The Apostle Paul begins the book of Romans with an emphatic statement: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth ..." (Romans 1:16). Ironically, however, he continues to declare the glory and joy of the good news of the gospel. He had to first explain the sad news that "all have sinned and lack the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven" (1:18). God certainly has every right to exercise his judicial wrath on the creation that he made. He created man to be knowledgeable and worshiper of the Divine Nature. But from the beginning of time, men have rejected God's knowledge and so refused to give him the true worship. Rejecting the truth of God, therefore, has brought many terrible consequences as a result:
(1) fault at all. The men are "without excuse" before God for having the unknown, since he clearly manifested by the things that he created (1:19-20). Anyone who has seen, heard or otherwise sensed and experienced God's creation has what you need to know that God exists. In court, no man can claim to be ignorant, and nobody is exempt from the penalty lightning of God's wrath.
(2) Reasoning null foolish hearts. In rejecting the source of true wisdom, the men accepted their own versions of truth invented as a substitute. In the name of science "the glory of the incorruptible God" has been "changed" the image of creation itself is not glorious, "in an image made like corruptible man and birds and animals and reptiles" (Romans 1:23). The theory of evolution, for example, attempts to completely remove God of creation by claiming that the creation, in essence, is created! The men say they are wise, but their decisions and their actions expressly declare that there is only futility and foolishness in their hearts (1:21-23).
(3) "God gave them." By far, the most frightening consequence when men reject God is that he concedes that these men continue living in a state of total disgrace that is the result of not having God in their lives. That is, their minds reprehensible, erased any memory of truth and goodness of God, they invent all manner of evil, who turn on them and cursed them in an endless cycle. When the creature is placed above the Creator, the only possible outcome is that the wishes "of the natural creature" become the controlling impulse of life.
In Romans 1:24-32, Paul describes a long list of evil and disgusted with which men become infected when they remove God from their consciences. Maybe we were surprised to note that this list was written over two thousand years since these things could have been found in the headlines of any newspaper today. Actually, these are conditions that have existed since the beginning of time - from the first sin in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve decided that they were themselves wiser than God, and ate the forbidden fruit (see Genesis 3). As early as the days of Noah, God could already see that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that was only evil continually design all of your heart" (Genesis 6:5).
How things came to be so bad? The men "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25).
Notice that when men choose to forget God, this does not mean that they cease to love. Paul says, simply, that people started to worship and serve "the creature rather than the Creator." The Bible makes it clear that the men, let God, always seeking something else to worship, be this thing themselves or another "god."
Joshua, to offer his famous ultimatum to the Jewish people in Shechem, she said, "if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose today whom I serve: whether the gods your fathers served that were beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. Me and my house we will serve the Lord "(Joshua 24:15). Centuries later, Jesus said to the same Jewish nation, "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You can not serve God and mammon "(Matthew 6:24). And the apostle Paul said to the disciples in Rome, "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, that even his servants ye are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness" (Romans 6: 16). In all these cases, there is always an object of worship (service). There is always a choice between serving God or serving any other, is itself, a false god, mammon or sin in general. Never have the option of doing nothing - because man is created, it, by its very nature, will look to those who love it.
We can not emphasize enough the importance of the meaning of all this - any deviation from the path of God, no matter how minimal it may seem, is a step toward idolatry! Our tendency is to think that idolatry is just the obvious use of external objects of worship such as statues, artifacts, etc.. But in fact, idolatry is the root behind all sin and rebellion which diverts man from the path of God! When we sin, we are simply saying to God that we have chosen to do things differently, and not the way he wants. In doing so, naturally remove God from the throne of our hearts and put something in place that belongs only to him. This is idolatry!
If we look over all the biblical story, we see indeed that God has always warned his people about the dangers of temptation to fall into idolatry. When God began to give commands to his people Israel, he said, "I am the LORD thy God ... Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow, nor will give them cult ... "(Exodus 20:2-5). Even with this explicit warning was idolatry that disturbed the nation of Israel from the very hour of their training - kneel before the golden calf at the same time that Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the law of God for them! (See Exodus 32). And idolatry is the root of the apostasy of both Israel and Judah, which led the two into captivity centuries later.
When an interpreter of the law asked Jesus what would be the greatest commandment, He replied with the words of Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all thy heart and with all your soul and with all thy understanding "(Matthew 22:37). This answer explains it exactly what we need to tackle the problem of idolatry. As we've seen, men end up falling into idolatry because they reject the knowledge of God. They do this even after he has clearly presented itself to mankind through the creation. When God is rejected in a person's life, remains an empty space - a vacuum - it needs to be filled, and men will fill the void with its new "god", whatever that is. To prevent this, then God must become the focus in our lives. It should be one to whom our hearts, souls and minds are focused, even when they are busy with tasks of day to day. When we are home, we must be thinking about God and serving him with our families (see Ephesians 5:22 - 6:4, Colossians 3:18-21). When we are at work, we should be working "with all my heart, as unto the Lord and not for men" and "doing with his hands what is good, so that has to consult the needy" (Colossians 3:22 - 4:1, Ephesians 4:28; see Ephesians 6:5-9). Whether at school, shopping, leisure or in church, everything should be done with our focus on the Lord.
In practical terms this means that God has to be the Lord (the authority!) Of our lives. We should not allow even the blessings of God become the central focus of our lives. Our families, our careers and even our religious lives should revolve around him as the central figure. Often, however, put these things above God, so we're already taking steps toward the path of idolatry.
We should not change the truth of God into a lie! Rather, he must be the supreme truth that is the center of our lives.
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