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Choose Your Illusion
July 20, 2001
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Exodus 20:4 (NIV)
When I was in seminary, I noticed that some of my classmates were afflicted with the common spiritual disease of idolatry. They worshiped theology instead of God.
Sad to say, I wasn't immune to this idolatry, either. There were a number of times when I sat in the school cafeteria and reduced a classmate to silent anger because I was determined to win an argument at the expense of everything else. As I look back on that time, I know that my zeal for "sound doctrine" cost me some valuable friendships.
I forgot what Jesus said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matt. 22:37). Simply put, we can't say we love God when we don't love other people. And we know we don't love others when we don't see them as persons created in the image of God.
Where is your heart today? Have you been neglecting what Jesus called "the weightier matters of the law"—love of God and neighbor? Are you overly concerned with defending a particular perspective on a "disputable matter"? Have you been majoring in the minors?
If so, take heart. God knows your struggle. We all have our idols, those things that can keep us from intimate communion with God. With repentance, the Holy Spirit can help us to see God again in a fresh new way.
— Matt Donnelly, for the ChristianityToday.com staff
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