Daily Devotional

March 23rd 2024

SATURDAY

Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.—I John 5:21 (MSG)

What is John saying? “Do not go off to something else. Do not give your time, energy, money or attention to your interests, such that those things become what you live for, what enthuses you. Is it Jesus, or is it something else?”
Throughout the ancient world, there are many temples dedicated to idols—clever facsimiles. Though they have fallen into ruin, gods such as Apollo, Venus, Bacchus, or Zeus were once worshiped there. When we consider the spiritual state of humanity, we see that, though these temples have been abandoned, the worship of these facsimiles has not ceased.
There is the worship of Narcissus, the god who fell in love with himself. This is, perhaps, the supreme god of humanity: the worship of self; the exaltation of humans. The idea that we constantly hear set forth is that humans are so tremendous, so smart, so brilliant, so clever; they can do so many things. Yet we deny the continual evidence of our senses that the world is crumbling to pieces around us. Isn’t it amazing how we worship humanity? The manifestations of it find expression in the worship of race or country.
We have the worship of Bacchus, the god of pleasure; the worship of Venus, the goddess of love; Apollo, the god of physical beauty; Minerva, the goddess of science.
John writes that these things—facsimiles—will destroy us, they will rob us of what God has for us. “Little children, watch that you do not drift off into the worship that the world around you is constantly engaged in. Do not let these things become important in your life, for God has set you free that you might live as God intended people to live.” No wonder His word comes, “Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.”
Many think idols are relics of the past. But are our facsimiles in the present, what is it that makes us enthusiastic? What is it that we regard as supremely important? To what do we give our money? This is the challenge that John gives to us.

Prayer: Lord, as we go today, help us to identify the many facsimiles of this age that appear to be so attractive, but really have nothing productive to offer us. We thank You for the truth that is in Christ and that in Him we have all that we could ever need or want. In the name of our Christ, we pray. AMEN!

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