2016.01.31_Abstain From Idols

God is the Holy One, distinguished from all other spirits.
God is holy. In heaven and on earth are many spirits, which were all created and exist by God. God is the one and only uncreated and self-existing spirit. This is what distinguishes God from all the other spirits.Every other spirit must submit to God since they were created by Him. However, God alone is the ruler of heaven and earth over whom no one can prevail.
Spirits do not have an image, and therefore they are invisible. However, God has an image, which He revealed to mankind. Spirits also do not have blood. However, God alone has blood. Thus, God is the holy one who is distinguished from all other spirits.

Christians are a holy people.
We became Christians through baptism. By submerging underwater, we buried the man of the flesh, and united with Christ as we came out of the water. This world is currently under the power of the devil (Eph 2:2). The devil and every spirit that belong to him are unclean. Despite the fact that spirits are invisible and odorless, the reason they are unclean is that they are not holy. We used to be sinners who also belonged to the devil in the past. But now we are the holy ones, set free from the devil by Christ’s meritorious works (Tit 3:5).
Despite the many religious people in the world, Christians are the only ones who are called holy disciples, in other words, saints. As Christians, we believe that God set us apart holy. Some people attend church, yet do not acknowledge the fact that they are holy and consider church life merely as a religious life. Such people cannot be called Christians. The kingdom of heaven is for the person born-again and holy, not someone who cultivates himself.
There is probably no one as cultivated as the Pharisees in the world. They are circumcised on the eighth day after birth, and taught by their mothers about the Law before they even learn to crawl. They were near impeccable in their actions that nobody could possibly criticize them. However Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20). He said this because it is only possible for man to be justified by the grace of God and not by his own actions. We became righteous not by any works of righteousness which we did, but because God deemed us as righteous.
The devil condemns those whom God called righteous. Didn’t you sin? And isn’t your heart full of evil? In this way, he disturbs man’s conscience to grip him with fear. Even so, we have to overcome the condemnation of our conscience by faith, and acknowledge that we are holy.
Israel was sanctified by relying on the blood of animals. However, the blood of animals cannot take away sins forever. It was a symbol of the blood of Jesus Christ which He later came and shed. The people of Israel had to slaughter animals and sprinkle their blood year after year since the blood of animals is not everlasting. Then finally Jesus came to the earth and shed God’s blood for us.
We are a people sanctified not by the blood of animals but God’s blood. The church is an assembly of those whom God purchased with His own blood (Ac 20:28). All the saints at church take the Lord’s Supper and drink of the cup together not because it sanctifies us, but to commemorate the fact that we have already been made holy though God’s blood.

Keep yourself holy through prayer and God’s word.
The reason we hear sermons and read the Bible is because the word of God sanctifies us. Jesus said, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you” (Jn 15:3) and “Sanctify them by Your truth [Father]. Your word is truth” (Jn 17:17). The word of truth sanctifies a person’s heart because it is the word of life, clothed with a robe dipped in God’s blood (Rev 19:13).
Without holiness, one cannot receive God’s help even though he prays. God blesses those who are holy. Jacob treasured God’s blessing so much so that he endeavored to make that blessing his own. On the other hand, his older brother Esau despised God’s blessing. In the end, the descendants of Jacob became a channel for Jesus Christ to come; however Esau’s descendants could not. As thus, the person without holiness cannot receive God’s blessing, the consequences of which impacts his descendants also.
The reason we pray before a meal is also to sanctify the food (1 Tim 4:3-5). When somebody serves us food during Korean national holidays, we do not know whether or not the foods had been offered to idols before being served. And in fact, there is no need for us to ask if the foods had been offered to idols in such situations, for we have the authority to sanctify those foods through prayer.
We pray during worship in order to sanctify the worship. It is also for the same reason that we pray after we have given offerings to God. The reason we pray for those whom we lay our hands on is also to sanctify them. Anything unholy cannot become God’s. Hence we lay our hands on our children and pray for them so that they may also be sanctified as God’s.

Abstain from idols to keep holy.
As those who serve the holy God, we must be set apart from unclean spirits. When it is a national holiday in Korea, people practice ancestral rites in accordance with old traditions. Such ancestral rituals are the worshipping of demons. It is written in 1 Corinthians 10:20, “Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God”. Worshipping of demons is one of the most detestable things to God. If anyone worships demons, he and his children are cursed down to the third and fourth generations. Regardless of whether or not they believe in God or have a lot of money, the souls of those who worship demons will be forsaken by God, for anyone that bows before demons are unclean.
For Christians, traditional national holidays often lead to conflict with family and relatives on account of the matter of ancestral worship. In Chinese, the word for conflict (葛藤) is composed of two characters that respectively represent the kudzu vine and the wisteria vine. The kudzu vine climbs and coils over trees and plants so that they cannot properly grow unless the kudzu vine is removed in the early stages of growth. It is very difficult to remove because of its tough, fibrous roots. Similarly, unless spiritual conflicts are adamantly addressed in the beginning, they will only worsen with time.
How can a person who drank the cup of God also drink the cup of demons? Again, how can one partake of God’s table as well as the table of demons? Christians who are holy should be steadfast in faith, determined not to bow before demons, even to the point of martyrdom. We need a strong resolve to keep ourselves holy.

Keep holy by loving God.
If anyone loves God, he would not bow his knees to idols. Rather, he would love God with all of his heart, all of his strength, all of his mind, all of his soul, and all of his life, just as a mother loves her child. The mother of Jesus conceived and birthed the Son of God, nurtured Him and stood by His side until His death. She served Him with maternal love. Jesus once said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers? Here is My mother! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My mother” (Mt 12:48-50). A mother’s love for her child! Our love towards God must likewise be like that of a mother towards her child.
How many people are there who claim to be Christians but are mere hypocrites? They would keep themselves holy if they were true Christians who love God. The one who is not holy always carries the risk of falling away at some point, whereas the person who loves God will never bow down to idols. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:21, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons”, and 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 says, “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?”
We need to be holy if we want our prayers to be delivered to God. Again, we need to be holy if we want to receive God’s love and His support. We ought to become saints now, instead of being pleased at the fact that we are Christians. The person who loves God is holy. The Lord will return to the earth and receive the holy ones as His brides. Without holiness, one does not have the right to be His bride. We must ensure that ourselves as well as our children and the entire family are holy, so that we may receive the blessing that continues for a thousand generations.