over-desires and idolatry - part 1

Colossians 3:1-14

"Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature" - anger, rage, malice, slander, bitterness - I would love to be free from these things, but they keep coming back. Here is the reason why: (in verse 5) evil desires, idolatry

translated from the Greek "evil desire" is "epithumian" which more sharply is defined as: an over desire, an excessive desire - it is very hard to translate and we are not able to see its significance usually (the word is in the New Testament basically every time it mentions character change) because when we see "evil desire" or, as it sometimes is translated, "sinful desire", we see it as desiring something evil. We see a forbidden list, things you are not supposed to do... This is wrong... "Epithumian" is an "over-desire" for something that is good. That is what is wrong.

Why is this a bad thing? Connect with another word seen in verse 5 "idolatry". Taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing. This is how your heart works, according to the Bible, unless God changes it. Exodus Chapter 20. The first commandment: "I am God. Have no other gods before me." There are only 2 options: you either worship the uncreated, true God, or you will worship some created thing as a false god. There is no third alternative. You either are going to worship God or you are going to worship something else. It is NOT possible for your heart NOT to build its identity on something, NOT to build its significance on something, NOT to make something your life...


How do you know what those things are? How do I know what those good things are that I have turned into ultimate things, things I have turned into saviors, those things I have turned into my meaning, my hope, my life?

a question to find out: What things, if you lost them, if you failed them or they failed you (financial means, relationships, family, professional identity, human approval, power, control of your environment, etc), would cause you to not want to live? ... Be honest. You have something.

There are two types of people that answer this question as such: the religious - I believe in God, Jesus! I have accepted Him as savior! I don't have any idols in my life! ... oh yes you do. There is something that is your functional savior that is not Him. There is something that you look to know that can make you feel good, that gives you meaning/security/hope for the future... the secular - I don't have any idols, I don't worship! ... Yes you do. This is true of everybody!

To get further clarification on your idols: follow the over-desires back to the source... if a good thing in your life is jeopardized, you worry, but if it is an ultimate thing, you are paralyzed. If a good thing in your life is blocked by somebody, you get mad at them, but if an ultimate thing is blocked, you get embittered, enraged! If a good thing in your life is lost, you are very sad, but if it is an ultimate thing, you ready to throw your self off of a bridge.

Do you understand your emotions? Do you see that there are somethings that absolutely cast you down? Do you understand why you find yourself doing things you thought you would never ever do? It is because these things drive you. When you give your "heart" (your most inward part that is yourself) to a functional savior, (everybody is doing this) and don't understand that, you cannot change. And whatever you have given your heart to, it converts you. It gives you your identity. It gives you a sense of worth. And as a result it drives you and you will spend all of your life never getting enough of it, always being desperately afraid, always being thrown about by inadequate desires that do not satisfy. Have you dug down to see what those things are? Until you have done that you will be enslaved to things that are slowly killing you...

You have to dig down and REALLY see what's down there, what's driving you. The Gospel calls you to do this because it is NOT basically about a list of dos and donts. It is about making God your Savior and Lord through Jesus. And as you see THAT as the Gospel, it throws everything in your life into a new light... to be continued...