Serving No Foreign God (Part 2)
- Vuyani Tshiwula
- Mar 4, 2022
- 3 min read
Reference Scriptures:
Exodus 20:1-6; Romans 2: 1-2; Matthew 16:24
In our first part, we introduced the concept of trusting God and how as human beings, we are susceptible to giving our attention to subtle idols such as money, fame, success, and prestige to mention a few. We also looked at how one can maintain a good relationship with God and in this part, emphasis will be placed on how one can establish measures to ensure that we are able to identify and cast down any form of idol that competes with God for allegiance in our hearts.
Putting countermeasures in place: Romans 1:1-2
Paul presented the submission of our bodies as “Living sacrifices” to God as our response to God’s mercy. In simple words, our bodies should be offered to please God. One would be forgiven for concluding that Paul is contradicting himself by employing the phrase, “Living sacrifices". How therefore can our bodies be sacrificed to God and continue to live at the same time? Two things that are clear in Paul’s statement and they are:
Living for God: Paul charged his audience to live in such a way that God is pleased with their lifestyle. Their lifestyle should be like a sweet aroma before God. Their bodies should be used as instruments to bring glory to God. Just like it was with Jesus (Matthew 3:17), God should not be ashamed to acknowledge it publicly that they were his servants whom he was well pleased with. This was going to be made possible by them making sure that their bodies are not made instruments to oppose the will of God.
Dying to self: Getting rid of all selfishness was going to be critical in their quest to please God. Serving God with their bodies demanded that they placed more focus on God than gratifying the needs of the flesh. Most of the social ills we witness in our societies today are a direct result of placing selfish needs above those of others and the people we are mandated to serve. For instance, it is rare to finish reading the current affairs without reading about government officials found stealing from the public purse. This is not because politicians are ignorant of the need for those funds to reach the public so as to change their lives for the better, but selfishness makes them numb to the pain of the neediest. Paul’s exhortation in this regard will go a long way in eliminating the desire to meet selfish needs over selfless service to others. Dying to self will result in God receiving glory through our conduct, this is consistent with the teachings recorded in the message on the mount (Matthew 5:13-17).
Offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God demands that we live holy. According to the teaching of the Old Testament, anything offered to God as a sacrifice must be without defect (Numbers 6:14; Leviticus 4:23). God would not accept an offering that is made of an animal that had defects. In fact, even Paul goes on to say, this sacrifice that is made up of our bodies should be “holy and pleasing to God”. This should be viewed as an indictment to those who abuse God’s grace as covering for continuous living in sin. In the context of avoiding serving other gods and making idols for ourselves, Paul’s writing exhorts believers to live for the Lord and lead a holy lifestyle that is acceptable and pleasing to God. Paul further warns his audience to avoid copying the world’s ways of doing things, instead, they should adopt kingdom methods (verse 2).
Many would agree with me that this is one of the most ignored instructions of the Bible. As soon as God opens doors for his children, the first thing they do is to employ the world’s way of celebrating success. Instead of giving God glory for making a way for us, we want people to celebrate us. I believe bragging that is so prominent in our societies, including churches, comes from doing things the world’s way. If we are to avoid making our success some kind of idol, we must allow ourselves to be transformed into the kind of people who delight in pleasing God.
In the last part, we will briefly explore the price of following Jesus and self-denial as a way in which we can die to the pleasures of the flesh and the associated idols.
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