Monday, September 03, 2007
There are two sins that we never recognize in ourselves. It strikes me that the two commandments Jesus identifies as the greatest not only address the proper response we should have towards God, but they also hit both of our primary short comings. Those two sins are idolatry and pride. Loving God with all our heart would clear us of the idolatry issue in the same way that loving our neighbor would take self off the throne of our lives.
Idolatry is hard for us to see because we tend to think of that as idol worship and who sets up an idol in their back yard any more? Actually, it is the thinking behind the old fashion bowing down to a statue stuff that makes it idolatry and that can be applied to just about anything. The worse sort of idolatry is likely the most common. That is defining God as someone other than who He is. One of the observations I have made from reading the Old Testament is that God was always careful to identify Himself in precise terms. He wanted folks to know who He is.
When we ascribe to God personality traits other than His own, when we think of Him as merely a more powerful version of ourselves; that too is a form of idolatry. That is what makes it so important that we who call ourselves Christians need to be careful students of God. We need to seek true knowledge of who God is.
That can not be done through a casual approach to Bible Study. Listening to others explain scripture helps provided the teacher gets it right. The trick is you will never know unless you study scripture for yourself. Verification is a personal responsibility.
Idolatry is hard for us to see because we tend to think of that as idol worship and who sets up an idol in their back yard any more? Actually, it is the thinking behind the old fashion bowing down to a statue stuff that makes it idolatry and that can be applied to just about anything. The worse sort of idolatry is likely the most common. That is defining God as someone other than who He is. One of the observations I have made from reading the Old Testament is that God was always careful to identify Himself in precise terms. He wanted folks to know who He is.
When we ascribe to God personality traits other than His own, when we think of Him as merely a more powerful version of ourselves; that too is a form of idolatry. That is what makes it so important that we who call ourselves Christians need to be careful students of God. We need to seek true knowledge of who God is.
That can not be done through a casual approach to Bible Study. Listening to others explain scripture helps provided the teacher gets it right. The trick is you will never know unless you study scripture for yourself. Verification is a personal responsibility.
