Knockoffs are sometimes pretty good. We can’t afford Calvin Klein, so we scour the shelves for the closest thing.
In their fine print, eBay says most Calvin Klein products sold on their website are fakes.
We can even purchase “official” Replica International Brand Calvin Klein eyeglasses. In a celebration of the plethora of Calvin Klein knockoffs, Jan-Dirk van der Burg recently unveiled a new book exhibiting Calvin Klein knockoffs, many of which exhibit misspellings of the famous designer’s name.
But isn’t the real thing better? Of course, it is. It wears better, lasts longer, and carries a warranty that we can’t get with the substitute brands. If we can get the real thing, then that’s the only way to go.
Yet we have no problem raising up knockoff gods as the real deal.
Money! If we’ve got it, then we’ve achieved the pinnacle of success!
Really? Ask a rich person. Certainly money opens up opportunities, but does it make us happy? Only if we were happy in the first place. It’s a knockoff god, a fake sold as the real thing.
Youth! That’s the ticket! If we can retain it through surgery and exercise, then we’ll always be admired and respected.
Are we sure about that? Our youth serums may be “sanctioned” by medical clinics worldwide, but under the runway lights, we can tell the difference. Eternal life only comes through one source, salvation in Christ.
When we compare the world’s knockoff gods to the Word of God, we begin to see where they come off short. Here are five good starting places in the Bible:
Exodus 20:4 tells us:
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Leviticus 26:1 is our reminder that:
“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God.”
Isaiah 42:8 shows us our standard:
“I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”
Romans 12:1 raises our personal standard:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Acts 17:29 warns us that knockoffs are everywhere:
“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.”
There’s only one true God. When we find him, we know we have the real thing. There’s nothing else like him. His grace wears on our shoulders well, it will remain with us during every situation, and we can trust his relationship with us to carry us into our heavenly home when we turn loose of this life and rise to meet him.
God is the real thing, Baby. It says so in his Word. Let’s reach out for him today.
When we live in the truth of God’s presence, everything else seems cheap by comparison.
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