What comes to mind when you think of idols? Some of us might imagine statues of Vishnu or images of Mary. But these are just physical representations. Idolatry is centrally about worship. And worship is about the heart.
Timothy Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods, defines an idol as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”
So, it is not the case that idolatry looks as blatant as the act of bowing down to a statue. There are other kinds of idolatry. It can be manifested in an obsession with material goods or an addiction to worldly pleasures. Idolatry happens whenever the heart bows down to something other than God.
Biblically, idolatry also includes the worship of a proxy. After Aaron, the brother of Moses, constructed a golden calf in Exodus 32, he did not call the people to organize a party for other gods. He bids them to worship Yahweh, the God of Israelites (Exodus 32:5). In this way, the golden calf was a tool for worship. The people wanted something tangible, something they could see and touch. This idol was designed to meet that need and point them to their God.
But there is a problem with the golden calf. It says in Exodus 20:4, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Emphasis mine). This commandment to not make idols of other gods is also a commandment to not make idols of the one true God. If a child wants to hug a toy version of his father in place of his father, does that honour the father? We do not need proxies to substitute God.
This is all to say that there are many kinds of idols. Some are obviously pagan. Others are more subtle, lurking in the depths of our hearts. Then there are covert idols that give the false impression that you are worshipping God when you really worship a proxy, an unworthy substitute.
We, as Christians, would do well to recognize the myriad ways in which we can be deceived. Let us put our hope in Jesus, who alone is able to lift the fog and give us light.
The Many Faces Of Idolatry
