Aiming to worship creator not creation

06Jan09

Martin Luther explained that if we keep the first two of the ten commandments

“You shall have no other gods before  me. 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.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” – Exodus 20:3-6

then adherence to the others will naturally follow:

 He demands that all our works proceed from a heart which fears and regards God alone, and from such fear avoids everything that is contrary to His will, lest it should move Him to wrath; and, on the other hand, also trusts in Him alone, and from love to Him does all He wishes, because he speaks to us as friendly as a father, and offers us all grace and every good.

Just this is also the meaning and true interpretation of the first and chief commandment, from which all the others must flow and proceed, so that this word: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me, in its simplest meaning states nothing else than this demand: Thou shalt fear, love, and trust in Me as thine only true God. For where there is a heart thus disposed towards God, the same has fulfilled this and all the other commandments. On the other hand, whoever fears and loves anything else in heaven and upon earth will keep neither this nor any. Thus the entire scriptures have everywhere preached and inculcated this commandment, aiming always at these two things: fear of God and trust in Him. And especially the prophet David throughout the Psalms, as when he says [Ps. 147,11]: The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy. As if the entire commandment were explained by one verse, as much as to say: The Lord taketh pleasure in those who have no other gods.

 

If we genuinely put God first in our life, then we will live whole-heartedly for him, and he will be able to work most actively through and in us. If God is not our number one object of love and worship then something else will be. Everyone -regardless of religion, or lack of one – worships something, or someone. As a society we worship wealth, sex, status. We put vast amounts of our time, resources and effort into acquiring these things. I was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll on sexual sin recently, and he says whenever we lust after someone we are worshipping them and their body instead of God. He puts it like this: We either worship creation or creator. 

So it’s not enough to believe in God, it’s not even enough to believe Jesus is our Lord and saviour… we are commanded to make him the centre of our lives, exalt him above every other thing, and sacrifice things that keep us from focusing wholly on him. When we do that, our selfish desires fade and sin loses its grip on us because we are living the way we were made to live. We are set free. The ironic thing is that we cling to our sin and selfish desires but if we put God first we will receive the best he has for us. The root of this is doubt in God, a doubt that he will keep his promises and really bless us and that he has a plan for our good if we do things his way. We want to do things our way because we have more trust in ourselves.

So when you say you trust in God, do you really mean it?

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Tags: creation, creator, Exodus, freedom, God, idols, Jesus, Life, lust, Mark Driscoll, Martin Luther, sex, sin, ten commandments, trust, worship