-- Keep Yourselves from Idols
Part I The Nature and Corruption of Worship
Keep Yourselves from Idols "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." - 1 John 5:21
The purpose and scope of the apostle in this epistle is to provide clear marks and evidences by which men may know whether they are the children of God. Having done this from the beginning of the letter to its close, he answers, near the end of this chapter (verse 18), a hidden objection that might arise: "He that is a child of God may fall away from God, commit a sin unto death, and thus lose his assurance.
Therefore, there is no lasting comfort in knowing one's adoption— only for the present time."
To this the apostle responds negatively in verses 18 through 20. His answer in substance is this: the one who is born of God is so preserved by grace that Satan cannot draw him into the sin that leads to death. And in the final verse of the chapter, John sets forth a rule by which believers may keep themselves from such danger: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." That is, hold fast to the true and spiritual worship of God, and therefore avoid everything that might turn your hearts away from Him—especially beware of idols.
What an Idol Is In this exhortation I observe two things: first, the command itself,
"Keep yourselves from idols," and second, the reason implied in the word "children." That the true sense of the commandment may appear more plainly, I will pause for a moment to explain, first, what is meant by idols; and second, how we are to keep ourselves from them.
The word idol generally and properly means the same as image—that is, a likeness or resemblance of some thing, whether good or evil. For what imago is in Latin, eidolon is in Greek. Tertullian tells us that idol signifies a "form" or "little form," and the Latin translators did not always distinguish between image and idol.
Yet, in a narrower and more useful sense, the word idols is used for any image erected to represent either a false god or the true God.
That idols are images of false gods all men grant; but that they may also be images of the true God is the question. This, however, can be clearly shown.
The golden calf made by the Israelites was an idol, as Stephen calls it in Acts 7:41, and it was expressly an image of Jehovah. For after the calf was made, Aaron proclaimed a solemn feast and said,
"Tomorrow shall be a holy day unto Jehovah" (Exodus 32:5). What the Israelites did in this case was no doubt learned from what they had often seen in Egypt; for the Egyptians represented and worshiped God in the shapes of wild and tame beasts, as Strabo the geographer plainly records. "The images used in religion," he says,
"were nothing else but idols; and many of them indeed were images of the true God." Paul likewise bears witness to this when he says,
"They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to beasts" (Romans
1:23).
Furthermore, idols sometimes signify false gods themselves: "The gods of the people are idols" (1 Chronicles 16:26). Thus Rachel is said to have stolen the idols of her father (Genesis 31:19, 30). And Paul makes a clear opposition between an idol and the true God (1
Corinthians 8:4). Yet false gods are not idols in the strict sense, but only by a figure of speech. For just as images made for religious use draw the heart away from the true God, so do false gods; and therefore they too are rightly called idols.
Thus, an idol is anything set up to be worshiped—either in the place of God, as with profane images, or as God Himself, as with false gods.
The Nature of an Idol The general property of all idols is that they are nothing in the world, as Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 8:4. They are called nothing because they contain nothing of the divine nature or power—neither in their being nor in their efficacy. Paul proves this by reasoning: "An idol is nothing in the world, for to us there is but one God" (verses 4 and 6).
Moreover, idols are nothing even in regard to representation.
Sometimes an idol is nothing at all—mere material without meaning.
At other times, it pretends to represent God but instead depicts what is not God; or it represents the true God in a false and distorted manner—and in that sense also, it represents nothing.
Three Kinds of Idols
The kinds and forms of idolatry must likewise be considered— especially those that have arisen since the days of the apostles. For there is no question that the apostle foresaw how the pure religion of the gospel would be corrupted by idolatry, which is what moved him to say, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
To understand the various kinds of idols, we must first ask: in how many ways may a person create an idol for himself? Scripture and experience teach us there are three.
1. God Misconceived The first kind of idol is a misconceived God or Christ.
A man makes such an idol when he conceives of God differently than God has revealed Himself in His Word. We are to think of God only as He has made Himself known; if we imagine Him otherwise, we do not conceive of God at all but only a fiction—an idol of our own mind.
Augustine, commenting on Joshua's words, "Put away the strange gods from among you," writes: "The holy prophet Joshua saw in their hearts thoughts of God unworthy of Him, and he commanded them to cast those thoughts away. For whoever imagines God to be what He is not, carries within his heart a strange and false god."
Two clear examples illustrate this kind.
First, when men conceive of the true God apart from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—or apart from Christ our Redeemer, who is both God and man. To abstract the divine nature from the persons of the Trinity is to turn God into an idol. The Ephesians before their conversion worshiped the Maker of heaven and earth, and so did the Galatians; yet Paul says of the former that they were "without God"
(Ephesians 2:12), and of the latter that they "served them which by nature are not gods" (Galatians 4:8). Why? Because they worshiped
God apart from Christ, for, as John writes, "He that denies the Son
has not the Father" (1 John 2:23). The unity of the divine essence is to be adored only within the Trinity of Persons.
Here, then, is the idol-god of many nations: of the Turks, of the Jews, and even of many who bear the name of Christians, who—through ignorance—worship nothing more than an absolute God, that is, God conceived without reference to the Father, the Son, or the Holy
Spirit. Indeed, multitudes everywhere set up in their hearts a god of all mercy and no justice, content with the dim light of nature and fashioning a deity according to their own desires and affections. In doing so, they erect idols within their own souls and commit a most secret and spiritual idolatry that the world cannot perceive.
Second, Christ Jesus Himself is often falsely conceived—imagined far otherwise than He has revealed Himself in His Word. Yet He, in one person, is perfect God and perfect man, our only Redeemer, allsufficient in Himself, and therefore our complete King, Priest, and Prophet, without partner or fellow in the work of salvation. Whoever conceives of Him otherwise turns Him into an idol—a forged Christ of his own making.
This the so-called Catholic religion of the Council of Trent has done.
It presents Christ indeed, yet a poor, disguised, and deformed Christ.
It strips Him of His manhood and diminishes His offices.
He is robbed of His true humanity by the doctrine of His bodily presence in the sacrament. For if the bread is truly changed into Christ's body, then that body must be composed not only of the Virgin's substance but also of the substance of bread—indeed, it must be a monstrous body. Being complete in size and form, and yet supposed to be contained within the small compass of a wafer, it would be as if a solid body of many feet were enclosed within one only a few inches wide.
Moreover, if Christ's body is physically present in the bread and in the hand of the receiver, then forgiveness of sins must be sought