I’m so glad this final note came in from Anna, a godly young Med student in our church.
Hi 100 Days of Pursuit community,
My name is Anna, a medical student at Brown graduating this spring. I’ve been really enjoying the daily emails and have been meditating on the word “pursuit.” There are many things in life that we can pursue like money, education, relationships and jobs. These things aren’t inherently evil by themselves, but as followers of Christ, we need to make sure they don’t become idols and our sole endeavors. A passage from Psalm 27 comes to mind:
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.
Though I don’t always live this perfectly, I try to embrace that call to seek him and love him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. These daily emails have been a great encouragement. He is worthy of our total pursuit!
Thanks Anna for sharing this. It’s not just relevant for the overachievers at Brown. We all need to be aware of idols that compete with our love for Jesus. As Anna shared, there are many kinds of things we can pursue in life that aren’t necessarily bad but we have to be careful we don’t get out of balance.
What’s an idol?
What exactly is an idol? It’s not really a word we use in everyday conversation. It conjures up images of statues, right? When we think of idol worship we imagine a primitive people dancing with torches around a stone deity and chanting. Or some kind of statue in a temple that people are bowed down to or making sacrifices to. We might think of the classic story in the Bible of the children of Israel making a golden calf when Moses was up on the mountain praying for weeks. They worshiped the golden calf!
So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Exodus 32:3-4
Yikes. Terrible moment in Israel’s history, especially after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But my point is that idolatry doesn’t seem relevant. If we read Paul’s exhortation in the Word—“flee from idols!” we aren’t really sure what it means for us. Most likely none of us have created secret altars behind the shed where we cheat on Jesus by bowing down to wooden deities we fashioned with our own hands. I hope not at least!
Huge Bible theme
But straight through the entire Bible is a constant warning about the danger of idols. For example,
You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 26:1
But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. Jeremiah 16:18
For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God … 1 Thessalonians 1:9
There are countless verses. If you have an ESV app on your phone just search the word “idol” or “idolatry” and you’ll quickly see that this is a huge theme in the Scriptures. I think of the epistle of 1John that ends with this line—“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Idolatry was not just an Old Testament problem but a New Testament problem as well. And it’s still a problem today.
Worship and appreciation
Before attempting to explain what idolatry is, I want to make an important distinction between worship and appreciation. I don’t play golf, but let’s say I did. It’s okay for a pastor to play some golf on a day off and to enjoy it. It’s okay to appreciate golf. In fact, it’s okay to love the game of golf. But it’s not okay to worship golf. That would be idolatry. We could apply this distinction to just about anything people get into.
I say this because I don’t want you, in your zeal against idolatry, to cast out the things the Lord has provided for your enjoyment. Life is a gift from God; your particular interests are God-given. I’m talking about watercolor painting, walking, punch needle, sky gazing, music making, cooking, reading, traveling, chess, gardening, and 10,000 other things. The Father has lavished us with a colorful array of things under the sun that are given for our enjoyment. The proper relationship with these things is to glorify God for them. As Anna pointed out, they shouldn’t become idols or our “sole endeavors.”
What is worship?
So what is idolatry then? To answer that question we have to distinguish worship from appreciation. I appreciate God, as well as, worship Him. I appreciate my house, but I absolutely do not worship it. What we worship holds a very different value compared to just something we appreciate. When we worship something we are dependent upon it for happiness, we find our identity and security in it. The point that God makes is that we should not look to anyone or anything besides Him for our security, identity or happiness.
No one can serve two masters, for 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 God and money. Matthew 6:24
When we define idols this way we suddenly realize that we live in a land of idols. Think of the things that people look to for security, identity, and happiness. Um, how about money, for example? It’s okay to appreciate money and feel good that we make money and have money saved. But multitudes of people place their trust in money for security, identity and happiness. In other words, if the person’s money were suddenly taken away—they would fall apart. Anything that would cause us to fall apart if it was taken away is definitely an idol.
But it’s not just the love of money that is an idol. It can be the female body. It can be a particular person, even a spouse or a child. It can be education. It can be success or sports. It can be our houses and yards. It can be our own bodies. It can be television or food. It can be alcohol. It can be our reputation. It can be travel or art, cars or motorcycles. Again, most of these things are not sinful, but when something takes on a value that rivals the value we have for God Himself—we are worshiping an idol.
Yeah, I love God most
We’ve probably all heard in church at one time or another that we should “love God first.” We should love God more than anything else. Everyone says, “Amen, preach it!” But what does that really mean? I’m not sure I’ve met any Christian who honestly said, “I love my career more than Jesus” or “I love football way more than Jesus” or “I love money more than Jesus.” No, few will admit to idolatry.
But what occupies our hearts the most is what our treasure really is. We love God and Aretha Franklin, mountains and our nephews. We love Jesus and ice cream, the ocean and our yard. It’s true that we love lots of things in addition to God. But do we really love Christ supremely? Is Christ the single-greatest object of our affection and the thing valued supremely above all else?
Being honest
Detecting idolatry in our lives requires deep honesty. It is very possible, as Christians, to be idolatrous but spin our idols in a way that makes them appear okay. For example, we can be utter workaholics who find our primary security, identity and happiness in our work, and not in Christ. But we can hide behind a very spiritual theology that work is sacred and for the glory of God. Which it is! But what I’m saying is that our words can boast that we do all for the glory of God, but our hearts can be idolatrous.
Don’t expect anyone to point out your idolatry. If you are really into something, and are a Christian, most people in the church will give you the benefit of the doubt that you love God supremely and just have a strong appreciation and interest in a thing. We need to search our own hearts in these matters. Is there anything, if suddenly removed, that would cause us to fall apart? Is there anything in our lives that we love more than Christ? Is there anything we are attached to that is hindering our relationship with Christ?
Let me trick you with this question: Besides God, what two or three things would you not want to live without? Those things may not be idols, but they are the things with the most potential in your life of becoming an idol.
The idol of title
To understand this more, you might want to really search out what it means to find security, identity, and happiness in a thing. I’ll use myself as an example. I’m a pastor of a successful church in the city of Providence. I have a really good reputation amongst pastors in the region. I also have an excellent reputation in the city at large. Because the church has grown since it’s conception in 2003, I make a decent salary and receive generous benefits. In addition, I have about 25 years of pastoral experience. Can you see how easy it would be for me to find my security, identity, and happiness, in my ministry abilities and position?
But let’s say I got in a car accident and was partially brain damaged. Let’s say there was some kind of weird scandal in the church and half the people left. Let’s say my name was slandered terribly in the whole region. Let’s say I was forced to resign, and because of the accident, I really don’t qualify to pastor anymore. Let’s say I’m suddenly in a place where I can’t find work or just have to take a minimum wage job. I find myself in a place where I’m not a pastor, not a powerful preacher, not a compelling writer, not sharp mentally, and not respected. My dear wife would stick with me but maybe we are forced to move to a trailer in the country, and the best job I can find is pumping gas at a service station.
Would I fall apart?
I certainly hope I would not. Sometimes we don’t know we have idols until we are tested. Trials always reveal the things we look to for security, identity, and happiness.
Christ is enough
I would hope that even if I lost all of the things I listed that Christ would be enough. I don’t mean that I would be miserable but be sort of okay because I have Jesus. No! I’m saying that I hope that even if I lost everything that I’d still be deeply secure in Christ, filled with His joy and perfectly content in my identity as a child of God. C’mon! Titles are nothing. Money is nothing. What people think of us is nothing. Reputation is nothing. Degrees are nothing. Success is nothing. Cars, houses and material things are nothing. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away these things. It’s all passing away. What matters most is our love relationship with Him. Sure, we can and should appreciate things, but the Lord God is supreme. Jesus isn’t just first—He’s everything!
Bonus q.
Someone wrote and asked what we should do if we experience very real resistance in our pursuit of God from people we live with. This can be an enormous struggle for some. I think of kids who come to Christ as teens, for example, but their parents oppose them vehemently. The teen is stuck under their roof legally. Maybe the parents forbid the kid to attend church and even disrupt him if he tries to pray. I think of wives who are strong godly believers but are married to men who are controlling and won’t let them attend church. They may even load work on the wife and she bears it out of an effort to be an example to win her husband (1Pet3). But this is grievous! Many other scenarios could be given, of course.
Each situation is a little different but my first encouragement would be to find a way to spend time in prayer even if you need to be sneaky. Like, maybe you retire to bed early and commune with the Lord on your pillow. You could take advantage of that time in the shower or the drive to the market. For a teen maybe do an after school club like running that allows you to talk with God for a couple of hours. In certain situations it might be impossible to sit and read a paper Bible. But you could probably find content online using your phone. Be creative. Ask God for ideas!
I would also say, depending on the exact situation, to fight. I don’t mean get flipping out angry. No, don’t do that. But express your desire to be in church. Express your interest in reading the Scriptures. Wear the person down, in a good sense. Kill them with kindness. Negotiate a bit. For example, maybe the teen asks dad, “How about if I get straight A’s you let me attend youth group on Fridays?”
Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of prayer and fasting. Pray like crazy for the person you live with who is suffocating your pursuit of God. Pray that God would soften them. Pray that the Lord would fill you with so much love and kindness for them that it would disarm them utterly. Live such a good and vibrant life that the person begins to shake. Maybe they’ll begin to tremble that they are mistreating a child of God?
For those in this situation, I feel for you. I hope I’m not at all oversimplifying what to do. I realize it can be quite complicated. For wives who don’t feel physically safe and are living in abusive situations I would recommend getting to a safe place. Don’t divorce but separate for the purpose of the hope of healing the relationship. But I don’t believe the Lord would tell you to stay and subject yourself to abuse.
If you are in a situation where you are suffering very real resistance from people you live with it’s important to get godly counsel. Find someone who you can confide in. Because, typically, in these situations, the person being controlled cannot find the courage to stand against their opposers. Ask the Lord for a godly friend.