Are You Guilty of Idolatry?

Who me? Of course not! The very idea is preposterous! I would never bow down in front of any idol. I'm civilized.

But what if I told you that you didn't have to worship an idol in the popular sense of the word to be guilty of idolatry?

Idolatry can be simply defined as the following: any and every attempt by man to be guided and governed by his own will rather than by the will of God. Idolatry is any and every attempt by man to be guided and governed by his own word rather than by the word of God. Idolatry is any and every attempt by man to be guided and governed by his own law rather than by the law of God.

When we substitute our will, our word, or our law for God's we are idolaters, and become guilty of idolatry. Your might as well bow down in front of a graven image, because you are just as guilty.

In today's post-modern world there can be all sorts of idolatry:

• Idolatry of Statism
• Idolatry of Corporation
• Idolatry of Appearance
• Idolatry of Wealth
• Idolatry of Entertainment
• Idolatry of Sex

And the list could go on and on. In Ephesians the author equates being covetous with idolatry. That if one desires anything that belongs to someone else, then they have no inheritance in God's Kingdom.

Ephesians 5:5 -

"For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

We generally think of idolatry as worship of a created thing. Whether it be money, statues, cars video games you name it, they are all creations. But could idolatry be the worship of simply an idea?

Creation is a two step process. The first step of the creative process is thought. The second step is creating the thought in visible, tangible form. So would it be possible to bow down and worship a thought the same as one would bow down and worship before the created object or being?