John Calvin famously said, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.”
I agree. I hope you do, as well, given it only takes a brief moment of honesty and clarity to understand your own depraved human nature (Jeremiah 17:9). I suppose that’s why the apostle John ended his beautiful treatise on the fundamentals of our faith the way he did. We are at war, even within ourselves (Romans 7:7-25), which John summarized as idolatry.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
– 1 John 5:21
In the context of 1 John, anything that supplants the true God of the Universe may be considered an idol. For example, since false doctrine from the kingdom of darkness (a la Isaiah 5:20) undermines God’s Word, it is an idol (having been assigned a higher position than God’s Word in a person’s heart).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
– John 1:1
John refers to the essence of God being the same as the Word itself, since it contains all the attributes of Him. When Christ humbled Himself to become a man, the Word became incarnate in Him. The Word came alive through Him. On this basis, anyone or any doctrine that seeks to usurp the Word’s righteous position in this world may be classified as idolatrous.
Because the fallen human heart hates God (John 3:19; Romans 3:18; 5:10), it, by definition, hates His Word, so it is naturally inclined towards idolatrous things. This is the essence of what the apostle John was communicating in 1 John 5:21. Since even we believers have an old sin nature in our bodies (Romans 6:6; 7:24), we must be on high alert so that we don’t fall in line with the world, which is fully committed to idolatry, being against God’s Word.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
– Ephesians 4:17-24
Now, let’s put all of this to task, shall we?
What does this mean for us believers who remain on Earth long after being saved by the grace of God?
Wisdom teaches us that all maladies and malcontent may be traced back to the likes of Calvin’s astute statement, “The human heart is a perpetual idol factory.”
Consider how often your own mind strays from the Truth, how often you struggle within yourself the way Paul described in Romans 7, and how often you must confess your sins to God when you lose the battle. For me, personally, it’s overwhelming, which ultimately fills my heart with gratitude towards the One who saved a wretch like me.
The simple fact is that we’re all idolaters, still. While the new creature in us thirsts for God and His Word, the old self remains antagonistic. It’s like owning a manufacturing plant that is purpose-built to make wicked things. That’s not a bad way to think about our own bodies, hence Paul’s lament.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
– Romans 7:24
This “body of death” is an idol factory that won’t stop producing until the day we die (or are raptured off of Earth). May we all recognize this Truth and be wise to the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:11) which are designed to tempt our human flesh to align with Satan. There’s great danger in rejecting this Truth about ourselves. We must “see it all as truth”, as I like to say.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
– Ephesians 5:6-17
Amen!
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins