Love, Idols and Idenity

For God so loved the world…. You, I, indeed, the entire world, are loved by God. It is astounding that the creator and sustainer of the universe is mindful of us (Psalm 8). Even while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). The natural response to this overwhelming and undeserved love is: We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

If all of this is true, why is there so much discord in the church? Hatred in the world is distressing but understandable. But we are the loved people, shown grace and mercy. But we are not always the loved ones who love. Why? Something holds our hearts and wills captive – what is it? And how do we expel it?

Augustine answers that we have false loves. Rather than loving Jesus and enthroning him as Lord and King, our first love is self, pleasure, success, reputation, security, etc. Calvin explores the same idea with different labels. The human heart and mind is an ‘idol factory’, fashioning obsessions to which we entrust our hopes and dreams.

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard says a similar thing yet differently again. Humans are beings that find their identity in the self. This self can define itself in three stages: in the present moment (think pleasure vs pain), in forming one’s character (ethics), or committing to following Jesus and defining self as a disciple.

What holds our hearts and wills captive are false loves, false idols, and false identities. How do we expel this false love? In two ways. You put off the old self, and you put on the new self (Eph 4:22-24).

As Augustine might put it, don’t fuel the old love, but rather release the power of the new love. Or Calvin, don’t worship (dream about and chase) the false idol, but worship God. Or Kierkegaard, find your identity in Christ and place ethics and pleasure as a subset of being a disciple.

What are the loves, idols, or identities that captivate you? How can you give them less air? More importantly, how do you love God, worship him, and find your identity in Jesus? This is the only path to life.

Rev David Rietveld