I think it’s ironic that idle and idol are homonyms. Idleness is generally the cause of idolatry, for Christians least. When we stop thinking and doing, we become idle. It’s exactly at that point when we pick our idols and begin to worship gods other than the One, True and Living. Usually this god is ourselves; our flesh that we are desperately trying to satisfy. And what’s truly sad is that this idolatry causes us to be progressively less and less effective in our own faith (Ps. 115.2-8). For Christians who live in the freedom of New Covenant worship, we sometimes act exactly like the Assyrians who did not even have the spirit upon them, as we do.
They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought. (2 Kings 17.33)
And so, we engage in the same kind of ritualistic worship. Although I do believe God intended the corporate act of worship to engage our visceral senses, the rituals of worship without true sacrificial worship is worthless ( Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory). It’s just the motions. Idolatry robs us of the ability to genuinely worship God, no matter how deeply you believe going to a worship service and raising your hands and singing loudly is real worship. If you are going home and serving yourself, you are not worshiping God. The bible defines Christocentric worship as being ‘living sacrifices’ (Romans 12.1). So if we have the ritual, but not the actual worship, our acts of worship are worthless. (Remember Cain and Abel?) The songs and all the trappings of a worship service are but rags, anyhow. I could go on, but I digress.
I believe, through what I’ve seen and read, that this serving of the self leads to a possibly more catastrophic end for us Christians. It leads to reinterpretation of the scripture from our personal experience (i.e. justifying our choices and actions based on the way we feel about something). This postmodernism is a plague, but it’s enticing because it allows us to have our cake and eat it, too. We can make God fit into our custom mold that lets us get away with ungodliness, believing that we are not to judge others, but ultimately I believe that we are saying “don’t judge me for the way I live.” I think 1 Corinthians 5 has plenty to say about those in the church who live by the flesh without remorse. Read it. You’ll see. And I’m not saying that people don’t fall. I’m saying there is a biblical standard for the way we are to live, and you can’t work the flesh into the equation, no matter how hard you try. I actually have so many thoughts on this, I’m going to have to split it up over time.
The bottom line is, we are to discipline ourselves (1 Tim. 4.7). This means we can’t just sit around and think about the way we feel, because then there would be no absolute truth, and Jesus made it very clear that he is the Truth and the way is very narrow; probably more narrow than we’d like to believe these days. If we aren’t busy disciplining ourselves, we are idle. When we are idle, we are left with the desires of the flesh. When we are consumed with the flesh instead of a renewed mind, we are left to idolatry. You can’t be an idolater and get worship right. You just can’t.
Hence the title of the blog.
