Idolatry is defined as the worship of something as a god that is not. It can be a statue, a person, an idea ... a lot of things. Idolatry is anything that replaces the worship of the True God. We, of course, are moderns and we have no problem with that, right? Except, of course, that isn't true. Lots of religions have gods which are not the one True God. Atheists might worship reason or science or even Man in general in place of God. Christians can even slip into worshiping a god that is not God. Paul warns, for instance, that greed is idolatry (Col 3:5). The worship of stuff, of money, of wealth. That seems to be an American thing, whether you have it or not. No, idolatry is not "them" -- it's "us." We are idol-factories.
It's amazing, isn't it? Humans are aware of the True God "because God has shown it to them" (Rom 1:19). There are no genuine atheists; just those who claim to be. But even we who believe in the True God can be caught out with idols, substitutes for the True God. We will hold out reputation or comfort or well-being or "stuff" as our ultimate worship and challenge the True God when He doesn't provide it. Any one of us can engage in greed, sexual immorality, evil desire, or just distrust of the True God which serve as substitutes for the True God. Any sin we commit, in fact, is the direct result of an idol that has taken the place of God in our hearts. When we fail to take God at His word, we are substituting something else -- most likely our own intellect and preferences -- for the True God. And it is clearly not just "them" that do it. It is each and every one of us at some time or another.
God hates idolatry. He hates any other god in His place. He hates being second when everything about Him deserves our hearts first and foremost. It's bad enough when those in open rebellion against the Most High engage in substitutionary worship of something else (perhaps, most often, self), but when we who call ourselves Christ-followers do it, it is particularly offensive. I suppose it is a genuinely good thing that even these sins of ours are forgiven, but that doesn't mean we should keep our idolatry when it is called to our attention. False versions of God that so-called believers embrace don't make them believers in the True God. Let's worship the God who has revealed Himself in the Scriptures and repent of and root out the idols we continue to manufacture for ourselves.
2 comments:
I made a similar argument when
Louisiana started putting up the 10 Commandments in schools. Yes, they are from the Bible, but they are also true for every person regardless of religion. We will all have no other god before our god. That is a universal truth, the only difference being who or what we put there. And you can do the same for the next 3. The remaining 6 should simply be seen as universally things to not do if you want a functioning society. I argued that putting up the Ten Commandments did not enforce any one religion, but put forth things that are universally true.
As it happens, another blogger I read daily (Michelle Lesley) just yesterday posted an article on this very topic; within it, she wrote: “God is who He is. We can take Him or leave Him, but we can’t re-make Him.” I believe that your message today is the most important correction and admonition I could receive--one I must take to heart. Ever since I was a young adult, it has been my desire to know the true God--not fallen man’s imaginings of Him. While I was granted sufficient spiritual discernment way back to abandon the false religion in which I was raised, I still retain an ongoing tendency to remake God in my own image--one that fulfills my temporal and fleshly desires most comfortably. This particular temptation, of course, has been encouraged by Satan upon man since the beginning and will never cease--thus the need for constant vigilance. I must sit under biblical teaching that informs and reinforces a right view of God and corrects these tendencies towards idolatry. Thank you, Stan, for your part in that.
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