Loyalty to Whom? Ezekiel 20:23-26 portrays a critical point regarding why Israel was taken into captivity: Also I lifted My hand in an oath to those in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them throughout the countries, because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers idols. Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live; and I pronounced them unclean because of their ritual gifts, in that they caused all their firstborn to pass through the fire, that I might make them desolate and that they might know that I am the Lord. There is no doubt Israel was a religious people. Yet, notice the emphasis on the personal pronoun My. Their source of values was not God. Realizing the source of any given value or moral standard will go a long way toward determining its rightness and therefore its efficacy. Romans 6:15-19 helps to clarify this: What then? Shall we sin [transgress Gods law] because we are not under the law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that ones slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. The source of a persons values will determine his righteousness or his sinfulness. In addition, then, the source of the values to which he submits will also establish who is the sovereign in his life and of whom he is a servant. Finally, the source also determines whether idolatry is present and how the individuals conscience will be affected and respond. If the source of values is man, then man is the sovereign. This can be perfectly acceptable as long as the value one obeys agrees with Gods values. Any persons values may come from society in general, his family practices, his peers, or even his spouse. One often hears the justification, Everybodys doing it, as a defense. The source of that value is everybody! Understanding the source helps to reveal the sin of idolatry in a clear but disgusting light. The Israelites of Ezekiel 20 apparently could, in all sincerity and with a clear conscience—and perhaps even with fervency—sacrifice their firstborn to Moloch! This is a vivid example of how twisted a persons thinking and conscience can become by believing a corrupt source. At the beginning of our conversion, usually during counseling for baptism, we are asked to consider Luke 14:26-33 seriously. Verses 26-27 are particularly important because loyalty to Christ is the issue in this context. Jesus says, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Jesus makes it plain that, after entering into the New Covenant, our highest loyalty is to Him. This is extremely important because the character of every life is determined by the loyalty that rules it. Peter confirms Jesus words in Acts 5:29, saying, We ought to obey God rather than men. He made this affirmation following Jesus crucifixion. Persecution was imminent against the fledging church. However, we must understand that the world is always a threat against our loyalty to Christ. Life is a mixture of choices and compulsions, and many of our values have their source in the world. These values exert an ever-present pressure to conform to them, thus we must be aware. The pressure to make moral choices is the furnace in which character is forged. Our compulsions to make choices come in two varieties: 1) forced, as by a gun to our temple that demands, Do this or else, and 2) unforced, the pressure of old habits, perspectives, and attitudes engraved in our character, hangovers from our past. Thus, the past and the present both push at us to choose. What we chose determines where our loyalties lie and thus whether we commit idolatry. If we are not thinking carefully, idolatry is an easy sin to fall into.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 12:37:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015