The Only God That's Real
by
Rev. Paul J. Bern
This
week's commentary will be taken primarily from the book of Acts in
the New Testament, which is right after the gospel of John for all
you new believers. Like nearly everyone else, I too am appalled by
the fighting in the Middle East and Africa over religion. I am
equally put off by the sniping and infighting between religious
denominations over man-made dogma and traditions steeped in pomp and
circumstance. I will use the Scriptures to prove that the one true
God is above and beyond churches and organized religion, in keeping
with the theme of this
website. The first thing that I want to point out is that there
are many false gods in the modern world. The most egregious example
that comes to mind is the worship of money and all the evils that
come with it. In the apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy, Paul
wrote that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”.
That means money in and of itself is not always evil, but greed and
the insatiable lust for money most definitely are. Jesus said in the
four Gospels, “No one can serve two masters. He/she will either
love one and reject the other, or cling to the latter while despising
the former. You cannot serve both God and materialism.” (Luke
16: 13, NIV)
Let's
ask ourselves these questions – do we sometimes find ourselves in
automotive dealerships every time a new model comes out? Do we shop
for new clothes, electronics, mobile or “smart” phones, the
latest computers, and new decor for our homes whether we need them or
not, just because they're “on sale”? Do we sometimes find
ourselves shopping for a new house whether we need one or not? Are
any of us in debt up to their eyeballs (not counting student loans)
because we owe too much on our credit cards? If anyone answered “yes”
to any of these questions, and particularly if you prioritize these
things at the expense of your Spiritual lives, you may be worshiping
a false god. It is Jesus Christ and he alone that must be at the top
of our priorities. Anything else takes a back seat to Jesus in the
order of our lives. Most of the things I just mentioned (excluding
greed) are not evil in and of themselves. But false and futile
worship of anything other than God, while bypassing or not including
Jesus Christ as our Savior, amounts to idol worship. A similar line
of questioning was presented to the apostle Paul nearly 2,000 years
ago, and it is well documented in the book of Acts in the New
Testament. I will begin with a quote from chapter 17, beginning at
verse 16.
“While
Paul was in Athens....... he was greatly distressed to see that the
city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews
and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day
with those who happened to be there. A group of..... philosophers
began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, 'What is this babbler
trying to say?' Others remarked, 'He seems to be advocating foreign
Gods'. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about
Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a
meeting of the Areopagus (which
was basically a temple for idol worship and a town meeting place),
where they said to him, 'May we know what this new teaching is that
you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears,
and we want to know what they mean'....... Then Paul stood up at the
meeting of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens! I see that in
every way you are religious. For as I walked around and looked
carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this
inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something
unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He
needed anything, because He himself gives life and breath and
everything else. From one man He made every nation of men, that they
should inhabit the whole earth....... God did this so that men would
seek Him and perhaps to reach out for Him and find Him, though He is
not far from each of us.... as some of your own poets have said, “we
are his offspring”. Therefore since we are God's offspring, we
should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or
stone – an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God
overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere
to repent....when they heard about [Jesus] resurrection from the
dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “we want to hear from
you again on this subject”...Paul devoted himself exclusively to
preaching, testifying to the [Jews and Greeks] that Jesus was the
[Messiah]. But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he
shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, 'Your blood be on
your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will
go to the Gentiles'.” (Acts 17, verses 16-32; 18: 5-6; NIV)
This passage is just one of numerous examples of Paul's
teaching about the one true God. I especially appreciate that Paul
made two distinct points about God. The first is that God is above
and beyond all nationalities, races and religions because he preached
the same message equally to Jews, Greeks and Gentiles (a group of
people that included everybody else). This was considered to be a
radical teaching at the time because all these groups believed that
their version of God was the correct one to the exclusion of
everything and everybody else. This very point continues being
emphasized today by certain church denominations who I will decline
to name. Nobody has the exclusive path to God. No one has the right
to claim that they are any closer to God than anyone else. It's just
not true and it never was.
The
second point that catches the human eye and captures my imagination
is what Paul said about where God lives. “The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and
earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not
served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He himself
gives life and breath and everything else.” What
an awesome statement! Think about how many religions there are in the
world. There are over 400 Protestant denominations alone. All are
called churches or houses of worship regardless of which religion
they represent. And yet God doesn't live in any of them. Instead, for
the true believer God lives in the minds and hearts of all individual
believers. Never mind all the spiritual sophistry that's being
“taught” in some modern churches, because it's largely based on
money. God doesn't care who you are, where you live, what you have
done (or not), what country you are from or what church you are
connected with (or not). He doesn't care where you have been, and He
doesn't care about what is in your past. Unlike many men and women
who attend church regularly, God doesn't care what you look like, or
how much money you give to your church or to charities, or what your
social or economic status is. God couldn't care less what church you
go to, or even if you go at all. The one true God doesn't even live
in church, although a lot of phony religious leaders and related
clergy will no doubt insist that He does. Instead, God wants to live
and breathe in our hearts and minds. He wants you to become a church
in and of yourself, a church that walks and talks. Not only does God
want to live inside you, He wants us all to pay that forward by
unconditionally sharing our faith with others. That means that He
wants us all to have a sound conscience and to learn how to use it
most effectively. Also, to quote the apostle Paul, God wants us to
“continue
to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling before the
Lord” (Philippians
2: 12, NIV).
In closing, let me add that there is absolutely nothing
wrong with going to church no matter what religion you identify with.
If you currently attend, I'm certain that God wants you to continue
to go so long as you keep hearing messages from the pulpit that are
encouraging, uplifting and positive, and most importantly based on
Scripture. I don't want this message to be a reason for those who are
attending church to stop going. God forbid! On the other hand, please
keep in mind that the church is just a building and nothing more. I
acknowledge that churches are built as meeting places for like-minded
believers and that they should remain so. But now that you have read
today's message you know a better way to keep everything in
perspective, whether in church or out. You can look at organized
religion with skepticism as I do, but do not let that compromise your
most deeply held beliefs. The one true God is greater that all the
religions in the world combined. He is truly above and beyond it all.
Let me bring up one more thing before I go, and I
really wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't point this out. If we are
going to have God living inside of each of us then we should be
living and acting as if He did. Watch what you say and how you say
it. Clean up your life and the language that you use. Be mindful of
anything that you are doing to excess because this is the root of all
addictive behavior. Live your life as if God is watching what you do
and listening to everything you say because He really is. Until next
time, then, be a church that walks and talks so you can be a good
example for others to follow, especially those who look up to you.
And the almost incomprehensible peace that is the very embodiment of
Jesus Christ – the Savior of the world – will remain with you
all. Amen.
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