God made it clear to Israel that He was the One who delivered them; He would not allow any false gods before His sight (Exodus 20:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:6-7). However, Israel gave into the temptation to worship gods of the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, etc., bringing in foreign religious practices alongside their worship of the Lord. Any person or thing we place before the face of God as an object of worship is an affront to Him to whom all our homage is due.

Jesus responded to this temptation by referring to Deuteronomy 6:13, saying, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10). On two occasions in the book of Revelation (19:10; 22:8-9) John was reprimanded for falling down to worship an angel, “And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God” Revelation 22:8-9). Colossians 2:18 forbids the worship of angels. God has no peer; no other can be placed beside Him (Isaiah 45:5).

Not only angels and people, but things can also be objects of worship. Paul wrote, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Greed for material possessions is idolatry. Jesus warned about one’s attitude toward money in Matthew 6:19-24, concluding in verse 24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

God is personal. He is jealous (Exodus 20:5; 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9; 6:15). The English word jealous often has negative connotations, but this description of God does not involve the pettiness attached to the word in our language. It is rather a zeal for what is right, what properly belongs to Him. By this zeal He punishes evil (Nahum 1:2). God said through His prophet, “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). God is the fountain of living water that gives life and refreshment. Embracing other gods is like rejecting the refreshing spring to carve out our own cistern. Water from a cistern is stagnant. A broken cistern cannot hold water. False gods cannot match the Lord; e.g., money is a broken cistern, it will not give you happiness. Only the true God can lead us to lasting contentment.

Our worship must not be influenced by the world, but must be directed by God. We would do well today to consider the words God told Israel long ago regarding worldly influences on worship, Deuteronomy 12:29-32: When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, a younger preacher, about the work of the ministry. He wrote that a good preacher reminds Christians of what they already know, “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained” (1 Tim. 4:6). Much of the work of teaching and preaching is not introducing ideas that are new—that people don’t already know. Often preaching involves reminding people of what they have already been taught so that they continue to make application in their own lives. We can make mistakes in life because we neglect to keep the right priorities. We need to be challenged to continue to pursue the task of living out the principles of God’s word. Certainly, each time we come to the Bible, we have a fresh perspective that causes us to see something in a familiar text we hadn’t before seen that makes us think. However, preaching should not only make people think more deeply, but also should move people to act with reminders to live out what they already know about the Christian life.

In his second epistle, the apostle Peter gave his readers the challenge to add to their faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Pet. 1:5-7). Christians are to give diligence to abounding in these characteristics instead of blindly forgetting that they have been cleansed of their former sins (2 Peter 1:8-10). While Peter was still alive, he was committed to reminding them of these things: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Pet. 1:12-13). Peter wanted to always remember these things, even after his death (2 Pet. 1:15). This was the reason he gave for writing his letters, stating, “This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour” (2 Pet. 3:1-2).

What is said from the pulpit might well be a portion of the Scriptures with which you are already familiar. But all of us need to be reminded. All of us must ask ourselves if we are living it out and in what ways we can improve.