Insidiousness of Idolatry

As a kid in church, I struggled at times to comprehend what idolatry was because I did not bow down to idols in a shrine or burn incense to images.  Whenever idol worship was mentioned by our pastor at church, it was often connected to things I didn't have, like houses or cars.  I faintly recall the prime description of an idolator being a man who on a weekly basis was constantly washing, polishing and buffing his shiny car on the driveway.  This did not make sense to me because waxing cars was foreign to my life.  I did not own a car, and washing a car of dirt and grime seemed to be good stewardship of a gift from God.  I never connected the dots that the brand of car or its pristine condition could be an outlet of pride that delighted in promoting an image of self which is idolatry.

Reflecting on my youth, even the definition provided for idolatry was not a definite thing, for it was deemed anything we put in God's rightful place.  If God had yet to be given His "rightful place" in my life, how was I to determine what idolatry was?  Idolatry is very insidious because it goes right to the core of our beings, affections and desires, always rooted in self but does not always concern the same outward things.  An image can be worshipped as an idol, yet the idolatry goes beyond bowing before the gilded figure--dig deeper and idolatry is connected to why we worship an idol, because we have chosen to seek benefits for ourselves and by our efforts from anything other than God.  It is easy not to make a graven image, but idolatry is a sin all people naturally have a serious problem with because we love self and shrink from walking by faith in God.

Paul explained how subtle idolatry is to believers in Colossians 3:5-7 says, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them."  Commands against idolatry are not just at the beginning of the 10 commandments but also at the end.  "Coveting is idolatry," Paul asserted.  The heart of idolatry is covetousness and self-seeking, living as if we are God or serving someone, an agenda, ideology, or our own image rather than trusting and obeying God.  Idolatry, like pride, lust and envy, are matters of the heart the Holy Spirit is able to identify and expose within us so we might repent and submit to God moving forward.

Colossians 3 as well as 1 Corinthians 10 connect sexual sin with idolatry, and seeking to look at sexually provocative images provide a better concrete example of idolatry than polishing a car.  Images in the Bible at times are described as obscene, not only because they were images worshipped rather than God but because of anatomic features people lusted over.  We can look at crude wooden or ceramic images and not lust over them, but people did as Ezekiel 20:30 says in the NIV, "Therefore say to the house of Israel: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did and lust after their vile images?"  Idolatry is directly connected to satisfying the desires of self, whether it be through money, power or sex.  Those crudely carved images people lusted over was a foreshadowing of pornography.  Society has largely moved on from glossy centerfolds of models posing nude by themselves, for now pornography is mass produced that depicts sex, people being degraded and pretending they are enjoying themselves.  Idolatry is at the heart of this abomination that results in lust, covetousness, adultery, fornication and all manner of vice.

My hope is to shed some light on the insidious nature of idolatry that fuels the fires of lust, greed and covetousness.  If we only deal with the symptoms--selling a car or deleting pornography from our devices--we have not dealt with our idolatrous hearts that refuse to trust God, are embittered because our selfish desires and expectations are unmet, the fact we are dissatisfied with God and the life He has given us.  From the very beginning mankind looked upon the chance of being like God as so attractive that Adam and Eve chose to disobey God.  That seed of idolatry was planted in the spiritual DNA of mankind and has plagued us ever since.  Thanks be to God, for He frees us from the curse of sin when we are born again by faith in Jesus Christ.  It is then we must rally to war against the sin in our members, against idolatry that beckons us with wanton glances and sexual advances.  Praise the LORD 1 Corinthians 10:13 is true for Christians:  "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."