Reflecting on Truth #17
Q: What is Idolatry?
A: Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . . They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. . . . (Romans 1:21, 25)
Why does this matter?
When we think of “idolatry” and “created things”, it’s easy to think only of the images, statues, and representations of gods that others worship. However, knowing that idolatry is trusting in any created thing rather than the Creator for our hope, happiness, significance and security makes us realize that we too can fall into idolatry.
In his book, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, Paul Tripp writes about his trip to northern India, where there were countless altars to the many gods of Hinduism. He recounts his experience and reflections:
“One day I stood in a temple and watched a young priest feed, bathe, and clothe an idol. I watched his colleague lie prostrate on the floor before an image of wood and gold. I was overcome by their sincerity and devotion. These inanimate images controlled every waking moment of the priests’ young lives, even though they have no ability to see, speak, or act in any way beneficial to their worshipers…One day I entered a temple and watched person after person do homage to a fifteen-foot, black stone phallus. I thought to myself , How blind and deceived these people must be! How utterly disgusting this must be in the eyes of the true and living God!...But as I looked back at the temple, I was humbled by the thought that I am like them. My idols are not the overt idols of Hindu polytheism; they are the covert idols of my heart. But either way, they are god-replacements. From God’s vantage point, my idols are just as disgusting as anything I had seen that day. They command my daily devotion, shape my daily routine, and guide the way I interact with life, though they have no power whatsoever to deliver. There are times when I am just as deceived and blind as the young priests I observed. Overt idolatry has much to tell us about how covert idols control our lives.”
What does this mean for us?
Idolatry is treating anything as more important than Christ, loving anything more than him. What gives us security? What do we put our hope in? What do we possess that makes us proud and arrogant? What causes us to despair when we lack or do not have it? Idols can easily take root and grow in our lives. Let us thoroughly search our hearts and repent from worshiping created things instead of the Creator Himself, with the confidence that there is forgiveness in Christ Jesus.
May the Lord help us see that in Him alone is true hope, happiness, significance and security. He alone is worthy of our worship.