Contemporary idols

Some years ago, my wife and I were walking around Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California. There are a lot of beautiful homes on Balboa Island, and as we walked around, we could see people in their beautiful waterfront homes, eating dinner or playing cards. But in many of the homes, the rooms were dark except for some flickering blue images coming from a box. The people in those rooms had a mesmerized expression on their faces. They weren't talking with each other; they were just staring at the glow of the blue box.

If I had just landed on Earth from another planet, I would think: What is that? Could that be an idol?

We tend to think of idol worship as someone lying prostrate before an image of some kind. Clearly that would be idolatry. But idolatry can take many shapes and forms. And it is a problem that even those of us living in the 21st century face.

In the New Testament book of Revelation, we are told that idol worship will be rampant during the Tribulation period: "The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk" (Revelation 9:20, NIV).

Idols can be a lot of things. But essentially, an idol is this: Anyone or anything that takes the place of God in our lives. An idol is any object, idea, philosophy, habit, occupation, sport or whatever has a person's primary concern and loyalty – or to any degree, what decreases a person's trust in and loyalty to God.

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Pastor and evangelist Alan Redpath defined idolatry this way: "Our God is the person we think the most precious, for whom we would make the greatest sacrifice, and who moves our hearts with the warmest love. He is the person who, if we lost Him, would leave us desolate."

That really opens up the possibilities for what an idol can be. A lot of things could qualify as an idol in our lives. In fact, it is a true but terrifying fact that a person can attend church every week and yet be a full-tilt idolater.

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The Ten Commandments, God's Top Ten, tells us the things that we should be careful of and beware of. And the first thing he says is that we should have him as our God and have no other gods before him:

"You shall have no other gods before me.

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them" (Exodus 20:3-5, NIV).

Echoing the same thought, there was a lawyer who walked up to Jesus one day and asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke 10:25, NIV).

Jesus replied, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (verse 27, NIV).

Jesus was essentially saying that if you love God with all your heart, soul and mind, then it will dramatically impact the way you live.

When people love the Lord with all their hearts, souls and minds, then nothing else can take His place in their lives. They will not be interested in another god any more than a person who has just had a delicious dinner of filet mignon would be attracted to roadkill. They are satisfied. Their hunger has been met.

But when a person is not cultivating a close relationship with God, a love relationship, if you will, then it is only a matter of time until someone or something will take God's place.

We can allow people or things to crowd God out of our hearts, just as the Israelites' turning away from God in the wilderness immediately was followed by their worship of a golden calf. And as we look at the history of the Christian church, we find it was after believers left their first love, Jesus Christ, that they turned to idols to take his place.

This can happen to us as well. It's hard to worship an invisible God. We can't reach out and touch him. We can't hold on to his hand. Yet we are told, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24, NIV).

Someone might say, "But I need things to help me worship. The object is not the thing that I'm worshiping; I'm worshiping the God that it represents."

But God forbids that. God doesn't want us to try to relate to him in that way. He wants us to recognize that he is a Spirit, and we relate to him in an entirely new way.

Is there an idol in your heart today? As Elijah said to the idol-worshiping children of Israel on Mount Carmel, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him" (1 Kings 18:21, NIV).

The best antidote to idolatry is a passionate love relationship with Jesus Christ. When he is the Lord of our lives, we will not run after other gods. Let's keep ourselves from idols.