Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
(1 Corinthians 10:14-22, NASB)
It’s so easy to get caught up with the things of this world … too easy. We’re inundated with images of wealth, beauty, sex. The biggest, fastest car. The grandest house. The designer clothes. The gorgeous celebrities. It’s all so enticing.
And it’s easy to make things and people our idols. We focus on them instead of God. We “sacrifice” to them instead of to the One who created us and then made a way for salvation.
It’s true. We may not literally sacrifice on an altar, but we do sacrifice every day. We sacrifice our time, our money, our God-given skills and talents.
Instead of spending time in prayer, we watch television. Instead of focusing on God’s word, we focus on the latest gossip or bestselling novel. Instead of giving to our church, we take the vacation of a lifetime.
I’m not saying these things are bad in themselves. I watch television. I read novels. I love to travel. But I try very hard to make these things significantly lower on the priority scale than my time with God.
We can’t sacrifice to the world and equally sacrifice to God. One or the other will come out on top.
The question is: Which is more important? Where are we investing the majority of our time, treasures, and talents?
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