1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
Without God, people will turn to something else to replace God in that special place in our lives reserved for our creator. Paul helps the Corinthians think about where they came from. At one point, they were unbelievers. The word for “pagan” is the same as “Gentiles” or “nations.” In this verse, it designates those who were outside of the body of Christ, those who had not confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, thus they were unbelievers. They were led astray and deceived. Paul does not say who deceived them, but there are many things that fool unbelievers. At the top of the list is Satan, the great deceiver. A close second problem is our desire for things that please the flesh. We are led astray by temptations that offer promises that cannot be fulfilled or that bring heartache and hardship. Corinth was a city full of idols with many shrines and temples, some very famous such as the temple of Aphrodite on the hill called the Acro-Corinth. Paul says that these idols are all human-made and cannot talk. They are only wood and stone.
We may not necessarily have idols sitting around our houses (although this is still very common around the world), but we may have allowed these idols into our lives. We may still have idols from our old life as unbelievers. Christian maturity will require us to forsake those idols, get rid of them, so that we can put Jesus in the place of Lord of our lives.
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