Stay away from idols

Little children keep yourself from idols – I John 5.21

This little verse almost seems tacked on to the rest of the book. We are reading about love and truth and understanding and eternal life and then we come across these words – ‘little children keep yourself from idols.’

But I think it does make sense. All that we have here is temporary and passing away. We have the truth that endures forever. As believers our  eternal like is settled based on the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. Because of that our focus ought to be only on the truth.

So, John writes, keep yourself from idols.

The first folks to read or hear this would have understood fully. Idols, images of false would have been a big part of their lives. Idols would have been every where and the worship of false gods would have been part of their culture and how they were raised. They had to be told that they could not mix the true God with their images of false gods. They couldn’t have both.

I doubt that very many people here have a god shelf at home. We don’t bow down and worship stone or wood images.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have idols. We still do. We have our own false gods that we try to mix with our true God. We have all kinds of diversions that keep us from the truth – these  are our idols. All kinds of idols can divert us from the truth.

John’s counsel is the same for us – stay away from the idols of your hearts. Stay away from all those things that get in the way of our worship on the truth.