Idolatry I. Introduction A. Little children, guard yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21) B. Idols and idolatry often addressed in the Bible 1. Always condemned 2. Galatians 5:19-21 3. A major part of the story of the Old Testament (2 Kings 17:7-23, etc.) C. As with any subject so often mentioned in the Bible, it is good to spend some time investigating idolatry 1. How has idolatry manifested itself over time? 2. What does idolatry mean? What is its most basic concept? 3. Do we today need to worry about idolatry? D. Let us consider these matters II. Idolatry: Manifest in the Old Testament A. We begin with the Old Testament B. God's commandments were clear 1. Exodus 20:3: you shall have no other gods 2. Exodus 20:4-5: you shall not make carved images and worship them C. Idolatry then represented the worship of an image of a god 1. Judges 6:25-32: presence of an Asherah, a pillar representing a Canaanite goddess 2. Baal himself had pillars (2 Kings 3:2) D. Such was not limited merely to other gods 1. Exodus 33:3-5: golden calf as image of YHWH 2. Judges 17:3-5: Micah and his silver image of YHWH 3. 1 Kings 12:28-29: golden calves in Bethel and Dan as representations of YHWH E. Israelites, then, often made images of gods and worshipped them, including images of YHWH as a bull/calf F. Hotly condemned in the prophets 1. Prophets condemned such things 2. Use of sarcasm and mockery also 3. They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner's staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray; they commit spiritual adultery against their God (Hosea 4:12) 4. A whole little story of someone using half a piece of wood for fire and making a statue of a god with the other half and bowing down to it in Isaiah 44:9-21 G. Why would people worship pieces of wood or stone, the workmanship of man? 1. Let us not be entirely blinded by the perspective of the prophets 2. "God does not really live on the earth! Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!" (1 Kings 8:27) 3. Plenty of people, even within Israel, however, did not think in these ways! 4. Israel simply followed after the nations around them 5. Romans 1:18-25 provides the degeneration 6. As opposed to seeing everything holistically, people saw various natural forces and concluded that they were gods! 7. Many times such things were representations of the gods on account of the god's particular set of powers 8. Nevertheless, this led to people bowing down before animals, forces of nature, and other such things, when all such things are all part of the creation, subject to the Creator! H. In various ways, therefore, man created gods of his own conception 1. Egypt: gods in animal forms, representing their respective forms of power 2. Babylon: gods as dictators living in the temples of their cities, requiring human labor to provide food and other such things 3. Canaan/Syria: gods as representing the cycle of fertility 4. Greece: gods as immortal humans with power, with all the vicissitudes and failings of man I. Idolatry, therefore, something that did not enter God's mind, part of man's degeneracy III. Idolatry: Manifest in the New Testament A. Such idolatry continued into the days of the New Testament 1. Israel itself gave up such idolatry 2. Such idolatry, however, highly prevalent in the Greco-Roman world B. 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 1. Christians realized that there were nothing really behind idols 2. On the other hand, clear that most pagans believed in worship of idols and honoring them by eating the meat sacrificed to them 3. Christians were not to cause others to thus stumble C. Acts 17:16-31 1. Paul in Athens, moved by all the idols in the city 2. Provides excellent contrast between idols and the One True God D. Idolatry still strongly condemned 1. 1 Corinthians 5:10-11: disassociation for any Christian practicing such 2. 1 Corinthians 6:9: idolaters not inheriting the Kingdom 3. 1 Corinthians 10:7: encouragement to not be idolaters as Israel in the wilderness 4. 1 Corinthians 12:2: pagans "led astray" by "mute idols" 5. Galatians 5:19-21: one of the works of the flesh 6. 1 Peter 4:3: idolatry as deeds of the Gentiles 7. Revelation 21:8: idolaters as going to lake of fire and sulfur, the second death E. We see, then, that the state of man overall did not change much between covenants, still worshipping images made by man IV. Idolatry Today? A. From the first century to the twenty-first century, however, we do see change 1. While there are still some cultures in the world who worship idols made by human hands, such is a significantly smaller part of the population than before 2. Few in America today go to temples of various gods and offer worship to images as in the days of Rome B. Is it true, then, that idolatry is one of those sins that is "past" and not "present"? C. If idolatry were strictly limited to making images, calling them gods, and prostrating oneself to them, perhaps D. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5; cf. Colossians 3:5) 1. Covetousness, the fervent desire to obtain, greediness, is equated with idolatry 2. How can that be? E. "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24) 1. Jesus establishes that a man cannot serve two masters 2. The two under discussion? God and "Mammon" 3. "Mammon" is not a god per se, but a representation of material things 4. Compare 1 John 2:15-17, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 F. How can such things be "idolatry"? 1. We must understand from Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 that idolatry is most likely more expansive than simply making a god out of stone and worshipping it 2. Let us return to the original commandments in Exodus 20:3-5 3. There is to be no god before God 4. There shall not be made an image of anything that is to be served 5. What is the point of these commands? 6. Devotion and service to God should be primary: nothing else should get in the way of it! G. But where are the other "gods"? 1. What did we previously see about the "gods" of mankind? 2. They had no actual existence, but were creations of mankind 3. They most often represented forces in nature that were seen as being under the power of a divinity, and the divinity and its power were mingled together 4. If that was possible then, is it possible today that people worship "gods" whom they would never call such? H. The "gods" of this world 1. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) 2. Romans 6:16-23: too many serve him 3. Many serve him by serving gods of their own creation 4. Money is turned into a god and served frequently in America 5. Sex and desire has been idolized in America today, and now many serve it 6. Entertainment, self, youth, children, etc., can all take on this status! I. Therefore, we can understand the real nature of idolatry 1. Idolatry, simply put, is putting anything, real or imagined, before one's belief and service to God 2. Anything which would hinder us from pursuing God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33)! V. Idol Worship Today A. We can perceive, therefore, the types of idolatry rampant today B. Covetousness and greed (Ephesians 5:5, Colossians 3:5) 1. This has not changed since the days of the Apostles! 2. Many spend their entire lives focused on the pursuit of wealth 3. Some obtain it; many do not 4. Meanwhile, life passes on by, and what has one to show for it? 5. Ecclesiastes and 1 Timothy 6:1-18 are wise to study in this regard 6. The church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:17-22) fell prey to this mentality, and they felt that their material wealth would provide spiritual wealth without application; they were miserably wrong! C. The self 1. Many today consider themselves to be the standard of authority, implicitly or explicitly 2. Something is right or wrong by their own viewpoint 3. Whatever God has said in His Word is always subject to whether "I" agree that it is true or not 4. Such is indeed putting self before God as the object of worship, and is condemned as idolatry! D. Desire 1. In our society, the pursuit of sexuality and pleasure has reached the level of religious devotion! 2. It is commonly believed that the obtaining of fulfillment of pleasure is equivalent to salvation, and ought to be the goal of existence! 3. How much money, time, and resources are expended to this end! 4. Such is also idolatry, often represents sexual immorality, and by no means the goal of life (Galatians 5:19-21)! E. Fame/Notoriety 1. Many idolize fame 2. Immortality, in the eyes of many, is not eternal life as God's servant, but having one's place in history secured! 3. People are willing to go to any length to become famous! 4. Such also represents idolatry! F. Anything in excess of devotion 1. We could spend all day speaking of various idols 2. Time would fail us if we spoke about excessive devotion to sports teams, patriotism/nationalism, success, work, children, and so on! 3. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with many of the things mentioned 4. We by all means must make some money; sexuality is legitimate in the marriage relationship; being famous is not equal to being sinful, etc. (cf. 1 Timothy 5:8, Hebrews 13:4, etc.) 5. But when anything is taken out of its proper sphere, begins to dictate life, and infringes upon one's ability to serve God, it is an idol that must be removed! VI. The Cure for Idolatry A. We have seen, therefore, that anything can become an idol 1. If we put anything as more important than God or try to replace God with something else in our lives, we have become idolaters 2. Man has always been doing so! B. There is but one cure for idolatry: the removal of the idol! C. If there is an idol that we have put in God's place, it must be removed! 1. If we believe that we ourselves are the standard of right or wrong, or place more confidence in science or some other philosophy than God, we must get rid of those idols! 2. Colossians 2:8, Colossians 1:9-10, 2:1-4 3. We must look first to God for proper understanding of all other things, and keep our understanding of the rest of reality subject to Him D. If there is an object of devotion that hinders us from our proper service to God, it must be removed! 1. Matthew 6:33 is clear: we must put God's Kingdom and His righteousness first 2. Matthew 13:7, 22 represents the fate of those who have too many cares of the world to follow God! 3. 1 Peter 4:7: if we remain sober-minded and self-controlled, we will not take anything to excess, and have everything as balanced as it ought to be E. Hence we understand John's conclusion to his letter in 1 John 5:21 1. Assuredly he would not have God's people follow the idols of the day 2. But, indeed, God's children must be on their guard to protect themselves from any form of idolatry F. Let us keep ourselves from all idols, always keeping God and His Kingdom first! G. Invitation, Reflection, and Prayer Scripture, Meditation, and Application "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below" (Exodus 20:3-4). People throughout the ancient world would make statues which, to them, represented the various gods and goddesses they believed existed and exerted power and influence over the world. We call these statues "idols." Idolatry, therefore, concretely involved making and venerating a statue, either reflecting God Himself or some other god. God consistently has condemned idolatry, and the people of God do well to avoid idolatry. What is idolatry, and how can we avoid it? For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5). Paul condemned greed as idolatry. He likely did so in light of Jesus' warning against trying to serve both God and money (cf. Matthew 6:25). But who has made a statue out of money and have bowed down to it? Paul and Jesus would therefore have us understand idolatry can go well beyond involving making a statue and bowing down before it. How can greed prove idolatrous? They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen (Romans 1:25). Idolatry was a problem because people would give the honor, dedication, and devotion due to God our Creator to some aspect(s) of the creation He has made. This was manifestly true when people would make a statue of a person or animal and serve it as representing power over part of the creation. It remains true when people prove give more honor and dedication to some other aspect of the creation, like money, power, desire, fame, or any other created thing, than to the Creator to whom all glory and honor are due. How can we prove idolatrous even if we do not bow before a statue? Little children, guard yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21). Christians must be on guard against idolatry. We are far less likely today to be tempted to bow down before a statue imagined to represent some god or divinity. But we are still tempted to give undue honor, glory, and veneration to natural forces, to people, to systems and powers, and even to ourselves, as opposed to giving all honor, glory, and veneration to God in Christ through the Spirit. How can we well guard ourselves from idols?