When the Devil tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he saught to persuade her to do so by saying, “For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:5).
What are the results of becoming like God for us?
First we automatically no longer worship God who created life and everything in it but we become idolaters and worship the creation. Second, we seek the glory or praise or in fact worship of our fellow man and lastly the love of money or riches of this world replaces the love of God.
Idolatry: God’s constant admonishment to Israel was to turn from their idolatry to worship Him. As sinners in this world we all find something of the creation to worship: for some it’s being religious which includes the main religions of the world or directly worshipping nature or the heavens, for others it’s the idol of sports, business or politics and you have those who worship their own creation or the work of their own hands.
How do you know what is your idol? One way is if in repentance towards the living God and faith in Jesus Christ there is something you refuse to relinquish. The call to repentance cuts to the heart of man and what he in fact worships. If their is anything in your life that you will not give up to know God that is idolatry.
Jesus says in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
He is getting at the heart of our idolatry not telling us to hate our family and own life.
The Phariees were envious of Jesus (Matt 27:18) because they worshipped being Jews and consequently their Temple in Jerusalem. The Pharisees declare this: “If we let Him go on like this, all the people will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take over both our place and our nation.” (John 11:48).
The glory of man: instead of us seeking the glory that comes from God we seek the glory or praise and for some the worship that comes from our fellow man.
Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in John 5:44, “How can you believe, when you accept glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
The glory of man is manifested in our own discussions of ‘what will people say’ about what we do. The fact that we care or even think about what man would say testifies to our status as being godlike. One reason Christians don’t evangelize is, “they are afraid of what people will say”. Again this testifies to our godlike status and desire to have the praise of our fellow man over the glory that comes from God.
The praise of man is likened to us being worshipped as a god. We all would actually thrive on it and many people make decisions that is counter to God’s word so they can be worshipped.
Love of money: this means we seek to justify ourselves according to our rules of what’s important in life. Once the rule is determined then people seek to accumulate the riches to fulfill their rule of justification. Some rules lead people to accumulate gold and silver and material possessions, for others it’s their personal accomplishments whether it be degrees for academic work or personal physical achievements and still for some it’s friends whether it is a few close friends or lots of acquaintances.
In summary you can see to be godlike is for us to have an idol and worship it; to seek the glory of our fellow man for our devotion to our idol and to accumulate the riches that come with worshipping our idol.
Views from an Evangelist 