Flee from idolatry
This week is on 1 Corinthians 10:14-22:
I always feel funny sharing verses about idolatry. Whenever I think of idolatry, I always picture a bunch of people in costumes dancing around some demon-faced stone statue covered in Hollywood animal blood. It doesn't seem to relate to our modern enlightened world. But idolatry is more than just worshipping objects as though they were gods. It's a pledge of allegiance to a power or principality that stands in opposition to God.
Paul is talking about idolatry in his letter to the Corinthian church. The Corinthian Christians had been eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. They wrote it off as harmless, but Paul addresses it as a highly immoral act. He compares eating the food sacrificed to idols to taking communion. But instead of it being a holy connection to God, eating the sacrificed food is an unholy connection to demons. He's saying that you can't say on the one hand that taking Communion is a meaningful act and then on the other hand say that the same act towards demons is not. You either invalidate Communion by saying it doesn't matter or you bind yourself to demons by saying it does. There is no reasonable middle position.
But what is the religion of our modern age? We all learn about Roman mythology in schools, but there's no objective look at what our modern mythology is. I don't think that anyone would argue that Christianity is the dominant worldview in our culture anymore. I would call the modern religion a form of secularism that believes simultaneously that there is no God and that all "faith traditions" are equal, with a handicap penalty awarded to Christianity for being the previously dominant worldview. Religions are made to seem as interchangeable as fad workout routines, as if Sunday church were nothing more than a kind of vapid spiritual Zumba class, equivalent to your Muslim neighbour doing his Mecca CrossFit on Fridays.
Rather than eating food sacrificed to idols in order to fit in, or because it's what's available cheaply, we might feel pressured to tell someone we're "thinking thoughts" for them instead of praying for them. ("Thinking thoughts" is a subtle way of saying that praying is just an exercise of the imagination, implying that there is no god.) We might be tempted to include other religious elements in our services, elements of modern Judaism, quotes from Islamic literature, joint celebrations of other religious festivals in order to congratulate ourselves on being neighbourly and open-minded. But on a base level it's still idolatry because it lends material support to a worldview that stands in opposition to God.
We live in a culture that is increasingly in rebellion against God. It reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about one of his coworkers, who is married to a woman who has been repeatedly unfaithful. This woman even had a child by another man while she was married to this guy, and rather than being ashamed or repentant, her attitude towards him was "Well I'm going to live my life how I want, and you're just going to have to accept it." Our culture is kind of like that woman, spinning more and more out of control while demanding acceptance.
God often portrays idolatry as a kind of adultery in the Bible. So Paul asks the Corinthian church, "Are you trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are you really stronger than he is?" Can we really join ourselves with groups who openly oppose God and then turn to God and be all like "Well the TV says I'm right so you're just going to have to learn to deal with it"? What Paul is asking the Corinthian church, and which we could be asking ourselves, is do we imagine that our relationship with God is one in which we call the shots? Nobody who loves someone they are in a relationship with takes pleasure in provoking them to jealousy, let alone cheating on them, overtly or otherwise.
So these verses about adultery may not apply to you, but maybe they do. One of the great things about being alive is that we can always switch direction and get back on the right path if we get off into the weeds. So, if you're just now discovering that you're an idolater, change your behaviour and ask God's forgiveness. God is faithful, no matter whether we are or not, and will forgive you and accept you as if you'd never gone wrong.
So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I am speaking to thoughtful people. Consider what I say. Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread. Look at the people of Israel. Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar? Am I saying that idols or food sacrificed to them amount to anything? No, I mean that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we really stronger than he is?
I always feel funny sharing verses about idolatry. Whenever I think of idolatry, I always picture a bunch of people in costumes dancing around some demon-faced stone statue covered in Hollywood animal blood. It doesn't seem to relate to our modern enlightened world. But idolatry is more than just worshipping objects as though they were gods. It's a pledge of allegiance to a power or principality that stands in opposition to God.
Paul is talking about idolatry in his letter to the Corinthian church. The Corinthian Christians had been eating food that had been sacrificed to idols. They wrote it off as harmless, but Paul addresses it as a highly immoral act. He compares eating the food sacrificed to idols to taking communion. But instead of it being a holy connection to God, eating the sacrificed food is an unholy connection to demons. He's saying that you can't say on the one hand that taking Communion is a meaningful act and then on the other hand say that the same act towards demons is not. You either invalidate Communion by saying it doesn't matter or you bind yourself to demons by saying it does. There is no reasonable middle position.
But what is the religion of our modern age? We all learn about Roman mythology in schools, but there's no objective look at what our modern mythology is. I don't think that anyone would argue that Christianity is the dominant worldview in our culture anymore. I would call the modern religion a form of secularism that believes simultaneously that there is no God and that all "faith traditions" are equal, with a handicap penalty awarded to Christianity for being the previously dominant worldview. Religions are made to seem as interchangeable as fad workout routines, as if Sunday church were nothing more than a kind of vapid spiritual Zumba class, equivalent to your Muslim neighbour doing his Mecca CrossFit on Fridays.
Rather than eating food sacrificed to idols in order to fit in, or because it's what's available cheaply, we might feel pressured to tell someone we're "thinking thoughts" for them instead of praying for them. ("Thinking thoughts" is a subtle way of saying that praying is just an exercise of the imagination, implying that there is no god.) We might be tempted to include other religious elements in our services, elements of modern Judaism, quotes from Islamic literature, joint celebrations of other religious festivals in order to congratulate ourselves on being neighbourly and open-minded. But on a base level it's still idolatry because it lends material support to a worldview that stands in opposition to God.
We live in a culture that is increasingly in rebellion against God. It reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about one of his coworkers, who is married to a woman who has been repeatedly unfaithful. This woman even had a child by another man while she was married to this guy, and rather than being ashamed or repentant, her attitude towards him was "Well I'm going to live my life how I want, and you're just going to have to accept it." Our culture is kind of like that woman, spinning more and more out of control while demanding acceptance.
God often portrays idolatry as a kind of adultery in the Bible. So Paul asks the Corinthian church, "Are you trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are you really stronger than he is?" Can we really join ourselves with groups who openly oppose God and then turn to God and be all like "Well the TV says I'm right so you're just going to have to learn to deal with it"? What Paul is asking the Corinthian church, and which we could be asking ourselves, is do we imagine that our relationship with God is one in which we call the shots? Nobody who loves someone they are in a relationship with takes pleasure in provoking them to jealousy, let alone cheating on them, overtly or otherwise.
So these verses about adultery may not apply to you, but maybe they do. One of the great things about being alive is that we can always switch direction and get back on the right path if we get off into the weeds. So, if you're just now discovering that you're an idolater, change your behaviour and ask God's forgiveness. God is faithful, no matter whether we are or not, and will forgive you and accept you as if you'd never gone wrong.
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