Be on Guard for gods!
1 John 5:21
This devotional was first sent on October 21, 2024. It is a reminder to guard against what our sinful hearts are so unremittingly bent on doing— worshipping anything and everything besides God.
1 John 5:21
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
No one likes unfinished or unsatisfactory endings. You know when a movie just abruptly ends? Or when a show has the worst possible ending? Or when you finish a drink, wishing you had just one more sip. That is the absolute worst! The last verse of the book of 1 John seemingly has an abrupt and maybe odd ending. As you glance at the final verse in 1 John, you may think to yourself, “What a strange, sudden, and seemingly random ending!” However, John’s final words, though terse and pithy in their communication, are in no way strange, sudden, or random. While the verse is short in its communication, its content is packed with significance and depth. Some of which we will unpack today.
John says in verse 21, “little children, keep yourselves from idols.” An initial observation to be made in this verse is John’s usage of the phrase “little children”. Throughout 1 John, John uses the term little children to remind his audience of his affection and endearment towards them. John wants to communicate tough truths in a tender tone and wants to re-emphasize that he is for them and not against them. Thus, he begins his final warning and command with the phrase, “little children.”
John’s final command and warning is simple: keep yourselves from idols. But what exactly are idols? Is an idol a mini wooden Buddha? Or is it a large silver and stony carving of a false god or goddess? Well, while both of those things may be idols to some, in our North American culture, most of us probably do not worship the idols of graven images. However, let us not be fooled, for while graven images certainly are idols, they are certainly not the only idols. In truth, an idol is simply anything that seeks to take the place of God. Idols are glory thieves that set out to redirect our attention, affection, and adoration to anything besides God Himself. Idols seek to sit on the thrones of our hearts and lives, a seat that is meant for God and God alone.
And as John has stressed throughout 1 John, and especially in the last chapter, Jesus Christ the Son of God, not some idol, is the only way, truth, and life. In other words, we see here that John is telling us to keep ourselves from idols because keeping ourselves from idols also keeps us close to Christ. Idols are dangerous because they kill our delight in God and his Son. To use an illustration, they are like pervasive and problematic weeds that must be kept under control lest they take over the garden of our hearts. And if you know anything about weeds, you know that they cannot simply be controlled, but killed. For weeds to be truly eradicated, they must be ripped out from the root and given no room for growth. And additionally, just like weeds in a garden, when one “idol-weed” in the garden of our hearts is taken care of, another one pops up in its place. They are unceasingly relentless in their appearance. Hence the need to keep ourselves from idols.
“Idols are dangerous because they kill our delight in God and his Son. They are like pervasive and problematic weeds that must be kept under control lest they take over the garden of our hearts.”
As we continue to look at this verse, a key insight is unlocked in the first word of the verse, “keep”. You see, in the original Greek, that word keep is phylassō, which in many other translations is rendered as guard. And interestingly, the word phylassō, or keep/guard, is written in the active imperative tense, meaning that guarding ourselves from idols is both imperative and ongoing. In other words, we must constantly guard our hearts from idols and continually guard our hearts from idols.
The word guard also assumes and implies that something is being guarded. After all, the word guard means to watch over and control. Guards often watch over a certain place to both keep something or someone in and to keep something or someone out.
Relating that now to idols, we learn that we must guard against idols to both keep sinful desires out and Christ-centered desires in. And, as was just iterated, we must remember that the sinful desires that cause us to be attracted to idols in the first place must not simply be restrained and controlled. They must be ripped out and killed. We must take every precaution necessary to guard our hearts from mini-gods, so we can focus our hearts on the one true God. We must flee from idolatry and cling to Christ. We must be on guard for gods. We must keep ourselves from idols.
“The sinful desires that cause us to be attracted to idols in the first place must not simply be restrained and controlled. They must be ripped out and killed. We must take every precaution necessary to guard our hearts from mini-gods, so we can focus our hearts on the one true God. We must flee from idolatry and cling to Christ. We must be on guard for gods. We must keep ourselves from idols.”
So what idols do we have in our lives that are stealing glory from God? One way to assess a potential idol is to think of how you use your time. What demands the most of your attention? How do you spend the majority of your free time? Another helpful assessment question is to think of where, or to whom, or to what do you run to in times of difficulty? Where do you go when you’ve had a bad day, or week, or month? What do you turn to when times get tough? As I’ve heard a pastor say, “where you rest is where you’ll find your worship.” Or on the flip side, in times of prosperity and well-being, when things are going well, where do you run? Oftentimes, our idols can be revealed not in times of suffering and trial, but in times of blessing, times when all of a sudden we perceive that we no longer need God. Regardless, at the end of the day, the important thing is that we remember to continually and constantly guard our hearts from mini-gods that threaten to usurp the throne of the one true God. Because, as John Calvin has famously said, “the human heart is a perpetual idol factory”. In other words, our hearts are incessantly searching for idols. Our hearts are so prone to wander, and are bent on turning to anything and everything but god. Which is why we must guard our hearts with the utmost vigilance!
We must also realize that the greatest desire of our adversary, the devil, is for us to worship anything and everything but God. The devil doesn’t care if we cope with life’s issues by turning to something blatantly sinful and evil, or if we simply resign and do nothing at all. He doesn't care if we drown out our worries and deal with our problems through lazy passivity or lewd pervisity, anything as long as we don’t turn to the one true God. Which, as has been said, and will be said again, we must guard our heart with all vigilance (Proverbs 4:23), and must continually re-align, refocus, and re-orient our desires, affections, ambitions, and passions around the gospel and the Word of God. (Eph 4:23, Rom 12:2), Col 3:10). Just like how driving a car with poor wheel alignment requires constant adjustment to facilitate straight and orderly driving, our hearts need to be frequently recalibrated and reoriented on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to guard our hearts from mini-gods by frequently focusing our gaze on Jesus through His Word.
“The devil doesn't care if we drown out our worries and deal with our problems through lazy passivity or lewd pervisity, anything as long as we don’t turn to the one true God.”
Today, therefore, let us seek to guard our hearts from any gods that seek to steal glory from the one true God. As Paul said in a similar fashion to John, “my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:14). And as we flee and run from idolatry, let us then instead turn and cling to Christ. Let us run from the slippery hands of the devil into the warm embrace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As we stay on guard for mini-gods, let us then draw near to one and true God, seeking Him, serving Him, and being satisfied in Him above all else. For truly, His cup is the only one worth drinking from, and His bread the only food that will truly fill our spiritual appetites. Dear friends, may we keep ourselves from idols. And may we continually turn to Christ and Christ alone. Amen!