Worshipping the creature

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. – Romans 1.24-25

There is a whole lot to talk about here in Romans 1. Every little term and every little phrase could be examined. No matter how clearly God revealed Himself to man it seems that man is bound and determined to reject Him and turn away from Him. When man rejects God He lets them do it. We are going to look at that a little more tomorrow, but in the list of things that God rejecting man doe is that they 'worship and serve the creature more than the Creator '

That is pretty easy to see in this world isn't it? We find a society that instead of worshipping God has decided to worship what He has created. I am not deriding environmentalism; I think Christians should be the most careful of all in taking care of God’s creation. I am talking about a world that nearly deifies the created stuff while ignoring the One who put it there.

But, that’s not my real point today. My point is that even Christians can be caught in the trap of putting created things before the Creator. We may not give devotion to trees and rocks and such, but we can be guilty of worshipping the stuff God gives us.

It is easy to point fingers and condemn those around us to refusing to worship God. It is easy to call them tree-huggers and such. It is much more difficult to accept that we may be guilty of the same things they do. Paul is going to point that out in just a few verses.

How do we know what we worship? We worship the things we give the most time, energy, and resources to. Those who deny God surely aren’t going to worship Him. What is our excuse?