Deuteronomy 6:1-15

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.”

Karl Barth, that great theologian of the 20^th century once wrote that the chief sin of humanity is the sin of idolatry. He further defined idolatry as our erroneous belief that we in some way are fit to make judgments in God’s stead. And idolatry is a very insidious sin. Not because it is less wrong than others. But because if we are not careful, items which are supposed to point us to God and draw us closer with the almighty, can in fact replace God as the object of our worship. I believe that is true today and it was true at the time of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve.

Look around you today. What person place or thing can you not live without? Think about it, if you had to give up everything you own, everything you have and take for granted, what is the one thing you couldn’t part with? Is it money? Perhaps that new house or car? How about you family, friends, health, or happiness? Maybe it is prestige, power, or good looks? What could you not do without? Now do the same thing in your life of faith. Consider the church and its building. Would there be a church without the building? Is it more important to have a beautiful place to worship or just simply to worship God? Once you’ve narrowed your list down to one or two items, I want you to build a temple with the item in the center and bow down to it, for you have identified your god.

We have so many luxuries, tools, and conveniences that we sometimes forget that God doesn’t require or care for those items as objects of worship. We forget the command to Israel and all those who believe in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The command to; “Hear, O Israel; The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.”

Anything, any person, any place, that we let get in the way of our worship of God is an idol. And like the golden calf in the desert, serves no purpose but to convict us of our sin.

But there is hope. The Apostle Paul wrote that nothing in heaven or on earth can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And Jesus told us that we must be willing to lose everything if we hope to gain everything in eternity. In other words, we can abandon the idols of this life for worship of the one true God. May God strengthen us for this task each day.