Every day, we are all bombarded with influences. Family, friends, television, internet, advertising, books, social media and radio are all trying to claim our attention and suggest different ways in which we should be thinking. Much of the time, we don’t even notice it’s happening, but we cannot stop the process. Most of those influences are not inherently bad, but they all have the potential for distracting us from serving God.

Idols come in many shapes and sizes. They will never announce themselves as idols, but they are, as this verse so clearly states, anything that takes God’s place in our hearts. It could be your family, your hobby, your football team, your garden or your job. Anything which takes first place in our lives pushes God into second place at best. Our families, our hobbies, our sporting interests, our gardens and our work are all wonderful gifts of God and they can bring enormous enjoyment and satisfaction, but they must never be looked at like gods. All gods demand to be worshipped and invite us to make sacrifices of our time, money and attention, but only our heavenly Father deserves that commitment.

It's interesting that these are the last words of this letter. In the greeting “dear children”, we sense John’s warmth and love for his readers, and the fact that these are his last words suggests that they were extremely important to him. The Greek verb that he uses has the sense of guarding themselves from idols. They needed to recognise the serious threat they were facing and take appropriate measures to protect themselves. I have not the slightest doubt that if John was speaking to us today, he would use exactly the same words.

What are the potential idols in your life?

Lord God, help me to guard myself from anything which might distract me from worshipping and serving you. Amen