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| II
Kings 17.15 (NIV) They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. |
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| What a man devotes himself to, he becomes.* |
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These
are harsh words! We like to believe that everyone has value. After all, we are
all children of God, aren’t we?
The
Israelites were God’s chosen people but they are the specific targets of this
severe criticism, as well as the perpetrators of the list of offenses preceding
this pronouncement. It is probable that the Jews had never met anyone else who
worshipped only one God. Perhaps they didn’t like being so different from their
neighbors. Were they guilty of thinking that all religions had a little bit of
truth in them? That the more religion you got, the better?* Is that
so different from the philosophies of the modern church-goer?
“I
don’t worship idols!” you say in your defense. Even if you don’t pray to an
image of a god, you could still be guilty of idolatry. If
your version of God is less than the perfect God of the Bible, you are worshipping
a false god. Man was created in God’s image; when we create a god in our
own image, we become less than what God intended for us to be.
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| The worshipper can rise no higher than the god he worships.* |
EXTRA SPLASH:
“syncretism” – the blending
of religions
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*Quote sources available upon request.
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