Flee from Idolatry
R. W. Dale, LL.D. 1 Corinthians 10:14-15 Why, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.… The "wherefore" carries us back to the previous verse, and reveals the apostle's train of thought. He had been warning these Corinthians in chap. 1 Corinthians 8 against partaking of meat that had been offered to idols, not because it was wrong in itself, for an "idol is nothing in the world," but because of "weaker brethren," who believed in the reality of heathen divinities. This leads him, in chap. 1 Corinthians 9, to refer to his own example of self-denial, and he then passes on, in chap. 1 Corinthians 10, to justify his warnings by quoting the melancholy example of Israel, who were placed in circumstances in many respects similar to those of the Church at Corinth, and in their temptations and sins the latter might see the danger that threatened themselves. Still, the temptation was not irresistible (ver. 13). "Wherefore," St. Paul adds, "flee from idolatry": that is, do not see how near to it you may approach without being entangled, but avoid it altogether. I. IT MIGHT SEEM THAT SUCH A PRECEPT WAS UTTERLY NEEDLESS IN THE PRESENT DAY. For we have reached an intellectual position exactly the opposite to that occupied by the ancient world. They believed in "gods many, and lords many"; we find it difficult to believe in any God at all. They saw divinities everywhere; we see God nowhere. Their sin was believing in gods who had no existence; our sin is disbelieving in One who alone exists. II. BUT IF IDOLATRY BE THE ENTHRONING OF ANYTHING IN THE PLACE OF GOD, THIS IS A SIN TO WHICH WE ARE JUST AS PRONE. 1. The Roman, e.g., is an idolatrous church. And this not because it formally worships the Pope — although the extravagant homage of those who call him "our Lord God the Pope" comes perilously near to rendering him Divine homage — but because it has dogmatically declared that the voice of a fallible man has the authority of the Word and Spirit of God over the intellect and conscience of man. 2. But Protestants, who reject this with indignation, may themselves be in danger of a similar sin. Roman Catholics complain that we have substituted an infallible Book for an infallible Pope. And it must be confessed that when human interpretations of the Bible have been placed on a level with its Divine verities, when theories of the Atonement have been confounded with the great fact, when a human creed has practically been asserted to be an infallible exposition of Divine truth, or when the authority of the Bible has been used in support, not of religious truth, but of historical and political and scientific theories, all of which have turned out to be false, and when men have been branded as misbelievers because they have refused to submit to the claim thus made upon them, then we have been guilty of a sort of idolatry. 3. Just in the same way scientific men and philosophers are in danger of idolising the intellect. To claim for the logical understanding sole authority in the discovery or the verifying of truth, to deny that we can go beyond all phenomena and hold converse with the Author of them all, to refuse to allow the supreme facts of the spiritual nature of man any place in the facts of human consciousness, is an idolatry offensive to God and perilous to man. 4. Perhaps the most dangerous is practical idolatry. Money is man's chiefest idol, and it is, unhappily, only too possible to retain it in the heart, even after we have professed to be servants of Christ. But "no covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." To us all, in one form or other, the warning belongs —"Flee from idolatry." (R. W. Dale, LL.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. WEB: Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.