Danger: That’s Not God You’re Following, It’s YOUR Idol
I want you to listen very carefully because idolatry isn’t always very blatant. When you get caught up in what is called idolatry, that is to put things before God, to worship other gods instead of the one true living God. And that begins to affect every aspect of your life. Now, you might be saying, “Well, I don’t do that.
I don’t serve a God by another name or I’m not worshiping false beings or false gods.” Well, sometimes idolatry comes simply in the form of compromise. Sometimes idolatry is simply expressed in the way we spend our time. Sometimes idolatry is expressed simply in where we put our attention. Now in 1 Corinthians 10 6-7 and in verse 14 the scripture says this.
These things happened as a warning to us so that we would not crave evil things as they did or worship idols as some of them did as the scriptures say. The people celebrated with feasting and drinking and they indulged in pagan realry. So my dear friends flee from the worship of idols. So idolatry, yes, in its very basic sense, is the worship of a false god.
But as we’ll learn as we progress through the scriptures, it’s deeper than that. And it can be more subtle than that. In Exodus 20:es 3-6, we read this. You must not have any other gods but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
You must not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children, and the entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations, on those who love me and obey my commands.
So here we see though idolatry was first introduced as something that was sinful in the Old Testament, we understand that in principle that still carries over to today. And it’s severe. There are severe consequences for idolatry. Not just in the chaos that you invite in your everyday life, but also in the way that it affects you internally.
In Leviticus 26:1, we read, “Do not make idols or set up carved images or sacred pillars or sculptured stones in your land so you may worship them. I am the Lord your God.” So yes, idolatry again in its basic sense is to worship another God, to worship another image, to construct for yourself your idea of what you think God is and worshiping that instead of the one true living God.
