January 3, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Consequences of Idolatry

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Opening Prayer

Gracious God, open my heart to reflect Your heart so that I may love You and serve others.

Read Romans 1:18-32

[18] The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, [19] since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. [20] For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. [21] For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. [24] Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. [25] They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. [26] Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. [27] In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. [28] Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. [29] They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, [30] slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; [31] they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. [32] Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright &copy 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.&reg Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“The one doctrine which can be proven without a shadow of doubt is the doctrine of Original Sin” (G. K. Chesterton 1874-1936). We only have to listen to the daily news to know that!

Paul’s focus here is not on bad behavior but on idolatry, for beneath human wrongdoing is the worship of something other than God. Whether the worship is of physical idols (22,23), money, sex or power, the principle is the same. We allow something in the creation to take the place of the Creator and to shape our lives and our longings. We cannot plead ignorance. The evidence of God’s existence and nature is everywhere around us, and human beings do know what is right and wrong. Whenever we suppress the truth, embrace lies and begin to serve and worship something other than God, we lose contact with the true moral shape of human life. Sex becomes dominated by lust and rejection of boundaries, and relationships are damaged by every conceivable destructive motive (29,30). The picture of life without faithfulness, love and mercy is bleak and profoundly disturbing (31).

Paul describes God’s judgment on wrong human living, but it is important to understand what that means. Here, God’s judgment doesn’t involve active intervention to punish wrongdoers. More chillingly, he simply lets people have what they think they want (24,26,28). The result is bitter. The universe has a moral structure, and there are built-in penalties when we flout the principles God has breathed into creation. Lies distort justice, malice produces reprisal, greed prevents open relationships, depravity destroys lives and promiscuity breeds epidemics of sexually transmitted infections. The phrase “God gave them over” simply spells out the consequences for individuals and society of choosing to go our own way in opposition to God. The challenge for Christians is to live with integrity, so that we can be prophetic witnesses to truth.

Apply

What are the greatest idols of our culture? Reflect on how they’ve impacted your life. If need be, recalibrate your priorities.

Closing prayer

Lord, I know I’m to be in the world but not of it. Forgive me for allowing cultural idols to impact me. Give me a new focus on Your priorities.

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