Electric Idols

More often than not the most common things in our lives become our easiest idols. Take, for instance, the technology which we so greatly depend on. From computers to cell phones to Ipods to television, all of it has a terribly tendency to creep its way onto the throne of our lives, convincing us that we are dependent upon it for our lives. It commends itself to us as necessary for existence, and we fall for the ploy. The apostle Paul writes in Romans 6 saying, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey”?

Oh how different Paul’s perspective is than ours! Our view of slavery is one of being forced into unwilling captivity and beaten into doing that which the master demands, but this is far from the imagery Romans 6 lays out. In the apostle’s mind there is an inherent willingness (though perhaps not happiness) in the phrase at the time it was written. A bondservant, the literal meaning of the word here translated as slave, was a vastly different thing in Paul’s time than our modern conception of slavery. Bondservants were the attendants of their master, promised payment or given food and a place to live for their services.

Paul’s logic is not, “I’m a slave to this master, therefore I obey him,” it is, “I obey this master, therefore I am his slave.”We need to hammer this into our head so that we can honestly evaluate what we are enslaved to. Idols offer us a payment in return for our service to them, never delivering what they promise and dragging us more and more into bondage.  Do you have something that you simply have to obey? An item you need in order to function? A piece of technology that you wouldn’t be able to go more than a few hours without?

For many, cell phones and Ipods fall under that category. If what Romans 6 says is true, then until about a year ago I was certainly enslaved that small music device that I carried with me day and in and day out that had me convinced that an hour long car ride without music was a thing utterly unbearable. It was an idol that assured me that if I did as it demanded it would provide me with satisfaction. Oh how far that was from the truth! God (as he often does) knocked that idol from its impostor’s throne by having my new 80gb Ipod stolen from me just four days after I had purchased it. But, slow to learn as I was, I purchased a new one a few months later and spent the next year or so obeying a slave master other than Christ.

It is a terrible thing to be bound to any other than God alone. To have a master other than Christ is to walk in sin. There is no middle ground left for us, for we are, “slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness”. (Romans 6:16) We must choose between Christ or sin. Not Christ and technology, not Christ and romance, not Christ and money. There is no Christ and. We can only have one god in our lives.

Examine yourselves, especially you young men and women who have become inoculated enough to technology to see it as a normal part of life. Test yourself and see if you are truly free from bondage by giving up the cell phone, the Ipod, the computer, the Xbox, or the television for a few days. If you are able to toss it aside and let it lie with no trouble, rejoice for the freedom you have. If, as is more likely the case, you feel that object tugging at your heart and reminding you just how hard life is without it, you have found in yourself an Idol that will be a cruel master to you if it is not dethroned. Jesus himself said that we would be unable to love both God and money. How much more will we be unable to serve God if technology holds us captive?

Fight the good fight, and come to the cross where none but Christ is left standing.

– Benjamin Pontius