/Shun (keep clear away from, avoid by
flight if need be) any sort of
idolatry (of loving or venerating
anything more than God). (1
Corinthians 10:14 AMP)/
There are many things which are not
only harmless but good in
themselves, which have, nevertheless,
been allowed to take the place
of the Lord Himself, and good things
can therefore embody the
principle of idolatry in the one in
whom the devotion is found. Touch
some Christians, or Christian
institutions, and let the touch be even
in relation to something more of the
Lord Himself, and you will find
an uprising of jealous regard for the
institution which utterly blinds
to that possibility of an extra measure
of the Lord Himself. You can
be so devoted to a denomination, a
missionary society, a piece of
Christian work, that there is no room
for any extra measure of the
Lord. The thing itself has become the
end, the object for which you
live, and when the Lord wants to get
you moved on into something more
of Himself, the obstacle is that good
Christian work, association,
institution, tradition, connection. Yes,
and that is idolatry in
principle, and we see from history
how the Lord again and again has
had to smite with smashing blows
things which in themselves were good,
in order to save His people unto
Himself personally....
What is He after? It is Himself which
He is seeking to establish as
the object of man's life, and not the
things that have relation to
Himself: and I say again, you meet
something intensely fierce if you
touch a thing, even though you are
touching it maybe with a view to
getting people to move on with the
Lord Himself. To put that in the
other way, if your appeal for moving
on with the Lord seems to people
to involve their having to move away
from this or that or some other
thing, then there is warfare; which
shows that Satan in his eternal
campaign of idolatry, has got a footing
amongst Christians in relation
to things which take the place of the
Lord Himself, good things though
they be in themselves; and you find, if
you are spiritually sensitive,
that you are not just encountering the
established institutions, but
you are encountering a terrific spiritual
force. Is that true? It is
true. Had I never come up against it,
never would I have believed the
terrific force there is lying behind
Christian institutions if your
ministry touches them. You meet
something which turns upon you, and
it
is not just the thing or the people. It is
something that threatens
your very life, to slay, and this in
principle and essence, beloved,
is idolatry; because its ultimate effect
is that even the Lord cannot
have what His heart is set upon and
get His people spiritually where
He wants them, because they are so
bound up with His things. They are
not able to discriminate between His
things and Himself.......