremiah, the people of Judah wondered why the Lord would punish them, as recorded in Jeremiah 16:10:
“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?’
The Lord’s answer to them is that their sin was that of idolatry, according to Jeremiah 16:11:
then say to them, ‘It is because your fathers forsook me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law.
Hence, it should be clear that the Lord considered idolatry the great sin of Israel.
Another way we know of the grievousness of idolatry before God is that Israel was warned constantly by the prophets together with threat of judgment. In the early part of Israel’s history in the land of Canaan, Prophet Samuel warned Israel against it in 1 Samuel 12:21:
Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless.
Prophet Isaiah warned against the fate of those involved in idolatry in Isaiah 44:9–11:
9All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. 10Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? 11He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy.
Prophet Jeremiah warned of God’s judgment due to idolatry in Jeremiah 16:17–18:
17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
Prophet Ezekiel warned of God’s judgment due to idolatry, as we read in Ezekiel 5:8–10:
8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds.
Prophet Hosea declared the wrath of God against idolatry in Hosea 8:5:
Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity?
Thus, we can see that these prophets conveyed God’s displeasure to Israel regarding idolatry because God considered it a grievous sin against His person.
Still another way we perceive the grievousness of idolatry before God is that it is one sin that the prophets constantly charged Israel. This we can see from Prophet Isaiah’ charge against Judah. The prophet spoke of the blessings of the Lord at the end of time, but he surprised his audience who were hoping to enjoy these blessings by indicating they would not, the reason being their involvement in idolatry, as recorded in Isaiah 2:8:
Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
Prophet Jeremiah charged Judah of blatant idolatry in that they boldly displayed their idol worship in the temple in Jerusalem as stated in Jeremiah 7:30:
“‘The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it.
The setting up of idols in the temple of the Lord certainly refers to the activities of the people because of the influence of King Manasseh who built altars for continuation of his practices of idolatry, as stated in 2 Kings 21:5:
In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts.
The prophet makes the same charge of idolatry against Judah by asserting the charge of the Lord against Judah of forgetting Him to turn to idolatry, as we read in Jeremiah 18:15:
Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up.
Prophet Hosea repeatedly accused or charged Israel of idolatry. This charge of idolatry is expressed in several ways in his book both literally and figuratively. Literally, the prophet mentioned Israel’s involvement in idolatry using the word “idol” and “Baal.” The noun “idol” together with the adjective “idolatrous” occurs at least nine times in his book. Consider, for example, the following two passages:
Hosea 4:17:
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!
Hosea 8:4: They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.
The word “Baal” appears six times in the translation of NIV in Hosea. Let me cite two examples:
Hosea 2:13:
I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD.
Hosea 11:2:
But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.
Figuratively, Israel’s idolatry is described in terms of prostitution or unfaithfulness to God. For example, the phrase spirit of prostitution appears twice in the book of Hosea. The first usage is in Hosea 4:12:
of my people. They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.
In this passage, the prophet charged the people of consulting wooden idols, so it should be clear that he meant that the people were involved in idolatry. Therefore, when he used the phrase spirit of prostitution in the next clause of the same verse, he could not have meant physical prostitution but a spiritual prostitution that means the worship of idols. By the way, the phrase unfaithful to their God is also a figurative description of Israel’s idolatry. The second usage of the phrase spirit of prostitution is in Hosea 5:4:
"Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD.
The first sentence of this verse points to idolatry because if the people did not return to their God, it must mean they were worshipping idol. So, when in the next sentence of the verse the prophet used the phrase spirit of prostitution, he was certainly using a figurative expression to describe Israel’s sin of idolatry. The point is that idolatry is a grievous sin before God since it is a challenge of His person. It is for this reason that we should endeavor to flee from it.
How does a believer in a practical way flee from idolatry? It begins with being conscious of idolatry in the various forms in which it presents itself today. For sure, no believer in Christ will consciously worship carved images as it is still done today in some countries, but the idolatry believers may be involved are those that are not easy to recognize. Therefore, to flee idolatry begins with recognizing what constitutes idolatry in our modern time so the believer knows what should be carefully avoided. Bear in mind that idolatry refers to worship or adoration of anyone or anything other than the God in three persons. In other words, idolatry involves devotion or commitment to things, other than images or so false gods of worship, more than to God. In effect, idolatry may involve improper devotion to things or persons so that devotion to God becomes secondary. It is this kind of idolatry that we modern believers face. For our purposes of understanding how to flee from idolatry, let me review some few forms of idolatry that we may face that we have previously studied. Idolatry may take the form of being in love with material possessions at the expense of devotion to God, as the Lord Jesus implied in His Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 6:24:
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
The point of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 6:24 is that to serve God requires total devotion. A believer cannot be devoted to wealth in the same sense that such an individual is devoted to God. Because this type of statement is quite easily misunderstood, we need to clarify this. Our Lord is not teaching here that a believer should not show devotion to work or business. If anything, the Scripture requires believers to be the best in everything they do since they must also do it as unto the Lord. To be the best in anything requires devotion. No one can excel in anything without truly being devoted to it. However, the point is that while a believer should work hard, such a person must always have God in the individual’s thinking. How? By constantly remembering God’s word that demands everything must be done to God’s glory. This means that a believer would not be motivated by envy or greed (which we will comment about later) in what he/she does, nor would he/she be motivated by human glory or praise; instead, he/she should use the person’s work as a platform for witnessing for our Savior. Another form of idolatry is being in love with prestige and power. This we may gather from Satan’s temptation of the Lord Jesus in which he offered these things in exchange for worshipping him that Luke recorded for us in Luke 4:6–7:
6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours.”
As we have stated, Satan tempted Jesus with the offer of prestige and power as in the phrase their authority and splendor in exchange for worshipping him. Idolatry, of course, is the worship of any being or object other than God. So, when a person is in love with prestige and power such a person worships Satan since such devotion to prestige and power is promoted by him. Thus, idolatry takes the form of love for prestige and power. Still another form of idolatry for us modern people is greed as indicated in the passage we cited previously, that is, Colossians 3:5:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Because greed is here equated to idolatry, we had in the past study established that the best word that best sums up “greed” since it is described as idolatry is “materialism” that the Concise Oxford English dictionary defines as “a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.” Hence, materialism should be understood as the desire to possess things at the expense of one’s spiritual life. In other words, the desire to acquire wealth or power at any cost because one is in love with wealth or power than with God is what we mean by materialism. We do not mean that a believer should never desire to enjoy the good things of life that God has created for His children to enjoy. No, we are saying when these things become our focus instead of God and our spiritual life then we find ourselves in materialism.
The various forms idolatry may occur in our time that we have identified enable us to suggest practical manner of obeying the command of 1 Corinthians 10:14 flee from idolatry. The practical manner of obeying the command we have here, is to monitor one’s thought constantly. In other words, you should flee from idolatry by constantly evaluating your thought and so your actions. Check if your thought is leading you in the direction of being devoted to anything or anyone more than the Lord. If because of your thought of someone, say, family member, you are tempted to please that individual instead of God then you should immediately abandon that thought and action that could result from it. Check if you are being drawn towards prestige and power at the expense of your spiritual life. If so, you must distance yourself from such thought. I am saying that you should quickly get away from any thought that leads you to place prestige or power over your spiritual life. Check if your thought is leading towards materialism. If that is the case, reject that thought and any action that would result if the thought were fully carried out. Dismiss as quickly as possible such a thought. In addition to what we have stated, a believer flees from idolatry by avoidance of close relationship with unbelievers so that the individual is not led astray into idolatry because of friendship with an unbeliever. You should also be constantly evaluating what celebrations or customs that you get involved with, to ensure such is not a form of idolatry. Anyway, the Holy Spirit has commanded us flee from idolatry. We must do everything to obey it.
07/30//21