Idolatry is more than bowing down to an idol, or glancing at a picture to pretend it is a god. Idolatry is a state of mind that places anything or anyone above God. It is also choosing to see something good when there is no good, those proverbial rose colored glasses have been the down fall of many relationships and prevents spiritual growth.
Deuteronomy 6:15 "for the LORD your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth."
There are those who would say they choose to see the good in people, rather than the bad. Are they so weak that they cannot love a person unless they can think of them as all good? The true test of love, is deeply caring for someone while knowing the bad as well as the good. We all have warts, we will until the day we die, if we cannot call things by their right names and still love anyway, then we must have an elevated view of ourselves, even a godlike view, after all everyone loves themselves, we are born that way.
Christ loved us while we were yet sinners, can we not love others with their imperfections and personality maladies?
We must be honest in all matters, while choosing to love God's way, speaking truth always, ready to share solutions to faults. We do no one a service, we do not love God's way, when we refuse to see the sin in our brothers and sisters. We do not love if we refuse to admit the sin in ourselves to grow in holiness. We must be able to see the whole person, not just what we want to believe about them.
The Christian life is not about showing the world how good we think we are, rather it is a walk of lessons, continual dross burning until the day we die. Pretending is not acceptable to God, only truth is.
3 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy."
Romans 15:14 "And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another."
Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
Psalm 141:5 "Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it, For still my prayer is against their wicked deeds."
Luke 17:3 ""Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him."
1 Thessalonians 5:14 "We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone."
2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;"
1 Corinthians 4:14 "I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children."
Matthew 15:11 ""It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."
Our outer bodies reveal who we are on the inside.
When a woman wears a tiny hanky bikini on the beach in front of strangers, we know that woman has lust and exhibitionism in her heart. A woman of God who loves Him with all her heart could not display herself in this way. Here heart of immorality is demonstrated by her outer actions.
A man who tells little lies to protect himself or cause others to elevate him, is a man with a heart of deception while being deeply prideful.
A child who takes a cookie without asking, after being given a command to wait until later when Mother is ready for him to have one, has theft, deceit and wanton rebellion in his heart.
A woman who allows a family member to act wickedly without challenge has pride in her heart. She desires to be loved by family members more than she loves God, the family members are idols to her.
When a man purchases things for himself while chastising family members when they do the same, has arrogance and selfishness in his heart.
Those who defend preachers who speak falsehoods about God and His word, are seeking their ears to be tickled, love their pretense more than they love God or their fellow believers.
The man or woman who assume things about others without strong evidence, have a heart of deceit and gossip. They desire to see others harmed, these same folks will protect the evil man while maligning the holy person.
Yes, we can see the heart of a person by the way the conduct their lives. Of course not perfectly, our flesh sometimes gets in the way, however, often we choose not to see the obvious because it means conflict and rejection to us. Never mind that the purveyor of evil goes unchallenged without an opportunity to turn from his evil and be cleansed.
If we love God more than anyone or anything else, even our very lives, then we are going to be more concerned about helping mankind see their sin sickness, while sharing the gospel for the cure.
Do we understand that this life is NOT about us, but about glorifying Christ?
It has been my experience that most gatherings of Christians today major on the minors and minor on the majors.
They preach deeds and accomplishments rather than holiness and spiritual inner growth. When we neglect the inner growth in favor of outer actions, we have a superficial Christianity based on works that will not last.
Someone who has grown in inner holiness will be acting as they should. Their evil nature will be continually cleansed, while their sin falls off with each new growth spurt. The pretender does not grow in holiness they wither and die on the inside, the outside regression reveals what was in their heart all along and their continued reliance on self rather than Christ.
When God changes us from the inside because of our desire to be godly, then it is real and permanent. When we try to make ourselves appear holy by our deeds, then we are neglecting the inner man, and there is no real change, our heart remains arrogant while our outward appearance is shallow, those with discernment can see the difference between a shallow believer and a holy one.
Both the superficial believer and the holy believer will have almost the same appearance on the outside, the superficial believer will not be able to sustain the pretense and at some point will begin to regress.
However, the holy believer who has been steadily seeking God to be changed by Him, will have permanent and real change in their soul that will withstand all trials. These are those who endure to the end.
When the pretender encounters trials they wain and wobble and topple, regressing often to the point of no return. The true believer who has been changed by Christ because their desire is more than outer appearance, they have an intense hope to be made holier by Christ, they do not wain, wobble or topple, they remain steady to the end of their life, because it is Christ Who sustains them.
Hebrews 1:3 "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"
The pretender has only himself, a fallen human being, losing strength with each passing year, but the true believer has the strength of Christ Who will never let us down.
If you have ever seen, as I have, believers who seemed to be on fire for God in their early years, while appearing to give up much of what they stood for with the passing of time, in favor of being accepted by the culture, then you have witnessed a pretender who walked in their own strength and lost momentum because of the trials of life. These people are those mentioned in 2 Timothy 3, having a form of religion, but denying Christ in their walk.
Matthew 13:3-15 "3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.
5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.
6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
8 And others fell on the good soil and *yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted.
12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
15 For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them."
Have you wondered why so many believers do not seem to understand basic and elementary principles of God's Word? The reason is that you have been encountering pretenders who cannot understand. Many of them have been in the church for years, rather than growing in holiness and wisdom, they have become more dull and less spiritual. They have hardened their hearts to what they did hear while never questioning that which should have been challenged in the teachings of the organized church. They got their ears tickled while walking backward and loving it.
1 Corinthians 2:14 "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."
Those who are pretenders are often the persecutors of the true believers. They have a hatred and disdain for truth, their demonstration of this is in the contempt with which they treat those who would expose error and rebellion.
James 1:2-8 "2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways"
1 Corinthians 8:6 "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."
Rather than working to elevate ourselves in the eyes of others to appear good, it is best to ask God if we are a pretender, are we seeking God for the answers to glorify Him, or are we seeking to be elevated in the eyes of man to be ourselves glorified in this life? This is the most important question a Christian can ask in this age of apostasy.
Which are you, a pretender who focuses on the outer appearances or a true believer seeking to be cleansed by Christ?
