Uncovering the MYSTERY of GCx
Idolatry is Deceptive to Believers
Perhaps you remember from the first part that people of God can well succumb and become captive to the temptation and sin of idolatry just like other sins, as is evident in
Deuteronomy 13:6. Unfortunately, some teachers, in error, do teach that christians are not tempted in the same things that unbelievers are, but that disagrees with scripture. Hebrews 4:15, NASB, testifies:
"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." The apostle John says (through the Holy Spirit):
":If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense." (1 John 1:8 The Message).
In Revelations where God is writing through John
to believers in the days after Christ was crucified, He says
"Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality."Having accepted
that believers can commit idolatry as well as any other sin, we can then see they can act like fools and walk (act) in the darkness. I personally know this from my experience as a believer. Any believer who is telling you otherwise is a liar. Then, if a new convert is taught that sinlessness alone is to be the focus of their lives, they will be gravely disappointed. A
lifestyle or list to live by is misleading, just as a
formula for godliness is a fraudulent substitute for living in Christ. Instead, if we are taught and accept that we still have the corrupt flesh because evil desires and actions still dog us and that no "work" on
our part will improve that state; then the realization of this truth assists in our needed humility to RECEIVE GRACE. With such humility of confessing failure in and of our own good works, we are then in a position to receive grace. GRACE is the only thing that keeps us from sin. IT DOES NOT COME IN A LIST OR FORMULA. IT DOES NOT COME
IN CERTAIN PEOPLE OR
CERTAIN CHURCHES OR IN
CERTAIN 'GOOD WORKS' OR SACRIFICES. IT COMES ALONE (in the humbled self) through present active FAITH!!! Initial Saving Faith is
different from present active faith. It must trust in the moment.
So now that we reiterated that christians, unfortunately, do sin, and that one of these sins can be idolatry, let's look at some examples of believers
tempted to commit or
committing idolatry in the New Testament. Starting with Jesus of all people in Matthew 4:9 -
"And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.”
He was deceitfully implying, that he had more to give him than his Father; and that they were some pretty BIG things, likely exaggerated (deceitful boastful comparisons to another's promise) versions of what his Father would already give him. Jesus would
have to quote THE WORD to this offer because it APPEARED so incontestable to God's plan and alluring to his flesh. Of course, it wasn't true, but Jesus then had the same fleshly physical brain we have. Relying alone on that, his own
human understanding he would be
fooled. But, he instead sacrificially choose to trust & obey His Father. You know what happened next. He with his mouth out loud quoted the divine WORD OF GOD in verse 10.
"Then Jesus told him,
“Go away, Satan!
For it is written:
Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.”
This reminds me of a similar situation later in Matthew (16:22,23): "Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to me;
you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
However, this time the temptation to
turn away from serving God came from a disciple, a fellow believer. Satan must have been quite threatened about Jesus still following after His Father and thus completing His Will. It seems here that Satan tried in an even more cunning way to trick Jesus to TURN AWAY from His Father and His Father's Will.
Turning away from God to worship and serve (or sacrifice to) another is a distinctive temptation of Satan, and seems to come through deceptive splendorous claims of something or someone over another by comparison, and by false accusation or implication of the other.
"For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
there idols cannot speak;
they must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them:
They can do no harm nor can they do any good."
Jeremiah 10:3-5
Paul told the Galatians they were foolish in being enticed by false teachers. So God says in Jeremiah are those who follow worthless teachings:
"They are all senseless and foolish;
they are taught by worthless wooden idols"
Jeremiah 10:8
