The first two of Exodus 20’s Ten Commandments are about idolatry; why? Is God still saying anything relevant through them to us today?
Many cultures needed these commands because they have physical idols. (It’s easier to have a god you can see, so that faith isn’t necessary.) We don’t. Yet might there still be things we allow to be too central to our lives – idols, things that are, in effect, taking God’s place, things that are `beside Him`(v3) in their importance to us…?
J John invites us to think of what God means to us: God is the focal point around which my existence builds; God is often in my thoughts; I read about God, I talk about God, I desire more of God… and then he says: `An idol is anything that you could put in place of the word “God” in statements like these… Try it with “money”, “possessions”, “career”, “sports”, “relationships”… An idol is what people live for’ (Ten: Laws of Love Set In Stone, p.189). What are the most important things in life for me? If there was a fire in my house, what would I grab as I rushed out? What are the things I make sure I make time for, each day or each week, no matter what? Probably these things are good gifts from God. But we can slip into centring life on almost any of them, rather than on God Himself: our home, enjoyment, work, adventure, art, hobbies, marriage. Which is the most likely danger for me?
We are each made with a God-shaped space within us. What happens if we let an idol take that over? Well, first it robs God of His glory, and His rightful throne in our hearts. Which should really bother us! But it robs us too (`cheats us of the living God`, says J John). And, if we let anything become our idol, there will be two other vital results: it will be distorted, and it will distort us.
First, we’ll eventually end up ruining it; because turning it (work, enjoyment, marriage…) into a dominating idol at our life’s centre, something God never designed it for, will distort it, and we won’t get what we hoped; we’ll probably lose the free joy it should have given us. The result of idolatry is that good things become twisted or even destroyed through carrying a weight they can’t ultimately bear. Think about it… If we live for work we’ll probably come to hate work. When children’s `success’ or `happiness’ is central to a parent’s self-esteem, the relationship can become hopelessly controlling and unpleasant. Maybe we have possessions that matter too much to be left where they can be enjoyed; or a sporting ability that matters so much that pleasure is destroyed because now `winning is not the main thing, it’s the only thing’, and something that could have been a simple source of joy becomes the source of a sense of frustration or failure. Only God is big enough to fill the `God-position’; but if we are idolators we are forcing other things into His place, and that can destroy them.
And secondly we ourselves can be crippled, shrunken, by our idolatry; because we grow like what we worship (live for); but only God is big enough to live for. `Those who make idols will be like them`, says Psalm 115; we grow like what we live for, and if that’s idols they will distort us, reduce us, shrink us. We can start living for money, or for our family – or for football: all good gifts from God! But none of them are big enough, or lasting enough, to become all a human being lives for…
If we’re alert we’ll find these patterns time and again in our culture: putting anything but God in the `God-position’ ultimately both disappoints the idolator and distorts the idol. God made us for something far bigger than anything we can idolize – for Himself; but again, only He is big enough to fill that God-space in our lives; and only living close to Him can we get everything else into its right, glorious place and balance…
So the first two commandments pose us a crucial question. `You shall have no other gods besides me.` If we don’t have God in our lives, we will find something else to live for, to worship. But almost anything can grow into an idol. So: what is in that God-space for me? Jesus? An idol? Competing forces? What might be too important in my life? What effect is it having on my relationships? What effect is it having on my relationship with God?
We can see why Paul says the true Christian is someone who has `turned from idols to serve the living and true God` (1 Thess 1)… Repentance when we first become a Christian involves turning away totally from worshipping anything but God alone. And faith is about receiving God’s forgiveness for all my idolatries, and the filling of His Spirit to centre my life on Him alone. But for the rest of our lives, we will need that ongoing repentance, that faith, that filling…
PS We might wonder why the Second Commandment makes clear that the consequences of idolatry will go down the generations. J John is good on this too: what parents worship, he says, the children often will too. So what idolatries were present in my family background? What idolatries might I be training my children in?
