There’s a standard story people tell about evangelizing Hindus that goes something like this:
“We went to these people who worship dozens of gods or more, and we talked to them about Jesus Christ. They loved what we had to tell them, and they eagerly accepted Him. The problem is that, when all was said and done, they simply added Jesus to their list of gods rather than giving the rest of them up for the one true God.”
When we hear this, we chuckle at the theological naivete of such primitive people. But what if I told you about another faraway place where people worship all sorts of different things like money and fame and power and pleasure? Then, when presented with Christ, they eagerly accept Him but think they can just add Him to all the rest of their idols instead of replacing all of them with Him.
It’s not as funny when the polytheistic idolatry is a story about your own country and your own way of treating Jesus, is it?
Beware the laughter of contempt. It usually serves to keep us from seeing that same flaw in ourselves.
2 comments:
What's most sad is what we idolize instead of God is so completely worthless.
At least Esau got a bowl of soup...
The tendency is to not think of all this other stuff as idolatry because in correct proportions or at the correct level these other things (relationships, pleasure, accomplishment, material wealth) are okay; they can be good things. The problem is that the human heart is so easily drawn toward relying too heavily on these other things instead of keeping it's devotion properly on God. It's a matter of degree I think. And precisely because of this, we can't see that we have gone too far in the wrong direction. We can always appeal to the idea that: well wealth is okay, sex is a healthy thing, security is wise...We talk ourselves out of our guilt. We cannot quite so easily see the bad side of these things for the good side that they can simultaneously have.
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