“…how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9b NLT).
The apostle Paul commended the Thessalonian believers for turning from idolatry to the worship of the true and living God. They did this by receiving the message of the Gospel with joy, so that they gladly placed their faith in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.
We think that we are too modern to struggle with idolatry; that it was a problem of primitive humanity. But idolatry is anyone or anything that we put in the place of God in our lives. As Martin Luther wrote, “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God, your functional savior.”
Our Creator made us for worship, so we will worship something. When we believe the Gospel, we are set free to worship the true God. However as my son, Jonathan, has recently preached, “Worship is war.” For many things vie for our attention and affection and tempt us to worship them. But as Tim Keller wrote, true worship involves “pulling our affections off our idols and putting them on God.” We often have to fight temptation and battle the flesh in order to get our focus off of worldly things and put them on the Lord.
Worship can be like war. So let us put on the whole armor of God and fight the good fight of faith today!
PRAYER: Father, we choose to worship You alone. For You are the only true and living God. Forgive us when we put anything or anyone ahead of You. Show us where any idols remain in our lives, that we may surrender them to You, placing all of our affection on You. In Jesus’ name, amen.