I recently preached through 1 John. There is a sentence tacked on the end of the letter that does not come with additional commentary from John, it is almost like a post script. John was writing about how to identify false teachers and fake believers and to test people and what they say before you believe them and then almost as if he had another clear moment of inspiration he wrote, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5: 21)
This is a curious addendum to the letter. It is not that this sentence is not spot on and a great warning to believers then and today, John has said and reinforced multiple times in this short letter, Jesus is divine and man. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the true God and eternal and in him we have eternal life. So John has built Jesus bona fides throughout the letter and then in contrast he says to avoid idols. Idols compete with Jesus in our lives.
We do know the history of Israel was a history of idolatry. The entire Old Testament is a witness to how Israel strayed after other gods and pursued everything but that faithful relationship and worship of the one true God. So John is spot on with his statement and warning. A year of sermons could be preached on this topic without finding the end, although I suspect people would start to get the idea after only 2-3, but they would probably also still pursue idols because that is what people do. Simple truths are hard to recognize on a field of lies because they are buried under bull.
I recently finished another book and as I like to do, I grabbed the next book in order from my shelf. I do not know where this book came from or how I got it. I did not recognize it. I suspect my wife must have bought it, but I do not know. All I know is it somehow made it into my "To Be Read" bookshelf. Since it was next in line, I grabbed my bookmark and inserted it, figuring I would start it the next day, since I really did not have much interest in, How to Live Above and Beyond Your Circumstances by some guy named Salem Kirban.
I had never heard of Kirban or this book, but it looked like one of those books that attract seekers looking to reach some previously unattained level of faith and belief that also resulted in a better and more positive life and life style. The book shelves of your local book store are filled with these kinds of books and they are not the kinds of books I typically read... But this one somehow made it into my books and was due up next by the sheer luck of the draw or divine intervention because of where my messages have been going lately.
The first thing I noticed as I began turning the pages was the Contents section. It started with "Youth", went to "Vocation" and "Selecting a Mate" and "Marriage" and on and on. It looks like he wrote the book to follow someone life as they progress through the various stages of life, ending with "Your Golden Years" and finally a section on "Eternal life." Many counseling type books are divided into sections like this so I figured maybe it would have some gems I could mine as I counsel and work with people who are struggling. The back of the book did have a ton of ads for his other books and some promises of a "New World Order" to follow as people got more enlightened. I sensed trouble!
I will admit right here I did not make it very far into the book. The very first section out of "Youth" is the wonderfully titled, "I Hate School." I thought this might be a great chapter as the public education system has turned many people against education because of their experience with schooling. On the second page of this chapter Kirban admonishes the youth reading this book, "Learn good study habits. For unless you develop proper study habits now... your work habits in the future will be filled with trouble."
This advice troubled me. You see I firmly believe our culture and society has weaponized school and labor against the Christian and driven them from active faith and towards toil in the fields and then called it good and labeled it a proper, "Protestant Work Ethic." I agree, people who will not work should not eat as Paul writes himself. I do not want a world of dead beat Christians trying to live off the labors of others. This is why Paul would regularly work outside of the "Church" and not accept payment for his labors, because he did not want people thinking he was doing it for pay.
Kirban on the other hand is telling young people they should study hard and study well and learn what the schools are teaching them so they can work and be good employees at some future date. There bosses of the future will appreciate them more. I have to tell you, I have arrived at a place where I am very much less concerned with people being good employees than I am concerned with them being barely there Christians. Most of us, myself included for most of my life, have been indoctrinated to think we must work like dogs for the good life and whatever limited energy we have left during the week, if we can drag ourselves to a church building and surround ourselves with others similarly duped, we will hear a message telling us, "Good job. You worked hard all week in the fields and still managed to make it here. Good job."
This is the wrong message, but it is the message people are hearing. John warned the church to keep themselves from idols. The biggest idol in America is this Protestant Work Ethic and the need to draw a big salary, own the finest of automobiles, a 2-5000 square foot house, 2-4 cars, a television in every room, work out rooms, Man-caves, hobby rooms, and you name it because it goes on and on. We have all been in each others houses. They are big and they are filled with the junk available to people who toil in the fields their whole life like good little workers and then stick a "Live Laugh Love" piece of art on the wall and maybe some other "Christian" pieces to show our faith.
Our faith in this instance is Mammon! Jesus preached an entire message we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and one of the primary points is, what you think you know and what you have been taught is actually not right and it is not good and it is counter to what God actually says and wants for you. This sentiment goes across many topics, but one of those topics is explicit in Matthew 6: 19-24. Jesus is saying do not waste your time pursuing all the things you can pursue in life as they are unimportant. Pursue God first and then everything will fall into order. Pursue God first! This is the greatest commandment and it is first in all of our faith. Closely followed loving our neighbor as ourself. (Matthew 22: 34-40) It is upon these two statements Jesus says that all of the Law and the Prophets depend.
I am preaching in many different houses of worship lately. I have spoken with many people from an older generation in the process. Let's just say people in their late 60's and older. One of their biggest laments when they look back on life is that the Church when they were growing up was the center of their world. To a person they say they were in the facility and fellowshipping in some form or another 4-5 nights a week. Their lives revolved around their faith when they were kids and life was better. Now, after toiling in the fields for four plus decades and putting God on the back burner, they are seeing the churches they grew up and loved as hollowed out shells because their kids have moved away to work in a more prosperous field somewhere else and they are having fewer kids because kids interfere with their ability to earn, since both husband and wife work and daycare is expensive and it is all they can do to "worship" once/week in a big church with a youth program. Usually they are lucky to make it 1-2 times per month though.
This is the state of Christianity today and it was false prophets like Kirban who steered the church away from God and into the fields for slavemasters. People can certainly buy more. People can certainly claim to own more stuff and have bigger houses for their paltry 1.9 kids today compared to anytime in history. Have you not noticed people today have houses 2-3 times the size they used to be and they have 2-3 times fewer kids and they still do not have enough room! Working for Mammon takes a lot of time and effort and it allows us to fill the gaps in our being with junk that rusts and dissolves and means nothing. You might be thinking to yourself, "Wow, this dude has an axe to grind. We are supposed to work hard, pay our taxes, and then die. That is where we get our reward."
Man, I am telling you, you have bought a lie! You do not have to wait to receive your reward until death. Jesus is your reward in this life and when you fully embrace this fact and pursue Him with all of your heart, soul, and being and then also love your neighbors. You will find a life that is fullfilling. You will not have to toil under whip and chain on the master's plantation. You will still have to work, but you will not live to work. You will find your life can actually be dedicated to God and lived this way. Your spouse will be happier. Your kids will be happier. You will be happier because you will experience the kind of joy Jesus wants you to experience in Him. Which is not to say it will be easy! Your life will be hard, but it will be hard in other ways.
If you reject the idolatry surrounding you, you will stick out. Think of the Amish folks you see occasionally. When you see their buggies on the side of the road, they stick out. When you see them wearing their clothes and hats and bonnets, they stick out. You may not dress like the Amish, but when you reject idolatry and actually pursue God, you will stick out like the Amish. You have to because everyone around you is worshipping Satan whether they realize it or not. Even all those people who claim to be Christians and yet spend their entire day dedicated to working Satan's plantation and forgoing the promises of God. Those people are receiving Satan's rewards and God's curses.
Christians have you not read the Old Testament? Have you read about how David worked for years to prepare implements, acquire timber, and cut stone to build the first temple? When Solomon completed the temple in 2 Chronicles 2-7 we see a story of people dedicated to God and pursuing Him. By the time we get to the seventh chapter, Solomon has issued a prayer, sacrificed thousands of animals, and promised to center and orient their life around God and everyone else did the same. God and his glory filled the temple in such a fantastic display everything stops.
God visits Solomon during the evening and says I have heard your prayer and I have chosen to make this a house of sacrifice. Should you depart and wander and pursue idols, I will hear your cries and rescue you when you reach out to me. However, God also reminds Solomon that if they stray and depart from their faith and worship others, God will pluck them up and send them away. Go ahead, read it for yourself in 2 Chron 7: 12-22. God will not play second fiddle in our lives. "Christians" today are unhappy and unfulfilled because they have pursued idols and God has left them and their souls are parched because of it. They are living on barren ground and working Satan's fields while their houses of worship fall into ruin because only 15-25 older people are meeting there once per week, struggling to keep the lights on, the grass mowed, and trash from collecting in the dozens of empty small group and Sunday School class rooms.
I have thrown Kirban's book in the trash where it belongs. He spent decades making inaccurate predictions about the end times and selling snake oil and people drank it up. He says he wrote more than 50 books and I have no reason not to believe it, but I doubt there is much actual good information in there. I have no doubt it is clothed in words from Scripture, but it is not righteousness he was selling. The churches across North America are quickly emptying. They are a shell of what they used to be. American Christians have ignored the simple truths of Scripture and worked themselves to death in the fields of Satan and missed out on the joy of living in Christ today before entering into their eternal rest. There is not a lot of time left, but I do know the door is still open. Jesus is still beckoning people to enter and accept the peace He is offering you cannot get anywhere else.
Please do not ignore this offer. Pursue Him. Chase Him. Dedicate your life to Him. Love your neighbor because life on the plantation is hard and they are struggling. They need a cup of water and a soothing word. They need to hear there is more to life than working the fields. Their kids can have a better future, but they will likely miss it if their mom and dad toil in the fields all day and ship them off to be schooled and cared for by the State. Love God. Love your neighbor. These are the foundations of our faith and why people like Kirban and public schools teach something different. They do not want you free, they want you enslaved.