What is the Fear of the Lord? Part 6 - Who or What do you Worship?

We are busy discussing 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

These deeds sound too terrible. How can any Christian be like this? I would just like to remind you that any unintentional sin or struggle with sin is dealt with on the cross and falls under grace. The list above refers to intentional, continuous behaviour.

Paul had many wonderful revelations from the Lord. It was, therefore, easy for him to think he was somebody special, so to keep him humble we read in 2 Corinthians 6:7: Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. There are many ideas about what this thorn in the flesh could have been, but I want to ask you this question: What is the job of the demons in relation to Christians? They are sent to discourage us, to persecute us, to make us feel inferior and unworthy, to tempt us to sin, etc, all of these in order to stop us from being effective in God’s Kingdom. If you are about to think you are someone special because the Lord uses you in a special way, and you are for instance tempted to sin and maybe even sinned, or you struggle with a pet sin, would that maybe make you realise that you are not so special in the end and are very dependent on the Lord’s grace? Temptation, hardship, persecution, and the like help us to stay humble and realise how much we need the Lord.

Paul then asked the Lord to remove this torment from him and the Lord answered him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

There are, however, behaviours that are self-centred and ungodly and which we choose to do. These are the ones 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 refers to.

We have discussed sexual immorality in a previous post. The next behaviour Paul mentioned is idolatry. What is idolatry? It is the worship of other gods. Immediately we think of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, etc. How about idolising sport, sports stars, giants in the business world, film stars, entertainment such as soap operas and movies, the cell phone and social media, and even your pastor? If these things take up more time, attention, finances, and worship from you than the Lord and His Kingdom, you are an idolater.

How can I worship these things, you may ask, I don’t bow before them and sing songs to them? True worship is much more than singing songs. It is devoting time, resources, and energy to that which you worship. True worship says “you are everything to me and I’ll show you my devotion by sacrificing whatever I have to you”. Therefore, the true determination of whom or what you actually worship is to see what fill your thoughts and actions most of the time. What or who receive your devotion?

Jesus said in Matthew 6:21: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We can also turn this around – where your heart is, there your treasure will be. In my mother tongue, Afrikaans, we have the same word for treasure than we have for darling. Shall we quickly rephrase Matthew 6:21 in the light of this: Where your darling is, there will your heart be also, or where your heart is there your darling will also be. What or who is your darling? What or who is mostly on your heart? What or who fill your thoughts? With what or who do you spend the most time?

Why don’t you take stock of your life? Jesus said in Matthew 10:37-39: Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. It is the more important stuff in our lives He mentioned here, let alone the supposedly lesser important idols, such as listed above. Read this passage a few times and ask yourself what it is that take up more time in your thoughts and actions than the Lord and His Kingdom. Does your life revolve around self-fulfilment or around fulfilling the Lord’s call on your life? If you lose the self-fulfilment (your life) for His sake, Jesus said, you’ll find fulfilment (life) in Him.

Are you an idolater? The Lord said through Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:10 that idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of God. Why don’t you make a decision to switch your time and devotion to Jesus? To be continued.

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