Idolatry
Everyone
is a worshipper. Everyone has a deity.
We
worship that which we cannot live without. Our deity is that for which we would
sacrifice all else – it is for us the greatest good and the ultimate goal in
life. When the most important reality in our life is anything other than the
true God, we are guilty of idolatry. This has sad and serious consequences.
1) The
pressure it puts on us
Consider
a man whose idol is sport. This is what he lives for. He must, at all costs, be
considered great. His god calls for him continually to strive and sacrifice,
and if he doesn’t, his life will be worth nothing.
It
is for this reason that many sportsmen and women have been prepared to cheat. The
God of success didn’t deliver a commandment which forbids lying. That’s why the
first of the Ten Commandments is ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’
It’s not just the first commandment – it’s the all-important commandment. If
you disobey this, you will disobey any of the others should your new god demand
it. When you find out why someone is prepared to lie, you have found that
person’s god.
What
about the person who lives to help others? Surely it is good to help others? It
is, but if you take a good thing and make it the ultimate thing it will crush
you. If helping others is your life’s purpose, then, if you come into
circumstances in which you can’t help others, you are going to feel that your
life is no longer of any value. You have lost the reason for your existence.
The
pop singer Madonna eloquently describes the pressure that comes from making
fame your idol:
I
have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible
feeling of inadequacy . . . I push past one spell of it and discover myself as
a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre
and uninteresting . . . Again and again.
My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s
always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I
still have to prove that I’m Somebody.
My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.[1]
Madonna’s
quest to be worshipped as a goddess turned her into a slave. This is where
idolatry takes you. False gods offer no rest, forgiveness or atonement – if we
fail, we alone bear the consequences, and often there is no way back.
By
contrast, the true God offers rest. Salvation is not what you do for God, but
what He has done for you in Christ. A Christian doesn’t work to be accepted; he works because he is accepted. His salvation is
guaranteed. He knows that, while he can lose good things, he can never lose the
ultimate thing, his relationship with God. Nothing can threaten that.
2) The
pride it breeds within us
False
gods only bless those who are good enough. Whether we think of secular gods
like fame, money or beauty, or religious gods such as Allah, Shiva or the gods
of the cults, you only receive their blessing by being better than others.
If
popularity and acceptance are what make your life worth living, then whenever
you meet someone less popular than you, you will think you are more valuable
than that person. If you’re popular you’re obviously better.
The
gods of religion only accept those who are good enough. Religion is a
works-based enterprise. If you ultimately attain salvation it will be because
you have earned it, and you will therefore have something to boast about. You
will look down on those who are less diligent or devoted.
What
a contrast all this is with the true God! He doesn’t accept those who are
worthy, because no one is. God receives people on the basis of grace not merit.
He saves the guilty not the good. This leaves us with nothing in which to
boast. Stripping us of pride, it gives all the glory for our salvation to God. As
Timothy Keller puts it, to be accepted by God ‘all you need is need, all you
need is nothing.’[2]
3) The
prospect it takes from us
A
false god leaves you with no hope for the future. Beauty fades, fame passes, for
nothing in this world lasts. Isaiah 14 talks about the demise of the king of
Babylon. This man gloried in his power, but he left it all behind and found
himself in hell. There he was greeted with contempt by the rest of the damned
who asked, “Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?” (v 10).
He lived for power, but his god abandoned him.
In
Luke 16:19-31 the Lord Jesus spoke about a man who lived for riches. When he
died he arrived in hell. He is referred to only as “the rich man”. His identity
was bound up in his wealth, and yet this could do him no good in hell, for he
had to beg for a drop of water to cool his tongue.
Whether
it’s power, money, beauty, family, career, pleasure or anything else, all these
gods rob you of any hope beyond the grave.
No
salvation is to be found in the false gods of religion.. Only the true God can
save. In Isaiah 45:22 God issues this appeal:
Look
to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no
other.” (NKJV)
The
God of the Bible alone is the living God. He has proven Himself to be a loving
God by providing salvation for us at infinite cost to Himself. Look to Him for
salvation and accept no imitations.
