1 John 5:21  “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” (NLT)

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Have you ever played Keep Away? You probably have if you had four older, taller relatives when you were a kid. That’s what happened to me. I was younger and smaller, and easy to pick on. I was also faster. An imperfect toss on their part often led to an interception on my part. 

I never liked playing Keep Away. I still don’t, unless it’s with Ollie the Border Collie. He doesn’t know his feelings are supposed to be hurt by teasing. He thinks we are working and playing and having fun. I love that about him. He always expects the best from everyone he meets. 

John’s last line in this book means so much more than the fourteen words written in the New Living Translation. To fully understand this sentence, it is important to read the letter from the beginning. It is also helpful to understand the setting and situation. 

False teachers were causing problems for the church. John labeled their teaching idolatry. Any teaching that does not align fully with who Jesus is becomes a misleading, lying idol, a tool of the evil to draw our hearts away from God’s truth and life. 

Idols can be little statues we revere. This was a big problem Old Testament Israel dealt with for centuries. There was quite a bit of this kind of idolatry in John’s day as well. Here in this church, however, the idolatry in play was ideas that the false teachers were committed to that stood contrary to God’s self-revelation. 

God’s self-revelation, fully expressed in Jesus, bears the marks of light, love, and life that is full and meaningful. There is no darkness in him. There is nothing but pure love about him. The life he gives is superior to any we could cobble and craft for ourselves. 

How do we keep away from anything that might take God’s place in our hearts? We focus more and more on Jesus. See him for who he is. Listen daily to what he says. Obey him immediately in the full realization that “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome,”
‭‭(1 John‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬). A pound of sin is forever heavier than a pound of obedience. 

The outcome of this game of Keep Away aligns more with Ollie the Border Collie’s experience than with the little kid’s experience with his older, taller cousins. They made my life harder than it had to be. Ollie’s way makes it better than it would be otherwise. 

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I will play Keep Away with anything that might take God’s place in my heart.

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Our Father, please deliver me from those alluring ideas and experiences that draw my heart away from yours. Fill my life with the joy and laughter that accompany obedience to your will and ways. Make me more like Ollie, and less like the frustrated little kid I too often feel like even today. Amen.