KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS: LESSONS FROM ST. JOHN (PART 6)

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children keep yourselves from idols” (1 St. John 5:19-21).

For years of reading this letter, the ending always struck me strangely. Why in a mystifying letter about light and life and love do we end with a straightforward exhortation against idolatry. There is no qualification for it or explanation about the precise meaning of this phrase and so we’re left to ponder this warning in its relationship to the rest of the letter. 

Remember how St. John began: “that which was from the beginning, which we have seen with our eyes…” Remember how every new term, light and life and love, were introduced to us as being revealed by Jesus. Now we’re starting to see it. Because our Lord is the image of the invisible God, because to look at Him is to see the fullness of God incarnate, it means that the entire universe has turned a corner. No longer is it possible for us to envision God however we might. God has accomplished the great feat that separated humanity from the truth that would save their lives. It means we have been rescued from the desperate attempt to guess at what the all-powerful master of the universe is like or how we might please Him. It means that the terror driving the blood-letting and mystical frenzy of pagan religion, that great burden on the backs of humanity for so much of its history, at last is finally lifted by the only one who could lift it: God Himself. It is the answer to the spiritual homesickness that drives our restless hearts’ desires to find again the God whose fellowship is our deepest peace. For all the towers we’ve raised to try to reach heaven have fallen and will always fall. But God has come down bringing the light and life and love of His heaven with Him to reunite the world to the grace that makes it whole. 

And so St. John warns us not to trade in this gift. We are called by this man who knew the Lord not to settle for anything less than the life He came to bring. There is nothing but darkness outside of the light. There is nothing but death outside of the life. There is nothing but strife outside of the love. And that light and light and love took on humanity. We know there are counterfeits out there that would tempt us to renounce this love in place of some inferior thing. We know that these imitations can come from outside or from within us. But the God whose greatness surrounds all things is the same God who walks straight into the center of our fearful hearts to liberate us from illusion and falsehood. In the truth is freedom. Yet this is a difficult thing to discern sometimes, because what is most real is not always what is most obvious to us. What is good and true and beautiful does not need to constantly vie for attention--they are attractive because of what they are. But what is bent, and false, and ugly does need to constantly make a spectacle before our eyes lest we look away for an instant and recognize them for what they are. God, in whom what is good the true and the beautiful find their home is not in a contest with the the idols. He is not one god among many. He is, and though the idols of the world may rage, God remains God and always will remain God. 

And so as the children of God, all that seeks to falsely imitate our truest identity will of course be the things that rage and prop themselves up and boast loudest. They have to do so to retain the attention of restless hearts that are made to seek their rest from God. The infirmities we carry with us from our brokenness and sin are burdens that, by the grace of God, will not always weigh us down, and it is the good hope of the Christian faith that there will come a day when we will be free to run freely into the endless embrace of the light and life and love of God, and as Lewis says of such a day: “if we could run and not grow weary, would we want to do anything else?” 

The greatest possible life and love is known to us by the name Jesus. In Him and through Him we have been given access to the life with the Father as co-heirs with the Son. This is the destiny toward which we are called, for which we are to persevere. It is our true home and there is no other.