The Nature of Communion

and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
10. I did not plan this. I planned
to preach, I just didn’t plan to dovetail this particular passage
into a communion service. But in God’s good providence,
that’s exactly what we have. And so we will take it as a gift
from the Lord. First Corinthians chapter 10
in our continuing study. What is the big deal? That’s what a good many of the
Corinthians must have been thinking over Paul’s big concern over
meat offered to idols. It might have gone something
like this. What’s the big deal, Paul? What’s the problem with
us catching a quick lunch on the grounds of one of these temples?
After all, I’m a Christian now. I don’t worship these idols anymore. In fact, I only go there to maintain
a witness with my unbelieving friends. Does that argument sound
familiar? Yes, that’s it, I’m trying to
evangelize those who are still caught up in this idolatry. Well,
even if I’m not actually evangelizing, I’m building and maintaining
friendships, kind of laying the groundwork, so to speak, for
future evangelism. Friendship evangelism is what
I call it. I have to show them that I love
and care for them, right? So when they agree to have lunch
with me, I do occasionally meet them on the temple patio. It’s
super convenient for them since they’re already there. It’s almost
the only way that we could meet. I have to do this. Big deal. It’s just lunch. Brisket. And it’s good, too. You should
try it sometime, Paul, instead of constantly criticizing
everyone else. That’s how the argument might
have gone. And it’s this kind of argument that many Christians
had built on which they were standing. It’s just lunch on
the temple grounds, lunch with unbelievers, even those still
caught up in the worship of idols. And how is this any different than if we watch the world’s
vile movies, or we sing their ungodly songs, or we emulate
their worldly practices, or we enjoy all that this life has
to offer. How is that any different? The
argument is the same, even if it takes many different forms.
Why should I be so different from the very people I’m trying
to convert? If they think of me as strange
and eccentric because I don’t do all the things they do, how
will I ever have a witness? Why should we concern ourselves
with people, even if they are Christian people, who are so
uptight about so many things? Why shouldn’t I be able to enjoy
my Christian liberty without having to constantly look over
my shoulder to worry about who’s watching? Same argument, many
different forms. And it’s precisely to these attitudes
and questions that Paul begins to speak here. We can easily
trace his argument in chapter 10 now, In this chapter, he’s
beginning to bring this lengthy discussion about idolatry to
a close. And as we’ve seen, Paul’s concern
was much more than the question of meat offered to idols. That indeed was a concern, but
his greater concern was the indifferent, even unfeeling behavior exhibited
by some of the Corinthian believers. and is shown toward their fellow
believers. Not only were they slow to implement
anything close to self-denial, but in their greed to enjoy their
beloved liberties, they were actively engaged in sinful indulgence. What is more, In their pride,
they had become complacent about the temptations to sin that were
all around them, not the least of which was the subtle allure
of idolatry. Paul wrote to the Colossians
and cautioned them about the same tendency. In 3.5, consider
the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. We’ve said it for weeks. There’s
much more to idolatry than just a statue. That immediately dispels
the faulty ideas in our mind that idolatry is merely the falling
down before a statue. The Corinthians in their smug
confidence were oblivious to the devil’s shrewd and fiendish
deception. Idolatry is, as we’ve seen, loving
something or anything more than God himself, even if that something
is ourselves and our so-called liberties. I would suggest to
you that self is the greatest of all present-day idols. But truly, self-idolatry was
very much flourishing in first century Corinth. Selfishness
was the orientation point of their overindulgent behavior
and their callous insensitivity toward their Christian brothers.
Indeed, idolatry was affecting the church of Corinth. That’s
why Paul’s writing for three chapters. But that hard attitude,
unfortunately, did not die out with the Corinthians. We too are still tempted by and
often yield to the temptation to the idle self. Paul writes
to the Corinthians to caution them about their proud self-confidence
that had led to this careless living. But these words are not
lost on us. This is very much our struggle
as well, isn’t it? If the Corinthians were not incapable
of sinning, neither are we. If the Corinthians were susceptible
to the same idolatrous trappings as was the nation of Israel before
the Corinthians, then so are we. The Corinthians were as susceptible
to craving evil things as Israel was, and idolatry, and immorality,
and tempting the Lord, and grumbling. Those sins shamelessly exhibited
by the Israelites were not exclusive to that nation. Those very temptations
live right down to this day, don’t they? They’re in our DNA. We are inclined to these things
as humans, even if we are believing humans. Just like the Corinthian
society, peppered with idols of every shape and size, these
sinful temptations lurk around every corner. And just like the
Corinthians, we lean into these insidious lures even in light
of the abundant grace that we’ve already received. In that sense,
we’re just like the Corinthians, who were just like Israel. So
we too must be ever watchful for the same reckless complacency,
a casualness about our own spiritual responsibilities that leaves
us destined for trouble, complete with the painful consequences
that comes with it. Before we approach our passage
this morning, let’s briefly, and I mean very briefly, ponder
where we’ve been here in this chapter. In the opening five
verses, you can glance at it, Paul pointed out that Israel
had squandered their privileges, that God had lavished Israel
with a great outpouring of spiritual blessings and benefits, amazing
and miraculous divine manifestations intended by God as faith builders,
for his people, the glory cloud, the parting
of the Red Sea, spiritual food, spiritual drink, miraculously
provided by God, miraculous exhibitions of God’s power, all of which
failed to stir Israel to a greater faithfulness to their God. Instead,
they squandered those divine manifestations right there on
the desert. But squandering God’s divine
manifestations wasn’t their only sin. They embraced many others
as well. They also had an insatiable yearning
for wickedness, as we saw. Idolatry, verse seven. Immorality,
verse eight. Trying or testing the Lord’s
patience, verse nine. And grumbling, verse 10. And
Paul’s whole purpose here in this chapter is not just to bash
the Israelites, but to use their example in order to school the
Corinthians and us. And so last week we considered
verses 12 through 14, Israel’s examples for future believers,
including us. There, In verses 12 through 14,
Paul provided an exhortation to a watchfulness for sin. Take
heed, he said. An exhortation to the familiarity
of sin as well, that even in our trials and temptations, they
are not unique. There’s nothing new under the
sun when it comes to sin. They are common to man, as he
says. These trials also come to us,
as we saw, measured by God himself. He knows our frame, and he will
not allow us to be tempted beyond what we’re able. He measures
them to us. And Paul adds that he provides
a way of escape also. We don’t have to sin. That escape
is captured in his third exhortation here, an exhortation to avoid
sin, to flee. Simple advice, but it works every
time. Well, that brings us to the fourth
section of this chapter, this focus on Israel. This fourth
section, verses 15 through 22, Paul presents Israel’s pattern
of fellowship. That sounds rather bland to our
ears. I think the Lord will spice it up in due time. But it brings
us to the passage at hand this morning, verses 15 through 22.
For the sake of time, if you would, we’ll just read that portion
this morning. 1 Corinthians 10, verses 15 through
22. I speak as to wise men, you judge
what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which
we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which
we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one
bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the
one bread. Look at the nation of Israel.
Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do
I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols
is anything? Or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and
not to God. And I do not want you to become
sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table
of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the
Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He,
are we? Paul’s approach here is just
masterful. Instead of chiding the Corinthians
or rebuking them or commanding them or exhorting them any further,
Paul simply presents the facts of the matter to them and urges
them to judge the matter. All he does is ask the Corinthians
a series of questions to which he offers only the briefest answers,
if at all, And he leaves the question of idolatry for them
to decide. Look, if you would, at verse
15, where Paul says, I speak as to wise men, you judge what
I say. And make no mistake, the you
there in that latter clause is emphatic. You judge. You be the
judge of what it is I say. This is either incredibly dangerous
on Paul’s part, or incredibly wise. The Corinthians didn’t
have a great track record, remember, on wisdom. They weren’t so sharp
in the wisdom department, and yet Paul thinks well enough of
them to submit the matter to them for consideration and determination. In his role and authority as
apostle, he could have just commanded them. But he goes the extra mile
to encourage these believers to reason through this matter
for themselves. He knows that they, too, are
guided by God’s own Holy Spirit. And so I find it to be incredibly
gracious on Paul’s part. He thinks the best of them, and
he calls them to rise to the occasion and to think through
this very challenging issue. And when it’s all said and done,
these matters are not so difficult that reasonable Christians cannot
discern the proper course. That was incredibly wise on Paul’s
part. And yet, the fact that Paul has
to lay all this out for these wise judges means that there
is indeed still a gentle rebuke. in all of this. Why, after all,
hadn’t they already been moved to consider these things? I titled the message, The Nature
of Communion. And while we will talk about
communion in the sense of the Lord’s Supper and soon, we will
also consider the more general, less technical use of that word
communion. We forget about that part very
often. Communion can be just a stirring
way to refer to fellowship, communion with one another. We might even
consider communion, the idea of communion as intimate oneness. We typically don’t think of church
in that way. But beyond the simple question
of the nature of communion, there’s another question that we’ll answer
this morning about exactly who it is that we share this oneness. Exactly who are we in communion
with this intimate oneness? And it’s the second question
that provides a much more alarming answer, as we’ve already read.
And as we will see, what Paul does in these eight verses is
provide eye-opening facts about communion, this uniting in fellowship. And Paul lays down for the Corinthians
and for us three enduring principles of fellowship. three enduring
principles of communion. Let’s look at the first one in
verses 16 and 17. Here Paul provides the Christian
principle of communion with Christ and His body. That’s what we’re
here to celebrate this morning. in God’s good providence. Paul
comes graciously to these believers, and he deputizes them, as we’ve
already seen, as judges in this matter of idolatry. And he begins
with a few simple questions. And it will be immediately recognizable
to us, as it was to the Corinthians, that these questions pertain
to our own celebration of the Lord’s table. the Christian ordinance of communion.
Look at the first question, verse 16, is not the cup of blessing
which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Paul first asked
about the cup, the cup of blessing, to which the obvious answer is
yes. Yes, in the celebration of the
Lord’s table, that is communion, we share in the blood of Christ. The phrase cup of blessing is
considered to be a Hebraism, a well known phrase probably
borrowed from Jewish religious services, likely the Passover
feast. And it was imported for use in
the Christian celebration of the Lord’s table. It is the cup
of blessing. Paul calls it the cup of blessing
not only because our own Lord is the one who first blessed
it, but also likewise before we partake of it, we too bless
or thank God for his provision of Christ’s sacrificial atonement
by his blood, and that by partaking we are blessed. This is what
we do after we distribute the elements of the bread or the
cup, we pray, right? We ask the Lord’s blessing. Just as Christ did at the institution
of this supper, the cup at the Lord’s table is very much the
cup of blessing. It is a blessed cup. It is a
remembrance of the great blessing brought to us in Christ’s sacrifice
on our behalf. And so, yes, when we partake
of this element of communion, we share in the blood of Christ. That’s true. This is all that
Paul is seeking to have them acknowledge. When you have communion,
when you pass the cup, do you share in the blood of Christ?
And the answer was to be in the affirmative. Yes, of course we
do. We do not as the Catholics re-crucify Christ in our celebration
of communion, but we do commune, we do fellowship, we do participate
in the blood of the Savior. His blood atonement on our behalf
on the cross. As Paul declared to the Ephesians,
in Him we have redemption through His blood. And we commemorate
that at the Lord’s table. And likewise with the bread.
Look at the second question there in 16. Is not the bread which
we break a sharing in the body of Christ? When we partake of
the bread which we break, a literal hearkening to Jesus’ institution
of the Lord’s Supper as captured in all four of the gospel writers. All four of them note, though
I’m quoting from Matthew here, while they were eating Jesus
took some bread and after a blessing he broke it and gave it to his
disciples. Paul says this as well in first
Corinthians 11, You know this passage well, the Lord Jesus
and the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke it. Jesus broke the bread. And we do this symbolically when
we celebrate the Lord’s table still. The bread which we break
is the bread of the communion table. That’s all that Paul is
trying to get them to acknowledge. But Paul queries. Is not this
bread a sharing in the body of Christ? And so we can be even
more rapid with our answer to this one. Yes. Yes, it is. When we break the bread of the
communion table, we symbolically share, fellowship, commune with
the body of Christ. Now, Paul deems these people
to be intelligent people, wise men who are able to judge. And
so he reasons with them in verse 17, that even if these things
are true about the cup and the bread as we believe them to be,
then we can begin to draw some obvious conclusions. Look at
verse 17. Since there is one bread, We
who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread. The illustration is simple. Paul
starts with one piece of bread, perhaps a loaf or perhaps a large
flat piece unleavened. And this is apparently broken
up and distributed to a great many of believers who Paul identifies
as being many. many individual believers and
yet one body, the body of Christ. Paul says that this is symbolized
by partaking of the one loaf. It’s fellowship. It’s communion. It’s a sharing in these things.
And individuals partaking in the bread have communion with
Christ, and they also have communion with their fellow believers.
The older confessions say it this way, that the supper of
the Lord Jesus is to be a bond and pledge of their communion
with him and with each other. Paul’s point in all this is not
simply that we partake of a cup representing Christ’s blood or
that we partake of bread representing Christ’s body, but that in so
doing we share or commune or have intimate oneness, not only
with our Savior, but with one another. We must not be reluctant
to acknowledge this. the Christian principle of communion
with Christ and His body. When Christians celebrate the
Lord’s table, they not only commune with their Lord, they commune
with one another. And this is the reason that we
guard or fence the Lord’s table. To not only protect those who
should not partake, If they’re not believers, if they have not
repented of their sin, if they’re actively engaged in sinning,
they should not partake for their own safety. But we also do not want to be
partakers, communing with, in intimate fellowship with those
who are not believers. partaking wrongly, or they are
not repentant of their sin. And this, by the way, is the
very reason that we do church discipline, to protect the purity
of the Lord’s table. That we do not fellowship in
the sins of a wayward brother or sister. And so Paul’s first
purpose here is to lay down the principle of communion with Christ
and His body. But the Jewish nation also had
communion of sorts. They had fellowship as well.
And we see it in verses 18 through 21. In these eye-opening facts about
communion, not only does Paul teach us about the Christian
principle of communion with Christ and His body, but he brings up
the Jewish principle of communion with the thing sacrificed. That’s what he addresses in verses
18 through 21. And Paul wants to build now on
this concept of fellowship in or communion with someone or
something. And here he takes us once again
to the example of Israel. Look at the nation of Israel,
Paul says, in verse 18, and he takes us to the same argument
of communion, fellowship. But this time he does so from
the example of Israel. And you would all say, I didn’t
know that Israel practiced communion. Well, they do in a sort. This
time When he brings up Israel, it is not for the purpose of
criticism that Paul sets forth Israel as an example. Rather,
he is making the same point that to participate in a sacrifice
is to fellowship or commune with that sacrifice. And in the case
of the Jews, also with the God to whom that sacrifice is made.
Glance, if you would, at the second portion of verse 18. It’s
another question. This is Paul’s pattern. Are not
those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? By the
way, this is the same root word that we saw in verse 16, giving
us the idea of communion or fellowship. Those who share or commune in
the blood or the body of Christ. Remember? And this question here
in verse 18 is just another question that demands an affirmative answer. Yes, yes, those who eat the sacrifices,
whether the one providing the sacrifice on their behalf or
the priests who are offering up that sacrifice, they are indeed
sharers in the altar. We saw this back in our first
brush with this issue back in chapter nine. There, in the midst
of his discussion about the things sacrificed to idols, Paul made
the point that priests were supported in part by the sacrificial offerings
made in the temple. Remember this? Verse 13, those
who attend regularly to the altar have their share of the altar. Some of the burnt offerings were
burned up, On the altar, some were eaten by the worshiper,
and some, the rest, was dedicated to the priests. And the priest
and the person who provided the offering both shared in that
which was sacrificed. It was an act of worship. And this same thing was true
of the heathen sacrifices as well. We saw some of it was consumed
by the fire, some of it by the offering, and some of it by the
attendant idol. And the one that offered the
sacrifice to the idol had the option of taking that meat and
either taking it home to eat or selling it in the marketplace.
Remember, this is how this whole issue came up. And so here, Paul
simply asks about the Jewish sacrifice. Are not those who
eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? The answer is yes. Yes, they are. But this affirmative
answer seems to concern Paul because it seems to open the
door to a theological conundrum. Paul states it right out in verse
19. Look at that. What do I mean
then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything? Or that
an idol is anything? Does the legitimacy of the sharing
of a sacrifice legitimize the thing to which it is sacrificed?
Does it make an idol real? In the case of things sacrificed
to God, the question is moot. Of course God is legitimate,
but Paul is asking about idols here in 19. If someone sacrifices
to Zeus or Aphrodite, choose your favorite lowercase g-o-d,
Zeus, Aphrodite, Baal, does that mean that these so-called gods
really exist? That the idol is legitimate,
real? And Paul brings his reasonable
readers along immediately. Of course not. Paul answered
this question already back in chapter 8. We know that there
is no such thing as an idol in the world. Neither an idol nor the idol
sacrifice is real, legitimate. The idol is nothing. Just a statue,
just made of stone or metal or gold or whatever. The idol is
nothing, and the meat offered to a false god remains meat. It’s cooked now, perhaps, but
it’s meat and nothing more, nothing special. It’s no better for having
been sacrificed to a supposed god. But of course, this does
not mean that just because someone sacrificed something to Athena,
that Athena suddenly becomes real. But the reality is far
worse. This is the alarming part that
I alluded to a moment ago. Look at verse 20, please. No, but I say that the things
which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and
not to God. Verse 20 is a near citation of
Deuteronomy 32, 17. They sacrifice to demons who
were not God. The gods are false. No such thing
as another god, lowercase g-o-d. Literally speaking here, they
are, quote unquote, no gods. Zeus is not real, Baal is not
real, but that doesn’t mean that some entity doesn’t stand behind
these false gods. And therein lies our concern.
Paul says that there are demons behind these idols and demons
are real. And because demons are the real
spiritual beings behind such idols, the sacrifices to these
false gods before them have a real implication. They are appeasing
demons. And these demons receive, in
a sense, this sacrifice and they relish in it. And just as it is in the Lord’s
Supper, there is communion with God, communion with one another. When one participates in idolatrous
worship, they come into fellowship with demons, Paul says. By participating
in these idol feasts, they were a multiplicity of transgressions
in this effort. They not only offended their
brother’s conscience, they confused their witness to the world, they
participate in the worship of a no God, and they ultimately
fellowship with demons. Quite a day on the patio. It couldn’t get any worse. And
so Paul cautions at the end of verse 20, I do not want you to
become sharers in demons. I don’t want you in fellowship
with demons. I don’t want you to have that
kind of intimacy with demons. Look at Paul’s further caution
in verse 21. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table
of the Lord and the table of demons. If you’re a Christian,
how can you possibly blend the two services, that of Christian
communion, the Lord’s table, and that of the heathen idols
equivalent? The two cannot be blended. A
person cannot participate in both. It is unthinkable. And to engage in the worship
of one is to forsake the worship of the other. Either we worship
God or demons. It’s that simple. One cannot
do both. In that beautiful picture of
repentance that Paul paints with words, In First Thessalonians,
he commends those believers in Thessalonica because, remember,
they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.
What a picture, what a picture that is. That was their sure indicator
of repentance, that they had turned their backs to idols and
their face toward God. The Corinthians could not turn
back to these idols without also turning their back on God. Well, Paul has one last principle
to present to the Corinthian believers, and we find it in
verse 22. Paul is giving us these eye-opening
facts about communion, the nature of communion, not only the Christian
principle of communion with Christ and his body, and the Jewish
principle of communion with the thing sacrificed, but the third
and final principle is the universal principle of communion in offense. We don’t want to participate
in that, do we? Look at verse 22. Or do we provoke
the Lord to jealousy? We’re not stronger than he, are
we? Paul again presents a pair of questions. The only difference
this time is that Paul leaves the matter entirely to the Corinthians
to deliberate. He provides them no commentary
at all on verse 22. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?
Are we stronger than God? And we’re not told how the Corinthians
process this. Paul thought it best of them,
or Paul thought the best of them by believing that they could
see their way through this difficulty. And so he just dumps the information
in their lap. We can hope that this was the
case, that they process this correctly. My question is, how
would we answer? Let’s answer the first question.
Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? If a person were to do, as Paul
forbade in verse 21, to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup
of demons, or to partake of the table of the Lord and the table
of demons, if a person were to do that, would that provoke the
Lord to jealousy? And the answer is absolutely
it would. And so the question becomes, are we really willing
to try to establish a competition between God and demons so as
to provoke God himself to jealousy? The scriptures tell us that to
do so is a dangerous practice. Exodus 20 verse five, you shall
not worship them or serve them, these false gods, for I, the
Lord, am your God, am a jealous God. Exodus 34, 14, you shall
not worship any other God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous,
is a jealous God. Deuteronomy 32, 21, they have
made me jealous with what is not God. They have provoked me
to anger with their idols. Isaiah 42 8, I am the Lord, that
is my name. I will not give my glory to another,
nor my praise to graven images. Does God get jealous when we
dabble with idols? How utterly foolish a thing it
is to provoke God. Job feared to challenge God because
as he reasoned, I am, or he is not a man as I am that I may
answer to him that we may go into court together? Job wouldn’t
have filed suit against God. Isaiah declared it simply, woe
to the one who quarrels with his maker, an earthenware vessel
among the vessels of earth. Will the clay say to the potter,
what are you doing? It’s utterly foolish to provoke
God. which makes Paul’s final answer
almost, pardon me, his final question almost amusing if the
subject were not so grave. Would you look at the end of
verse 22? We are not stronger than he, are we? And as wise judges, the only
reasonable answer must be absolutely not. No way. Heaven forbid, perish the thought,
may it never be. There is no way in the world
that any man should ever be so bold and brash as to suggest
that he, a mere creature, is in any measure as strong as Almighty
God, the creator of heaven and earth. It is a question that dissolves
in absurdity almost immediately as it’s uttered. As strong as
God? Of course not. Paul’s point then
is obvious. How could the Corinthians ever
tempt God? Let’s take that in its fullness.
How could we ever tempt God? By flirting with a lifeless idol, behind which are demons. And we have to, again, force
ourselves beyond this thought of simply falling down and worshiping
a statue. Idolatry in that simple sense.
We know that’s wrong. But we have to keep before us
the thought that idolatry is anything. Anything that we are enticed
to love more than God himself. Anything that we could ever be
tempted to love more than God is an idol. And we’ve begun to
construe a bit of a list over the past weeks. If it’s a person and our affection for them is
either illicit or unbiblical, adulterous, that is an idol. And you can bet that the devil
loves this activity. If it’s a hobby or an activity
that demands more of our time, more of our money than is pleasing
to the Lord, how much time after all do we dedicate to the service
of Christ in comparison with our beloved hobby? How much money,
how liberal is our giving by comparison to what we give to
Christ and His church and His ministries? If this idol is a
lifestyle, whether we are pretentious in some way or duplicitous, leading
a double life or directly contrary to biblical morality, you can
bet the demons love to stir our hearts to that. If it is our
own personal reputation for which we’re far more concerned than
God’s own reputation, the devil loves that activity. If it is
some secret or emerging unbiblical idea or doctrine, which we know
to be contrary to scripture, but one that we cannot seem to
eliminate from our thinking, Even an unbiblical idea about
God is a form of idolatry. Our theology must be biblically
informed. If it is some earthly image or
object or possession or bank account that occupies way too
much of our thought and concern, either to secure it in the first
place which God calls covetousness or lusting. Lusting after something
is an act of idolatry. The second commandment also forbids
the worship of God by images, pictures or statues. And sometimes
people will justify these by saying that they do not worship
them. But if a picture is allegedly
of the Lord Jesus Christ, every thought of Christ ought to be
a thought that leads toward worship. Otherwise, we are desensitizing
ourself to him, aren’t we? Just like playing Christian music
all day long, all day long, all day long. You mean to tell me
you’re worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ all day long? Or If it’s a lifelong dream or
passion, this idol that has long ago become an obsession, by which thoughts of God and
his kingdom are simply pushed aside, those are idols. And if
we’re being enticed or tempted to love anything more than God
himself, we can be sure that there is demonic activity involved. Several weeks ago, we looked
at that passage in Ephesians 6, didn’t we? The Christian spiritual
armor. We did so in acknowledgement
of the fact that we are in a constant spiritual battle. We have to
be ever vigilant over every aspect of our lives, theologically,
relationally, physically, Spiritually, because sin is always lurking
around every corner, from adultery to dabbling in errant teaching
to the abuse of some Christian liberty, these temptations are
always out there. So to think that we’re not tempted
by idols or idolatry is really foolish thinking. We’ll prepare to go before the
Lord’s table and I’ll return to the scriptures momentarily.
But would you humble yourself before our God?