I was recently thinking through the issue of idolatry. Here i'll define idolatry as 'anything that we worship apart from, or delight in more than, Jesus Christ'. It is easy to see the idols of our culture if we walk into any newsagents, there we find multiple idols, gods & functional saviours displayed on the covers of magazines.
Idolatry Examples
Scantly clad (or naked women) displaying the idol of sex that says if we only had 'her' our lust would be satisfied.
Slimming magazines crying out if you had a body like 'this' you'd be happy.
Pictures of cars, (usually with a lady), telling us that all we need is that 'car' and we'll be the coolest kid in town.
Hundreds of magazines on issues like money, fashion, cosmetics, fishing, furniture, hair, trains, computers, games, trains, extreme sports, football, children's toys, TV, film and many, many more all crying out if you have this it will save you from the ordinary, it will fill your life & you will be happy.
Some of these are not evil of themselves, (others are), but i'm not saying it's wrong to have a nice car or play video games etc. But if they are our first love, the things we enjoy more than we delight in Jesus then they are idols.
But that isn't what i want to get to!
All other idols are symptoms of One idol
What connects every single one of these idols is that at root the motivating factor behind our running to them, giving our money & sacrificing our time for, is the same.
We think "I'll be happy if i have . . ." and begin pursuing whatever it is we think will provide us with joy & give more meaning to our mundane lives. Therefore these idols, false gods & functional saviours exist to serve that which we worship & delight in most; that which we want to please & exalt more than anything else . . . ourselves!
So i think it's fair to say, that all these other aspects of idolatry, all the cars, women, money, films, health foods, cosmetics and so on, are really just symptoms of the biggest idol of all.
The idol commonly known as 'ME'
Idolatry Examples
Scantly clad (or naked women) displaying the idol of sex that says if we only had 'her' our lust would be satisfied.
Slimming magazines crying out if you had a body like 'this' you'd be happy.
Pictures of cars, (usually with a lady), telling us that all we need is that 'car' and we'll be the coolest kid in town.
Hundreds of magazines on issues like money, fashion, cosmetics, fishing, furniture, hair, trains, computers, games, trains, extreme sports, football, children's toys, TV, film and many, many more all crying out if you have this it will save you from the ordinary, it will fill your life & you will be happy.
Some of these are not evil of themselves, (others are), but i'm not saying it's wrong to have a nice car or play video games etc. But if they are our first love, the things we enjoy more than we delight in Jesus then they are idols.
But that isn't what i want to get to!
All other idols are symptoms of One idol
What connects every single one of these idols is that at root the motivating factor behind our running to them, giving our money & sacrificing our time for, is the same.
We think "I'll be happy if i have . . ." and begin pursuing whatever it is we think will provide us with joy & give more meaning to our mundane lives. Therefore these idols, false gods & functional saviours exist to serve that which we worship & delight in most; that which we want to please & exalt more than anything else . . . ourselves!
So i think it's fair to say, that all these other aspects of idolatry, all the cars, women, money, films, health foods, cosmetics and so on, are really just symptoms of the biggest idol of all.
The idol commonly known as 'ME'
