As a creature, man is predisposed to worship something. For all of man’s chest thumping feelings of independence and self-assuredness, at the core of our being, we will invariably worship something. Many times due to the fall of humanity it tends to self-worship. However, whether the idolatry is self or anything else other than the One True God, there is a delusion to it that is rampant, insidious, and permeating. It will invade and affect every portion of life in terms of both quality and quantity. Joshua told the children of Israel in his farewell that any god other than God was all the same (Joshua 24). Pick one. Doesn’t matter, because it all tends to the same thing. Paul identifies the heart of idolatry as covetousness (Colossians 3:5). Covetousness is either wanting something that’s not yours, or not wanting to part with something that you think belongs to you. Whatever end of the spectrum our own personal idolatry may be found on, it’s like all the little gods out there. It’s all the same, because no matter the form the delusion takes, it is not looking at reality.
You are not your own: One of the grandest delusions that the devil ever spun before man’s eyes is the idea that something of who we are belongs to us. Paul makes it clear that both our manifest (body) and intrinsic (spirit) properties are not ours but belong to God (I Corinthians 6:19-20). At the moment our minds conceive the thought that something belongs to us, we are deluded by idolatry before any action is ever taken. Those hatchlings from rotten eggs consitute the baseline and foundation from whence we will then build all the idols in our lives and experience. Whenever we think something is ours, all it takes is a stronger power or authority to step in and show us our error. For example, the day you pay off your house, just stop paying taxes, and it will become apparent very quickly how much that house is “yours.” Likewise, sometimes the Lord steps in and shows that what we thought was ours is really His.
We are not Him: It seems obvious that we are not God, and yet, when you consider man’s ways, so much of him is geared in life like he thinks he is. “I can do it,” “If it is to be, it’s up to me,” “You are the man,” “My body my choice,” etc. are the refrains from the chorus lines of the world. In all those cases and more, it goes right back to the Garden of Eden. What beguiled the woman and filled the man with prde? “You will be as gods…” From that moment, fallen humanity lives in the mindset and mantra that we are in control. This is most painfully seen through the lens of self-justification. When challenged with something we think or do, rather than ponder, consider, and potentially shift, we immediately shift gears into justification. It’s the go-to that deluded minds run to. If there was ever a man that walked this plane who could have justified Himself honorably and justly every single time, it would be Christ. However, when He suffered, He threatened not. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. Never was guile found in His mouth. (I Peter 2) Instead of running to justification, we should rather run to the throne of grace and plead with God to see whether there be any wicked way in us. (Psalm 139:24)
An “others” problem: Perhaps the most insidious thing about the delusion of idolatry is the fact that man can see the folly in someone else’s experience but not turn the mirror around to perhaps see self as guilty of the same thing. Jesus commanded us to judge rightously in Matthew 7. Before considering the mote in someone else, we should identify and deal with the beam in ourselves. The reason this delusion is so insidious is because when identifying everyone else’s idols, it can lead us to have the mentality that “I’m ok.” This furthers the delusion in ourselves and further buries and hides the idols from our own prying eyes. Maybe at one time we thought they “could” or “might” be idols. However, by seeing everyone else’s, our eyes don’t identiy our own anymore nor move the needle towards repentance and back to the Living God. Idolatry is not a “them” problem. It’s an “us” issue. Long has it been the greatest enemy to the Lord’s beloved Bride more than any “ite” or “ism” ever preached or proclaimed. The false world the delusion brings keeps us from identifying things like we should.
Friends, idolatry is not regulated to a golden image. Nor is it something that our bodies literally prostrate before. That is but one form. Idolatry plain and simple is the wanting of something that belongs to God, thinking we are God, and looking at life like our performance has it all lined and figured out. One of the things that “Lord willing” in someone’s vocabulary will do is remind us that we cannot perform by ourselves, what we do should be in keeping with the Lord’s will, and may it start with me and my walk. Two simple words that can help gear any thought away from the delusions of idolatry. Therefore, if what we just thought or said is not in keeping with the Lord’s will, focuses the glory away from God, focuses the blame somewhere else, etc. that conception is not rooted in reality. It is part of the delusion that idolatry brings leading to us living in a world of misery thinking we’re living in a land of plenty. As the old hymn says, The dearest idol I have known, what e’re that idol be. Help me to tear it from its throne, and worship only Thee. So shall my walk be close with God, calm and serene my frame. So purer light shall mark the road that leads me to the Lamb.