"One God"

"Thou art God alone."

(Psalm 86:10)

    Among the many nuances of deception involved in the temptation of Adam and Eve, polytheism (the worship of many gods) comprised a primary aspect of Satan's lie.

    "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).

    Note the plural - "gods".   Lucifer himself originated evil with the notion of more than one god.  "I will be like the Most High!" (Isaiah 14:14)  Thus, the sin of devils and humans involves the delusion that more than one true and living God exists.  Demonic and fleshly devotion to polytheism abounds in a fallen world.  "There is none other God but one.  For though there be that are called gods, whether in Heaven or in earth (as there be gods many, and lords many), but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him" (I Corinthians 8:4-6).  Much of the world's population thinks of someone other than the God and Father of the Lord Jesus when referencing the matter of Divinity, a lie proceeding from the father of lies who seeks to infect others with his own spiritual and moral deception (John 8:44).

     Born again believers hold the Biblical teaching of one God as sacred.  Again, "to us there is but one God."  However, we can be drawn into the deception of polytheism regarding the everyday aspects of living our lives.  "Keep yourselves from idols" warned the Apostle John at the conclusion of his first epistle, written to believers (I John 5:21).  Do we view anybody or anything as necessary to our well being other than the Lord Jesus?  The Apostle Paul declared that "to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).  Never does he or any other Biblical writer add anything or anyone to this singular affirmation that, as my wife often proclaims, "Having Him, we have all."  This does not mean, of course, that people and things do not serve as means whereby the life of Christ is known and experienced.  Many lamps of God's light shine forth as brilliant illuminations of His glory revealed in our lives.  However, He alone is the Light.  We worship Him only by believing and affirming the Lord Jesus as the Life of our lives, and the fulfillment of our hearts.  Any other perspective involves idolatry, pure and simple (sinfully simple).  "He is thy life" (Deuteronomy 30:20).

    We must build an altar within our hearts and minds whereupon we sacrifice all other gods, as it were.  We choose to believe in one God as a matter of principle and doctrine.  Accordingly, we determine that if everything else in our lives dissolved and we were left with Christ only, He would be enough to keep our hearts and fill our hearts.  Having built such an altar, we revisit it often for reaffirmation and sometimes repentance, even as Abraham returned to Bethel after trusting in lies rather than God (Genesis 13:3-4).  Indeed, idolatry frequently tempts us, and comes easily to our flesh inherited from Adam.  True and living monotheism comes hard and involves much sacrifice of devilish notions that whisper and shout to us that surely we need more than one God for the establishment and maintenance of our well being.  Is He enough?  Yes He is.  Do we believe this Truth?  Yes we do, as Christians.  Walking out such reality, however, involves a lifetime of challenge and overcoming in a world that presently lies in the wickedness of many gods (I John 5:19).  May we return often to the altar of one God, seeking illumination, growth, reproof and correction as necessary.  He is enough.  He is only.  One God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"There is one God, and there is none other but He."

(Mark 12:32)

"And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?  For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be My people."

(II Corinthians 6:16)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

(Psalm 46:1)