LITTLE CHILDREN KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS

 

People Worship

Toni Babcock

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols,"     (1 John 5:21 KJV)

Do you know someone who’s been revered to idolatrous proportions? 

This is an important question, because sometimes even professing Christians can elevate humans until they seem to supersede God. 

It might seem easier to pin our faith on people than on the living God, but it can create a real obstacle to a living faith in Jesus, and his sacrificial work on our behalf. 

Christians who constantly strive toward earning the approval of people they admire, or people they aspire to, are in danger of putting themselves in a vulnerable position, and of taking their eyes off of Jesus. 

To aspire to be like Jesus should be enough. 

Let Jesus be the example we strive toward. 

In this flesh we will always be tempted to compromise our values, or tempted to give up something we believe in order to win somebody else’s approval. 

We can be tempted to act presumptuously and in haste when following that destructive path. 

However, we can avoid this pitfall when we remember it is not the church or the people in it that died for our sins, it is Jesus—and it is only Jesus who can save our souls. 

Lord Jesus, help us keep who and what we worship in perspective. Human beings may lead us to the truth, but no human being can claim to be the truth, or stand between us and the truth. You said: 

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.               (John 14:6 KJV) 

Toni M. Babcock is the author of Reflections from the Heart in Light of the Gospel of Jesus and The Stone Writer, Christian Fiction for Young Readers and Teens. Contact