by Dave Brown
Ye often hear it said ...
“It does not
matter how we serve God.”
but Paul stated (Rom. 1:22) ...
“Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools ...”
He went on to describe how the Gentiles first changed the
worship, then the characteristics, and finally the truth of God. At each step
God “gave them up” to deteriorate in their decadence, so that they were finally
totally devoid of any sense of morality whatsoever.
The idea of the pagans was that there were many ways to
get what you want from “the force” (to use a current-day expression). They
recognized that there was a god of Israel, but also accepted the gods of other
nations, and believed that one god might be stronger than another. So, when
they went to a foreign land, they had no problems in yielding themselves over to
the god(s) who had jurisdiction in that area. After all, what could it hurt?
Such is the root of all superstitious and manipulative
religious belief today. The idea is: “We don’t really understand it, so why
fight it? Just go along with it.” Are we any different today when we refuse
to “test the spirits” (1 Jn. 4:1)? Are we any different today when we “hold a
form of godliness, but have denied the power of it” (2 Tim. 3:5)? Are we
religious to manipulate God for what we can get out of it? ... or are we
serving and obeying our Lord because we Love Him and trust that His way is best
for us?