Romans 1:22-23, Prevalence of Idolatry

Romans 1:22-23 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

When we take a walk in the HDB estates going from house to house for evangelism in the distribution of tracts, one stark impression that comes across is the number of families involved in the worship of idols in their homes. There will be tell-tale signs outside the door and there will be altars set up for these idols. It is seen in Chinese and Indian homes.

In many Indian homes, there will be the elephant-like human pictures placed outside the home. For the Chinese homes, there will be a variety of altars and idols placed on these altars with heavy incense smell.

Idolatry was prevalent during Paul’s time. He wrote of idols made that resemble humans and animals. He observed that man has an innate need for God. And man in his ignorance and depravity worships concoction of his own imaginations. If you make a search of Greek gods or Roman gods or Egyptian gods in the internet, you would find in each a long list categorised from A to Z. It showed how fertile is the fallen human mind in concocting a variety of gods to meet his varied needs.

Paul is declaring the truth that there is only one living and true God who is the Creator of the universe. And God is a Spirit, pure and holy. God has been wrongly imagined by man as to who He really is! And Paul sought to point man to worship the one living and true God who is able to meet his every need. He had to inform them that idols made with man’s hands is not able to truly help.

When a tract is distributed to one of these homes with a gospel message, it is with a prayer that the reader may come to know the God of the Bible who only is the living and true God. It matters much the eternal destiny of the human soul – whether it be heaven or hell. This was Paul’s concern. And he is articulating in these verses the foolishness of depraved man void of the truth concerning the true God. He has made it his God-given responsibility to make the truth known to a lost world. The challenge is indeed great, where are the labourers? Let us pray that God would raise men and women to work in the ripe harvest field to usher souls into His eternal kingdom. May you be a happy volunteer. Amen.