Exploring 1 John: Beware of Idols
1 John 5:21 - What do you love most? What do you think about the most? Beware of what you worship, even when worshipping God!
“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.”
1 John 5:21 NASB1995
John ends his epic epistle with a short verse that seems like a strange afterthought because he never really talked about idols in this epistle. But it fits in with his efforts to get believers, the little children, to establish a real, living relationship with God through obedience, love and faith. God is the focus, God should be at the heart of everything that we do.
In John’s day, there were obvious idols - for example, there were statues everywhere to Roman and Greek gods and then there were the elaborate accoutrements and rituals of the Pharisees that seemed to replace God with thousands of little rules of behavior and clothing items and artifacts. From the Old Testament, there are many stories of idols created in the place of God, like the golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai and the persistent building temples to other “gods” that littered the landscape, requiring devout leaders to act and tear them down periodically.
First, what is an idol? Let’s do a word study. “Idol” comes from the Greek word εἴδωλον or eídōlon with the following Biblical usages; Strong’s G1497 is used 11 times in the New Testament:
an image, likeness
i.e. whatever represents the form of an object, either real or imaginary
used of the shades of the departed, apparitions, spectres, phantoms of the mind, etc.
the image of an heathen god
a false god
Well, that’s a rather broad definition, as anything we look at or admire or even consider could conceivably be called an idol, if we are talking images or likenesses. Idols could be symbols or physical things that people pray to, thinking they are praying to God. We have toured many Christian churches in the world and it is amazing how so many of them are stacked to the vaulted ceilings with statues and little elaborate side chapels and other beautiful images and likenesses. We were shocked, for example, by a Catholic Cathedral in Malaga, Spain, that had the most elaborate MAIN altar to Mary, the mother of Jesus (Jesus Himself, the Son of God and the Savior, was relegated to a tiny corner of the church, even though His little side chapel was quite elaborate, too). Here’s a picture:
After reading so much when learning about this epistle, I’m hard-pressed now to differentiate this altar from one of the elaborate altars in a Hindu temple or a monstrous statue of Buddha or a temple dedicated to the worship of Zeus. Many times when we have walked into Christian churches, including ones nearly as elaborate as this one, we have felt a sense of peace and calm. That was not true in this place and we hurried out of the sanctuary (which was mostly empty - very few were there to pray).
Another aspect of this idolatry is the reverence for relics and the necessity for building a church on the site of one of the major events in Jesus’ life. We visited another Catholic church on a trip one time in Bruges, Belgium. This church centers its entire ministry on a gold container that supposedly has a small amount of the blood of Christ in it. People line up to view this relic (we also did this mainly as an exercise in curiosity) and the priests were quite careful not to let anyone get close to the object or take any pictures, yelling at people who violated the many rules. So what is really important? Is it the container of Christ’s blood or is it the eternal fact that He shed His blood for all of us on the Cross?
So readers won’t think I’m picking on a particular denomination, we also had this relics experience at a Greek Orthodox Church in Patras, Greece, that supposedly has body parts from St. Andrew as a focal point of worship and prayer. We looked into the elaborate receptacle and felt it rather strange that part of a hand and a brain of a human disciple/apostle could create such reverence. Apparently, the Orthodox and Catholic Churches fought for years over who had the most relics from this particular follower of Christ, as a Basilica in Amalfi, Italy also lays claim to having parts of Andrew. Is Andrew and his decaying body parts important or is Christ? Well, the answer is rather obvious and I may have just offended some of my readership, but these admonitions about idols and their true definition must be taken to heart and I pray for discernment (mine and yours).
Churches can also be found all over Israel in places that were mentioned in the Gospels. These are marvelous to visit, but what is being worshipped here? Is it the past life of Christ on Earth over 2000 years ago and the fact that He might have stood on that ground or preached a sermon there or is it the living, eternal Lord who reigns TODAY and forever? Israel could disappear in a nuclear explosion (I pray not and I pray for them every day). If that should happen, though, does that negate the ministry and life of Christ because the land where He walked has disappeared?
In researching this little verse, I found three really good commentaries about idols. Let’s look first at Enduring Word:
Keep yourselves from idols: This may seem like a strange way to end John’s letter, but it fits in with the theme of a real, living relationship with God. The enemy to fellowship with God is idolatry: embracing a false god, or a false idea of the true God. John rightly closes with this warning, after having spent much of the book warning us against the dangers of the false Jesus many were teaching in his day (1 John 3:18-23; 4:1-3; 5:6-9).
We can only have a real relationship with the God who is really there! Idolatry, whether obvious (praying to a statue) or subtle (living for your career or someone other than God) will always choke out a real relationship with God, and damage our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Jesus. No wonder John ends with keep yourselves from idols; this is how we protect our relationship with God.
In a great sermon on this last verse of John’s letter, Charles Spurgeon first noted that John addressed little children.
This is a title of deep affection.
This is a title that indicates regeneration and family relation.
This is a title that indicates humility.
This is a title that indicates teachableness.
This is a title that implies faith.
This is a title that implies weakness.
Then, Spurgeon noted that John gave a command: To keep yourselves from idols.
This speaks against obvious, visible idols.
This speaks against worshipping yourself. We can do this by overindulgence in food or drink, by laziness, or by too much concern about how we look or what we wear.
This speaks against worshipping wealth.
This speaks against worshipping some hobby or pursuit.
This speaks against worshipping dear friends or relatives.
Guzik’s commentary echoes what I noted above about statues and the false ideas of the real God, but also notes that these idols are also a vast group of things or activities or indulgences that we all pursue, to one degree or another (more on that later). Are we worshipping those things?
Another great commentary was found in Precept Austin by J.C. Philpott, the 19th century English preacher (keep in mind that he was preaching this before the present age of celebrity idols and sports mania):
What is an idol?
It is that which occupies that place in our esteem and affections, in our thoughts, words and ways, which is due to God only. Whatever is to us, what the Lord alone should be—that is an idol to us.
It is true that these idols differ almost as widely as the peculiar propensities of different individuals. But as both in ancient and modern times, the grosser idols of wood and stone were and are beyond all calculation in number, variety, shape, and size. So is it in these inner idols, of which the outer idols are mere symbols and representations.
Nothing has been …
too base or too brutal,
too great or too little,
too noble or too vile,from the sun walking in its brightness—to a snake, a monkey, an onion, a bit of rag—which man has not worshiped. And these intended representations of Divinity were but the outward symbols of what man inwardly worshiped. For the inward idol preceded the outward—and the fingers merely carved what the imagination had previously devised. The gross material idol, then, is but a symbol of the inner mind of man.
…
Let me ask myself, "What do I most love?"
If I hardly know how to answer that question, let me put to myself another, "What do I most think upon? In what channel do I usually find my thoughts flow when unrestrained?"—for thoughts flow to the idol as water to the lowest spot.
If, then, the thoughts flow continually to …
the farm,
the shop,
the business,
the investment,
to the husband, wife, or child,
to that which feeds lust or pride,
worldliness or covetousness,
self-conceit or self-admiration;
that is the idol which, as a magnet, attracts
the thoughts of the mind towards it.Your idol may not be mine, nor mine yours; and yet we may both be idolaters! You may despise or even hate my idol, and wonder how I can be such a fool, or such a sinner, as to hug it to my bosom! And I may wonder how a partaker of grace can be so inconsistent as to love such a silly idol as yours! You may condemn me, and I condemn you. And the Word of God, and the verdict of a living conscience may condemn us both.
What do I MOST love? Does my liking or love of certain things compete or overrule my love for God? A essential question to ask yourself on a daily basis!
Finally, I found this great commentary from Desiring God; John Piper was asked a question about idols and prepared this response (excerpts):
Let’s start with a definition. I think to cover all the cases, we should probably define an idol (and I think this is a biblical definition) as anything that we come to rely on for some blessing, or help, or guidance in the place of a wholehearted reliance on the true and living God. That’s my working definition of idol. So you can see that would cover, for example, a rabbit’s foot in your pocket, or a picture of a saint hanging on your wall, or a relic from some sacred shrine sitting on your mantle, or the more forthright images taken from Hindu or Buddhist temples, or the golden calf that Aaron made while Moses was on the mountain.
What makes all of those idols is that we are looking away from a wholehearted reliance upon the true and living God through Jesus Christ, and we are looking at the rabbit’s foot, or the relic, or the picture for some special protection, or blessing, or guidance, or help that we don’t think we could get by just looking to God.
…
God is so jealous for our direct, personal dependence on him, and reverence for him, and adoration of him, that he disapproves not only of competing so-called gods represented with idols, but even the creation of idols presuming to represent him — not just false gods being turned into statues, but himself being represented with some manmade object that we look to. I think if we ask why — that is, why is he so jealous for that kind of direct, personal dependence of reverence and adoration? — then part of the answer is found in Psalm 96:5: “For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”
In other words, one of the problems with idols is that they contradict the transcendent nature of God as Creator. Any representation of God made with human hands leads to the misunderstanding of God’s transcendence. It gives the impression, if not the direct assertion, that God is somehow in our power — we can carve him, or paint him, or put him in our pocket or on our shelf, or carry him on a cart. And so the psalmist says, “No! The Lord made the heavens.” In other words, he’s absolutely transcendent, and you can’t carve him or control him in any way.
…
So, back to my broad definition. It went like this: anything that we come to rely on for some blessing, or help, or guidance, in the place of wholehearted reliance on the true and living God. If we come to crave, love, depend upon, and trust for a blessing people’s praise to enhance our self-exaltation, or money, or power, or sex, or family, or productivity, or anything else besides God himself for the greatest blessing, help, guidance, and satisfaction, then in essence we are doing what idolatry has always done.
So in doing a self-assessment, I can honestly state that there may be some competing things in my life that are vying for my attention ahead of God. I enjoy traveling. I enjoy camping. I enjoy nature. I love learning. I like some types of art. I am fond of good food and wine. I like keeping up with news about the business I worked in for many years (rockets and space exploration). I also used to live and die with the local baseball team and their efforts (or lack thereof) and I plunged vigorously into the worlds of classical music and opera for many years. I was also a die-hard Disney fan (of their parks and movies). So are those things idols? I found a really good answer to this from one more commentary, this one from Precept Austin again, quoting F.B. Meyer, another Baptist pastor from England:
Our Lord announced the far-reaching truth that life does not consist in what we possess, but in what we are. We are rich, not in proportion to the amount standing to our credit in the bank, or to the acreage of our inheritance, but to the purity, strength, and generosity of our nature. When we lay up treasure for ourselves, we become paupers in God's universe. The only way of dealing with covetousness, which makes an idol of money or possessions, is to regard our property only as gifts entrusted to us for the benefit of others. Let us mortify the spirit of greed, which is so strong within us all, by sowing the acreage of our life as indicated in 2Cor. 9:1ff.
Sensual appetite is an idol with many (Phil. 3:19). Eating and drinking, feasting and pleasure-seeking are idols before which many prostrate themselves. And there are other idols than these, for whenever any earthly object engrosses our soul, and intercepts the love and faith that should pass from us to God, it is an idol which must be overthrown. Whenever we can look up from anything that we possess into the face of God, and thank Him as its Giver, we may use and enjoy it without fear. We are not likely to make an idol of that which we receive direct from the hand of our Heavenly Father, whose good pleasure it is to give good gifts to His children (1 Ti 4:4, 5).
PRAYER - O Lord, the Portion of our Inheritance, give us grace, we pray Thee, never to aim at or desire anything out of Thee. What we can enjoy in Thee, give us according to Thy Will; what we cannot, deny us. AMEN.
All things are from Him, who gives good gifts to His children. We have made a plan in our lives that everything we own will be used for the benefit of others and for Him when we pass and we give cheerfully now (and hopefully generously) in many of those same ways. We thank Him, every day, for the gifts we have received and His mercy and grace. Many old obsessions in our lives have faded away and all things now in our lives are “God willing” and “Thanks to Him”, because we don’t know how much time we have. He has given us more than we can possibly ever thank Him for in this lifetime! Praise be to God!
Oh, and after I wrote this and before it was published I saw this meme today. How perfect! Elisabeth Elliot was a missionary and writer and her first husband was killed by tribesmen in the eastern Ecuador region in 1956 but she returned to them for a few years.
My next devotional summarizes 1 John and then I will start a deep dive into Acts.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I humbly thank you for the many good gifts you have given us and I ask you to help me know that my priority is always in serving and obeying you. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Blue Letter Bible was accessed on 6/29/2024 to review the lexicon for idol.
Precept Austin was accessed on 6/29/2024 to review commentary for 1 John 5:21
Enduring Word commentary by David Guzik is used with written permission.
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For more than thirty years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis. He is author of more than fifty books, and his sermons, articles, books, and more are available free of charge at desiringGod.org.
In all cases of republishing, the following attribution must be included:
By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org