Idols

Idol worship is not merely some phenomenon of the past. It's as real and potent today as in the ancient world. But instead of idols being erected on "every high hill and every spreading tree" as in the days of Jeremiah, today they are found everywhere. Idols are in our recreation, at our work, in our relationships, in our homes and in our politics. They stand erected everywhere the human heart gazes. Only that we might have the eyes to see that we are an idol-saturated culture..

When any "good thing becomes an ultimate thing”, says Tim Keller, "it becomes an idol". What a great working definition of idolatry.

When wood or stone was carved in the ancient world, and deified, it was still considered mere wood and stone to the true Creator God. So, if the idolatry is not in the object itself, wherein lies the problem. The problem of idolatry lies never in object of the affection (the wood or stone itself), but the human heart. Idols have less to do about what's erected in the city square and a lot more to do with what's erected in the internal chambers of the human will.

The moment a good thing become an ultimate thing, it becomes our idol. Our idol might be our job, a relationship, sex, money or extreme sports. All good things created good by God for our enjoyment. But, make the good gifts of God into ultimate gifts we cannot live without and you've just erected yourself an idol.

And,keeping up with our idols is stinking labor intensive. We run and pant, ever chasing and pleading for our idol to fill us (ever see an addict on a binge?). The lie that perpetuates the racing and panting is the erroneous belief that a good thing can offer ultimate things..."It will buy me security, It will bring me significance and It will make me satisfied" we tell ourselves. The truth is that they cannot. Idols offer everything and deliver nothing. They require more and more of us, even our soul, and all the while give us nothing. Yes, idol worship is toilsome work.

Interestingly enough, when we make a good thing our god, we lose not only the replace the real God, ironically are deprived of the ‘goodness’ of that which we idolize. That good thing that we bow to, in the end becomes despicable to us because we have forced it to fill a hole that God Himself only can fill.

C.S. Lewis puts it well. "The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. And, the man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying the earlier (and only pleasurable) levels of intoxication". Whether your ultimate lover is your dog, your Jack Daniels, your buff body or your 401K, your fixation on secondary things over primary things will lead to the collapse of those things you adore.

C.S. Lewis goes on and says, "Every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made. Apparently the world is made that way. If Esau really got his pottage in return for his birthright, then Esau was a lucky exception. You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first."

Hearken, all you idol worshippers! What you worship, will not only NOT give you what you want. . .but will leave you despising and detesting your object of worship.

So, what good thing have you been subtely making into an ultimate thing?