The folks at Thessalonica reverenced images, actual idols of stone or wood. They rendered some form of service to their gods.
When they became Christians and turned away from their idolatry, there was something tangible rejected, abandoned, and destroyed.
“Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).
I wonder if God has in mind for me to turn from anything today in order to serve Him.
I wonder if there’s anything in my life that hinders or even impedes my service for Him.
This idolatry business also reminds me of something I read just a few days ago. Let me try to find it quickly….
Ah, yes. Here it is — Colossians 3:5, which clearly talks about turning from sexual and moral sin:
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
Even as I write this in our high-tech twenty-first century, an untold multitude bows before print, video, and cyber images.
May the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit turn them to God from pornography.