Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind
Published by Pudjo Sudibjo in 2010 · 18 April 2010
Brothers and sisters who are loved by our Lord, Jesus Christ, in Exodus 20:3-5a, we read that after God took out and freed the Israelites from Egypt, on the Mount of Sinai, Our Lord God spoke to Moses and expressed His feelings as follows:
3 "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God!”
Brothers and Sisters, the essence of God’s Word above is, “You shall have no other gods before me and you shall not serve them!” or in other words, “No idol worship!” Brothers and sisters, the word idol or other god often is given meaning and explained in different ways.
At times, idols or other gods are explained as statues that are worshipped. In the Old Testament we see many examples of idol worship; you have a sculpture of a calf, you have sculpture of a god, you even have a statue of a king that becomes an idol that is worshipped.
Usually these statues are made of some kind of precious metal, or at least they are coated with a thin layer of precious metal, like gold or something like that. Besides these statues there are also other forms of idol worship. For instance in Indonesia there are large trees that are considered holy and are worshipped. They lay gifts of five different kinds of flowers at the base and burn incense in addition.
Besides trees there are also other forms of idol worship. There are weapons that are considered sacred and ritualized, or in the Javanese language are called “tosan aji”, for instance a kris, a spear and a sword. These weapons have to be given gifts, washed and worshipped and asked for protection. Without realizing these weapons have become the idol that they worship.
There is another way of idol worship that is practiced by primitive tribes in the Amazon jungles. Every person of that primitive tribe always brings with him a small cloth bag that hangs from his waist and inside of it is a small statue made of copper that he considers as a god and that is his good luck charm.
But, although that little bag with the good luck charm never leaves their waist and is taken along wherever they go, this charm that they worship, often times for days, weeks and even months are left at their waists and not touched at all. And as long as all problems and issues of life can still be solved well using their own ability the bag is never disturbed or touched.
Later on, when life forces you to face many problems and disasters that you cannot overcome, or when there is a special request you cannot obtain using your own abilities, only then that little bag is touched and finally opened.
And that little statue is taken out, cleaned by rubbing it until it shines, and then with much respect is laid at some high place. Subsequently, that person moves back a few steps, and worships accompanied by praying and chanting a mantra that he has memorized in his head. Only after that it is connected with appeal for all the needs, and requests and all the things that he wants.
After he is finished praying that little statue is taken down and put inside that cloth bag again, and then hung again on his waist. My brother, the fate of the charm that was worshipped just a while ago, will be hanging at the waist of that person for who knows how long.
Totally forgotten, not touched for maybe days, weeks or months, until there is again something special that happened, or some major disaster needs the help of that charm again. And to quickly solve and overcome a problem or a difficulty, that little statue is taken out again and rubbed clean to be worshipped.
My brothers, in these modern times maybe there are not many people who practice idol worship like that. The practice of idol worship like that is prohibited in religion, especially by Christians.
Isn’t God’s commandment in our reading spelled out clearly so that we remember, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image and You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God!” The command is firm and clear is it not?
My brothers and sisters, maybe there are some of you that are protesting in your heart, “Ah Pak Pudjo, that commandment certainly is not for me! As long as I live, I have never worshipped idols.”
Maybe we as Christians have never really practiced idol worship like what these primitive tribes did in the jungles of the Amazon. Many Christians even have an opinion that is in the other extreme. There are those who will burn all ornaments that resemble statues even though they are never worshipped and are not at fault. Bottom line, no statues in the house!
When I’m at home there is not one ornamental statue anywhere because they all have been burned, so is it true that we now are totally freed from any possibility of the practice of idol worship?
May it not be that we are freed from the practice of statue idol worship, but then we instead fall into idolatry in other forms, which may be far more dangerous because it is not readily seen.
There is a kind of idol worship that is covered neatly, not like an idol that is stored in a little cloth bag by those Amazons, but that is covered neatly behind the purity and the obedience of us who are religious.
If the primitive Amazons treat their god as a thing that you own that you can take out or put in at will at any time according to their need, are we not also tempted to do the same with our God?
We treat God as something that we own that can be treated and controlled however we want, precisely like what those primitive people did towards their gods in the jungles of the Amazon.
Brothers and sisters, to be honest, we will quickly realize and confess that not only once in a while, but often we treat our Loving God, the God that takes care of us and the ever loving God who loves us very much, the same way as those primitive people treated their gods.
When we have experienced so much success, do we not afterwards often become drunk over that victory? And then we think that all that success is the result of our own abilities?
And we forget that the Lord actually has provided all that through His grace. We just treated God like an idol that we keep in our pocket, so that the Lord our God does not interfere when we enjoy that result of that success we just achieved.
Especially when we're making this success the main purpose of this life, and making this the idol that we love and worship.
For example when we are successful in business and we are enjoying the sweetness of our our riches, this causes us to forget the Lord, and we come to love this wealth and begin to worship the money related to this wealth. And from that moment on for weeks or several months or even several years we ignore God without acknowledging Him in our quiet time and prayers.
Another example is when we fall in love. Wow, especially if it the first love that is burning bright. Usually the feelings and sweetness of that love controls us and then allows that person that we love to become the center of everything, even to the point of it being more important than the Lord.
Another example might be your hobby. Doesn’t your hobby of watching sports like a basketball game or a football game often become more important than going to church? Especially when it is the final game!
These examples show that often times we do not have time for the Lord when our hobby beckons, or when we are in love, or have success and are drunk with our personal victories, even though we say that we love HIM!
And only when we have a lot of problems that come to make our life difficult, when we have to face many obstacles that make us helpless, only then do we realize that we need God who is able to help us and to solve all our problems and concerns.
Only then do we begin to reach out to that pocket and begin to seek our God again. We even begin to cry out in our prayers, “O Lord, where are You? Why have You left me , Lord? I need you Lord! Please help me, help me, Lord!
So when we are between a rock and a hard place, usually Christians begin to seek the Lord. They are seeking the Lord, not because they realize their mistakes and want to repent, but the aree looking for the Lord their God so He again has the task to help them out.
Our Lord God is made into an idol and is relegated to be a servant. Whereas my brothers and sisters, the Lord loves us very much and He longs for us to really love Him and not do this halfway.
The Lord wants us to become more like Jesus everyday who totally depended on God the Father at all times. Similarly, God wants us to depend on Him totally as well.
That is the reason that God allows trials and difficulties to strike us, so that the Lord can be beside us and strengthen us so that our faith becomes stronger in the midst of our life that is full of disasters and darkness surrounding us.
Brothers and sisters loved by our Lord Jesus Christ, in this life, without realizing we often as followers of Christ still have our veiled idols that we continue to worship.
As in our examples, often when we accumulate riches; when we are able to achieve a good position, and we have become real successful, we are still not satisfied and we do not thank God who has blessed us with that.
Sometimes we love our hobbies and people more than we love God. We often times make our wealth, our position, our cleverness, our hobbies, and our love for this world become our main goal in this life and we pusue it as if that is the most important thing in our life.
Without realizing we have shifted our faithfulness to God and His throne, which should be the most prominent thing in our life, to riches and position and success. And so our life is secretly controlled by our idols.
Maybe we do not realize this, maybe is not on purpose, and maybe we do not even feel it. But when we shift God’s position, the place that God has in our life and we give that position to something else, actually we are already practicing idol worship.
Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the gospel of Matthew 22:37 our Lord Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Brothers and sisters, in order to love our God, our Lord Jesus stressed the word all and this means that the Lord Jesus wants our total commitment wherever we are and whenever it is! Only HIM!
My brothers and sisters, I know that you never worshipped idols like the people in the outskirts of Indonesia and like the primitive people in the Amazon jungles. Maybe we never have worshipped statues or trees, or weapons or all those things that are considered sacred. But brothers and sisters, without realizing maybe you are lost in idol worship that is hidden in our spiritual life.
This evening our Lord Jesus is calling each one of us, you and I alike, to return to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul and our mind, so that we are totally committed. Wherever, whenever, we should prioritize Him and love Him. Because only He is our God and there is no one like Him. What is our answer? Amen.