J.C. Ryle

Flee from idolatry. —1 Corinthians 10:14

And now let me show…the ultimate abolition of all idolatry.

What will end it?…Here, as in other subjects, the sure word of prophecy comes in to our aid. The end of all idolatry shall one day come. Its doom is fixed. Its overthrow is certain. Whether in heathen temples or in so-called Christian churches, idolatry shall be destroyed at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…

The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is that blessed hope which should ever comfort the children of God under the present dispensation…That is the only day when every abuse shall be rectified and every corruption and source of sorrow completely purged away. Waiting for that day, let us each work on and serve our generation; not idle, as if nothing could be done to check evil, but not disheartened because we see not yet all things put under our Lord…

If these things be so, men need not wonder that we warn them to beware of all leanings towards the Church of Rome…

I hold, for one, that this Romish movement ought to be steadily and firmly resisted. Notwithstanding the rank, the learning, and the devotedness of some of its advocates, I regard it as a most mischievous, soul-ruining, and unscriptural movement…

Unity in the abstract is no doubt an excellent thing: but unity without truth is useless. Peace and uniformity are beautiful and valuable; but peace without the gospel—peace based on a common episcopacy and not on a common faith—is a worthless peace, not deserving of the name…

We live in a time when the Church of Rome is walking amongst us with renewed strength and loudly boasting that she will soon win back the ground that she has lost. False doctrines of every kind are continually set before us in the most subtle and specious forms. It cannot be thought unseasonable if I offer some practical safeguards against idolatry…Let me point out how we may be safe from it, and I will say no more.

(1) Let us arm ourselves, then, for one thing, with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God. Let us read our Bibles more diligently than ever and become familiar with every part of them. Let the Word dwell in us richly. Let us beware of anything which would make us give less time and less heart to the perusal of its sacred pages. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit—let it never be laid aside…If we once leave that for any bypath, however beautiful and old and frequented it may seem, we must never be surprised if we end with worshipping images and relics and going regularly to a confessional.

(2) Let us arm ourselves in the second place with a godly jealousy about the least portion of the gospel. Let us beware of sanctioning the slightest attempt to keep back any jot or tittle of it or to throw any part of it into the shade by exalting subordinate matters in religion. When Peter withdrew himself from eating with the Gentiles, it seemed but a little thing; yet Paul tells the Galatians, “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed” (Gal 2:11). Let us count nothing little that concerns our souls. Let us be very particular whom we hear, where we go, and what we do in all the matters of our own particular worship…We live in days when great principles are involved in little acts; and things in religion, which fifty years ago were utterly indifferent, are now by circumstances rendered indifferent no longer. Let us beware of tampering with anything of a Romanizing tendency. It is foolishness to play with fire. I believe that many of our perverts and seceders began with thinking there could be no mighty harm in attaching a little more importance to certain outward things than they once did. But once launched on the downward course, they went on from one thing to another. They provoked God, and He left them to themselves! They were given over to strong delusion and allowed to believe a lie (2Th 2:11). They tempted the devil, and he came to them! They started with trifles, as many foolishly call them. They have ended with downright idolatry.

(3) Let us arm ourselves last of all, with clear sound views of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the salvation that is in Him. He “is the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15); “the express image of his person” (Heb 1:3); and the true preservative against all idolatry, when truly known. Let us build ourselves deep down on the strong foundation of His finished work upon the cross. Let us settle it firmly in our minds that Christ Jesus has done everything needful in order to present us without spot before the throne of God, and that simple, childlike faith on our part is the only thing required to give us an entire interest in the work of Christ. Let us not doubt that, having this faith, we are completely justified in the sight of God, will never be more justified if we live to the age of Methuselah and do the works of the Apostle Paul, and can add nothing to that complete justification by any acts, deeds, words, performances, fastings, prayers, almsdeeds, attendance on ordinances, or anything else of our own.

Above all, let us keep up continual communion with the person of the Lord Jesus! Let us abide in Him daily, feed on Him daily, look to Him daily, lean on Him daily, live upon Him daily, draw from His fullness daily…Once let the Lord Christ have His rightful place in our hearts, and all other things in our religion will soon fall into their right places. Church, ministers, sacraments, ordinances, all will go down and take the second place.

Except Christ sits as Priest and King upon the throne of our hearts, that little kingdom within will be in perpetual confusion. But only let Him be “all in all” there, and all will be well. Before Him every idol…shall fall down. Christ rightly known, Christ truly believed, and Christ heartily loved is the true preservative against ritualism, Romanism, and every form of idolatry.

J. C. Ryle (1816-1900): English Anglican bishop and author; born in Macclesfield, Cheshire County, UK.

Courtesy of Chapel Library