A New Devotion - It’s Not Just for Pagans Anymore

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. It's based on the passage below. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Romans 1:16-25 [Contemporary English Version]

I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live.” 

From heaven God shows how angry he is with all the wicked and evil things that sinful people do to crush the truth. They know everything that can be known about God, because God has shown it all to them. God's eternal power and character cannot be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has made. That's why those people don't have any excuse. They know about God, but they don't honor him or even thank him. Their thoughts are useless, and their stupid minds are in the dark. They claim to be wise, but they are fools. They don't worship the glorious and eternal God. Instead, they worship idols that are made to look like humans who cannot live forever, and like birds, animals, and reptiles.

So God let these people go their own way. They did what they wanted to do, and their filthy thoughts made them do shameful things with their bodies. They gave up the truth about God for a lie, and they worshiped God's creation instead of God, who will be praised forever. Amen.

It’s Not Just for Pagans Anymore

When I was a young man, I remember a series of ads that the Florida Orange Growers ran on television promoting the drinking of orange juice. I guess they wanted to expand its consumption beyond people eating their corn flakes or drinking their screwdrivers. And so they ran commercials with folks, both young and old, rich and poor, chugging orange juice at different times and in different places, because, when you get right down to it, orange juice is refreshing whether you’re working or playing or even eating a hot dog. In other words, it was an all-purpose drink. Now that was their pitch. And the reason, just listen to the tag line: “Orange juice from Florida, it’s not just for breakfast anymore.” Of course, I guess the consumer would determine whether that was true or not.

But you know, considering what we just read from Romans, I think the same line might apply to human sin and in particular, idolatry. You see, for the Apostle Paul, whether we like it or not, human beings tend to be idol-worshipers. In a real sense, that lies at the core of sin. In other words, we tend to worship the creature rather than the creator. And as a result, not only do we create a barrier in our relationship with God, how we relate to the natural order and to one another becomes distorted. Now, that’s what idolatry does, at least according to Paul. 

But before we all nod in agreement and then shake our heads in disgust, I think it’s important for us to remember that, when he wrote this, Paul wasn’t just talking about people who ran around worshiping bushes and trees and statues. You see, since idolatry involves worshiping the creature rather than the creator, whenever we assume that we have the right to do what only God can do, namely to condemn and to judge, and when we assume that whatever we want, God wants us to have, and whatever we value, God must value too, when this is how we live, we’re also worshiping the creature and not the creator, and I’m talking about the creature that looks back at us when we’re facing a mirror. In other words, we’re also idolaters. Therefore, I guess we can say that, when it comes to idolatry, well, it’s not just for pagans anymore. But praise the Lord, God still loves us and can still overcome power of idolatry, regardless of how good it might taste.