What is idolatry?
Exodus 20:1-5God gave the people all these instructions: “I am the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. You must not have any other god but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.”
Idolatry is putting something in God’s place, worshiping anything or anyone other than God himself.
Exodus 32:4Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
Idolatry involves shaping God into something that we think he should be or what we want him to be. It reveals our tendency to expect God to do what we expect him to do. The flip side of that coin is our tendency to ignore what God clearly expects of us.
Luke 12:34“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
Idolatry is allowing something else to become more important than God. When we attach supreme value to something, whether it is a person, possession, money, power, or education, it becomes a god that controls our lives. When we give God the supreme value in our lives, he will occupy our thoughts and will shape our character in healthy and godly ways (Philippians 4:8).
1 John 5:21Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
An idol is anything that takes God’s rightful place in our hearts.
Isaiah 44:17He [the wood-carver] takes what’s left and makes his god: a carved idol! He falls down in front of it, worshiping and praying to it. “Rescue me!” he says. “You are my god!”
Idolatry is trusting anything other than God for salvation.
