Heart Idolatry

Heart Idolatry

 “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” 1 Corinthians 10:14

Many hear the word idol and think of statues of false gods. Instead, the Bible defines idolatry more broadly. Idolatry is any refusal to trust in Christ alone for identity, security, and joy. The root of all shame and sinfulness is idolatry. And the root of all idolatry is a lack of trust in God’s goodness, power, and plans. All our sin and shame are a belief that Christ is not enough in some way, thus, we turn to idols of our own making. As the Gospel-Centered Life challenges, “The key to gospel-driven transformation is learning to repent of the sin beneath the sin—the deeply rooted idolatry and unbelief that drive our more visible sins.”

 John Calvin bemoaned, “Man's nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” Richard Keyes in The Idol Factory explains, “An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero.” Hence, we can make an idol out of our spouse, family, career, reputation, belongings, appearance, or theology, etc. We can test for idols by asking these questions: I just cannot imagine life worth living if I did not have                   in my life. What am I most deeply depending on for a sense of worth, security, identity, protection, provision, purpose, or pleasure?

 We want to be in control. We want a god who will do what we want when we want, and how we want it done. We want happiness and we want it now! So, we find idols who will make us feel immediately happy. We want success, love, to take away loneliness, to feel sexual gratification, we want power, fame…fill in the blank. We want what we demand we deserve. We may even give the real God a chance to give it to us. But when God fails to deliver as we want, which the real God will always do, we turn away and make idols that we can control and predict.

 God abhors our idols! God is jealous for our love! God has determined that no cost is too high to keep wining our hearts back to Him! Even though that takes suffering and trial. The real sin of idolatry is that it is adultery in our relationship to God. It violates our covenant marriage to God. Idolatry breaks the heart of Father God, grieves the indwelling Holy Spirit, and spits in the face of Christ.  “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

 Dr. Christopher English

December 2020

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