Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images...they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. Romans 1:22-25
The Bible tells you that you are a worshiper. You are always in pursuit of something and in service of something to provide you with meaning, purpose, and joy... If God isn't the central reason for doing all that I do, then something in the creation will be. It is an insight that is inescapable and profound. Every moment of life is spiritual. Everything I do is theological. There is never a moment - never a word, action, or reaction - that is not somehow shaped by whatever has claimed the allegiance of my heart.
How to identify your idols - three litmus tests:
1. Your religion is what you do with your solitude. The true god of your heart is what you thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention...What do you habitually think about to get joy and comfort in the privacy of your heart?
2. How do you spend your money? Your money flows most effortlessly toward your heart's greatest love. In fact, the mark of an idol is that you spend too much money on it, and you must try to exercise self-control constantly.
3. When you pray and work for something and you don't get it and you respond with explosive anger or deep despair, showing a lack of emotional proportion, then you may have found your real god.
[Paul] reverses the way that Christians now typically think of singleness and marriage. Christians today tend to think that singleness ought to serve marriage. We ought to endure a sexless life of singleness in order to save ourselves for marriage. Marriage is the goal. Paul, on the other hand, assumes that marriage ought to look as much like singleness as possible. In 1 Corinthians 7, singleness is the goal... We should accept that it is a mark [negative mark!] against our faithfulness when we lack the kind of communities that can sustain the single life as one that is rich in friendship, intimacy, purpose, and love... We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are brothers and sisters before we are married or single. Before we are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, we are gathered as God's friends. We have the shared task of seeking an alternative to the isolated home and privatized notions of love.
The grief of midlife is not simply that we all collect things to regret, that we all fear getting old, or that we all mourn the demise of our dreams. We mourn the fact that midlife exposes our idols' fundamental inability to deliver.
Paul Tripp, Lost in the Middle
Rejoicing and repentance must go together. Repentance without rejoicing will lead to despair. Rejoicing without repentance is shallow and will only provide passing inspiration instead of deep change...Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin. Rejoicing in Christ is also crucial because idols are almost always good things. If we have made idols out of work or family, we do not want to stop loving our work and our family. Rather, we want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
Sunday School, December 12 2010
