The definition of idolatry includes far more than the worship of statues
In the crisis at the foot of Mount Sinai, what saved people was a mediator. Instead of jumping at the privilege of having God’s nation descend from his line, Moses interceded for the guilty, and God mercifully relented.
Today what saves us from God’s wrath against those who love false gods is another mediator who is infinitely greater, the one and only mediator between God and mankind, Jesus Christ. He alone can be our mediator, for he alone died on the cross for our failure to worship God exclusively. We all need Jesus to mediate our relationship with God, for all are guilty of idolatry in one form or another.
Idolatry without statues
In some cultures, idolatry involves blatantly honoring statues bearing names of false gods. It is obvious and deliberate. But in other cultures, idolatry is subtle, a matter of the heart, committed without statues but fundamentally the same.
Colossians 3:5 teaches that idolatry is essentially about love: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming” (italics added). This verse equates covetousness and greed—a matter of the heart and its loves—with idolatry.
Elsewhere the New Testament likewise speaks of betraying God in a way that involves the heart and our excessive love of what God has created, admonishing Christians, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
One’s ultimate concern
In his book Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller defines idolatry as anyone or anything that becomes our ultimate concern, ultimate love, instead of God. If our highest love centers not on God but on something he created, we commit idolatry. We do not worship him exclusively.
Over your lifetime, what have been your ultimate concerns in place of God? Is something or someone presently pushing him from his rightful place as your chief love?
Because Jesus is your mediator, you have forgiveness through faith in him. Because Jesus is your mediator, he calls you to repent of betraying God. God’s command to worship him exclusively is a critical test.
Israel failed it. Abraham passed, and to him we turn in the next post.