I picture him as an older, white-haired man, gentle, but with flashes of fire from his eyes. Having been a disciple of Jesus, he's now the pastoral leader in the great city of Ephesus. In Ephesus, Christians were tempted to chase after shadows, after unreality. In Ephesus, Christians were faced with the worship of the goddess, Diana, whose temple was one of the ancient world's wonders. In the shadows of this temple were sexual immorality, crime, all sorts of dark things. Magic, sorcery, astrology were big time in Ephesus.

From this city, the Apostle John writes to other Christians. He concludes his powerful first epistle with one final warning. It's almost like a young person leaving home on a trip. Dad calls out "Hey, drive carefully!" or "Don't forget to check the oil!" John writes as he closes his epistle: "My dear children, keep yourselves from idols!" Keep yourselves from unreality, from shadows. Keep yourselves from false gods and the junk connected with them. J.B. Phillips paraphrases John: "Be on your guard ... against every false god."

But what's an idol? What's an idol today?

Recently, the news reported on a huge furor in India over idols of the monkey god, which appeared to drink milk offered in sacrifice to them. "The gods have come among us," was the cry of many in India. We may feel superior to that kind of idolatry. We would never worship little images of sometimes grotesque looking creatures, we may say self-righteously. But false gods can be sophisticated, even high-tech. The contemporary American may be as idolatrous as the average Hindu.

St. Augustine wrote back in the 4th century: "Idolatry is worshiping anything that ought to be used or using anything that ought to be worshiped." With this definition, education can become an idol. Beauty in whatever form can be idolized. Money can become an idol. Technology certainly is a major idol of modern American society. Even the church and religion can be an idol. These are gifts of God, means to an end, but idolatrous when made ends in themselves.

Rebecca Manley Pippert put it this way: "Playing God is not just difficult, it's impossible." So "we have to look elsewhere for a backup, a homemade God-substitute. We thus spend our lives swinging between the impossible (playing God) and the inadequate (relying on anything short of God to be God)" (Hope Has its Reasons, p.50)

Idolatry is deceitful; it can put on such an attractive face. Idolatry is devastating, at least in the long-term. Idolatry is destructive to people, to relationships, and to a society. This is why the people of Israel were told in the Ten Commandments, "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol ... You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (Exodus 20:3-4). Down through their long history, no issue more threatened the well-being of the Hebrew people than the idolatry surrounding them. Again and again, the prophets warned them to avoid idolatry. Again and again, God's messengers were ignored with devastating consequences.