HIGHLIGHT
1 John 5:21 (ESV): 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
EXPLAIN
This last verse of 1 John is intriguing. John had written this letter to assure the believers after they had experienced great conflict due to false teachers spreading lies in the church.
John had written of loving God and loving one another. John had written of assurance of forgiveness of sin. John had written of the necessity of leaving sin to return no more.
John had also written that we must not love the world, but rather love God. Yet the idea of “idolatry” seems almost out of place.
APPLY
In fact, however, this is the key: that anything that comes between our love for God… anything that replaces our love for God… is an idol, a replacement god, for us.
RESPOND
Heavenly Father, help me to love you, and to never allow a love for the world, for some fancy, intriguing doctrine, nor for anything else to come between me and you. Amen.