Worship and Idols | Modern Day Idolatry
Most people don’t have a totem at home. Many of us, when we think of idolatry we immediately think of small wooden figures or trinkets that someone prays to thinking that the totem can hear them or has any divine power whatsoever. While this is certainly a form of idolatry, modern western culture rarely sees this form of blatant idolatry. Idolatry comes when anything takes the place of God in our lives. It seeks to intercept the worship that is rightfully due to the one, true God. The issue we face in our modern culture is not that we do not take idolatry seriously, but that our definition of idolatry has become too narrow thinking only of wooden trinkets or representations of God while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the areas of our life where we have sought to demote God and elevate creation over the creator. We have allowed the subtle idols to hold places in our hearts and experienced the consequences of our sinful idolatry in our life. For those of the faith, we must be willing to delve into the sources of our idolatry and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ throughout our lives.
Sources of Idolatry
Everyone who has put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ should take the sin of idolatry serious. To faithfully and genuinely follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, there should be nothing in our life that we elevate higher than Him. Yet, as we work through the process of our progressive sanctification, we must be willing to submit everything to the foot of the cross. Our sin represents the idolatry we cling to in choosing anything over God. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17, ESV) Idolatry stems from the love of the world over the love of God who created the world. Thus, our idolatry stems from clear desires of the world that we elevate above God disordering creation and establishing idols in our hearts.
- Lust of the Flesh – the idol of lust of the flesh seeks to indulge in every sensual desire this world has to offer. It is an idol of sensuality that seeks its own pleasure and gratification. It is never satisfied and must be starved until it atrophies away from existence. In a practical sense, this often looks like sexual desire outside of the norm that God intended. However, it also manifests in ways similar to gluttony and other forms of indulgence. We make the feeding of our bodies the ultimate god of our lives looking only to move from one pleasure to another, thinking that in these we will find satisfaction. Yet, only God can provide true satisfaction. Where the lust of the flesh seeks indulgence, when we rightly order our lives according to God’s divine rule, we know that God provides everything we need.
- Desires of the Eyes – for others, the idol of beauty reigns supreme in our lives. Beauty, looks, and aesthetics elevate beyond their rightful place until we pursue them at cost to everything else. We center our lives around the appearance of ourselves in others, ignoring the balanced life that we were intended to have. We sculpt our bodies and show off the achievements of our beauty and our glory. We indulge by continually forcing imagery into our eyes which directs our thinking. This kind of idolatry must simply be ignored and not indulged. Beauty may not be wrong, but the temptation to make an idol out of beauty can only disappoint compared with the infinite glory and beauty that comes from God.
- Pride of Life – Finally, some seek to make an idol out of the Pride of life. We center our lives around position, power, and prestige. We desire to be kings of our own world and dominate the lives of others. Achievements are not enough but we must also be glorified in our own right. We idolize our position and, in some cases, the position of our children, leeching of their achievements for our own personal pride. This type of idolatry must be crucified on the cross as an end to our former selves. We cannot rightfully take pride in our flesh while bowing our spirit to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives.
Jesus Christ As The Solution To Idolatry
The solution to the issue of sin in idolatry in our lives is to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives. “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5, ESV) Idols must be destroyed in pursuit of the greater good that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. When we worship Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in our lives, we reorient the rhythms of our life in total surrender to the creator and sustainer of all life. The idolatry we hold in our heart must be laid bare before the Lord and crucified to the cross. We die to our fleshly desires, to our idolatry, and everything else that separated us from the presence of God from the very beginning.
However, we worship Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We need a Savior to rescue us from our sin and from the plague of darkness that we willfully invited in our lives as our ill-equipped king. Furthermore, we need a Lord that can guide and direct us as we submit to the true King of the Universe. As created beings of God, albeit beloved created beings, we will bow to something. Through our worship, we glorify God as the loving creator and sustainer of all life. Only God is worthy to receive worship. Jesus, through His works on the cross sustained and redeemed creation while drawing His people to Himself. He is the High King of Heaven who holds creation in the palm of His hand and wraps His people within His loving arms. We submit our whole lives in worship to Jesus Christ, trusting that His way is better than our own, submitting our passions, our desires, and every ounce of our being. This is our spiritual act of worship, that everything we are bows before Him. The idols have been destroyed in pursuit of God who never fails, never ends, and always loves.
About The Author
Daniel Burton is the founder of The Gospel Outpost. He is passionate about discipleship and seeing people grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. To find out more about him, check out his Author Page.
