If we’re tempted to believe that any one of the ten commandments isn’t so much an issue in our day, it might be #3. Do not make an idol to worship.
After all, we don’t usually see someone bowing down in front of a physical object to worship it instead of God.
But we’d be foolish to think this isn’t a modern-day temptation.
Understand that the ten commandments are timeless. They are part of what is called the “moral law” given to the Israelites, that transcends the moment in time of the nation, and governs human conduct for all generations.
You may instantly think of “Thou shalt not steal” or “Thou shalt not kill.” And going through the full list, especially for professing Christians, we can quickly see how these commandments are relevant to our day.
We know we ought not to steal, lie, kill, commit adultery, or be covetous, while also having no gods above the Lord and not taking His name in vain. We know we ought to honor our parents (though that may be difficult) and to keep the sabbath day.
But making for ourselves idols seems a bit antiquated.
Except it’s not.
When we do talk about idolatry, we usually think of objects that are too valuable to us. Our cars, houses, jewelry, money, etc. And these certainly can be idols. But I don’t know of anyone who goes to a worship service for their car. Or prays to their lake house.
But there are many people who go into houses of worship on Sundays, sing songs to, pray to, or stretch out their hands to a god of their own making.
You see, creating an idol is man’s attempt at worshiping what he wants God to be, not who He is.
Worshiping is in our DNA as human beings. We were hard-wired to worship. We were of course meant to worship God, and our sinful nature taints that design. But whether we realize it – or acknowledge it – we will all worship something.
We further have a bent toward wanting God to fit our desires and to do things our way, instead of wanting to do things His way. We don’t want Him to ask of us hard things. We don’t want to be accountable to Him for our sin. Hey, we don’t even want to talk about sin. We don’t want to need a Savior.
We certainly don’t want to be told what we’re doing is wrong. Or tell someone else that what they’re doing is wrong. And we don’t want to be at odds with the culture – to face condescension or condemnation for our beliefs. To be seen as judgmental or unloving.
This is where so many professing Christians have fallen into a trap.
A God who commands us to adhere to a set code of sexual activity is not a God who will be popular with the masses in our day.
A God who says we are broken and totally dependent upon Him, that loves us fully and warns us that there will be eternal consequences if we don’t repent of our sin, won’t win many popularity contests.
Nor will we, His followers, if we believe, practice and preach these things.
There can be any number of reasons, even understandable ones, why people might be tempted to fall for modern-day deceptions about who God is. And we’ll talk more about those in another post. Whatever the reason, if we ignore, twist or outright refuse to believe what God has revealed about Himself in His word, we are on shaky ground.
We don’t have to have our doctrine all right to come to Jesus. But if we genuinely surrender to Him, then He will mold us into a reflection of Himself. He will not tell us to do something contrary to His word.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” – Matthew 24:35
But if we’ve rejected what He has told us, and chosen instead to recast Him in our own image, or that of popular consensus, we have created an idol.
I plead with you, let’s not do that. God is too good to settle for any substitute.
“For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.”
