Direction From the Decalogue

Idolatry is a severe condition of the human heart. Historically speaking, idolatry tended to be a physical element to which one would render worship. As we know, we are to worship the Lord God alone. A god is that to which we render worship and service above all else. Check out what God says in Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) But even before God says that, he introduces himself in a particular way to lend credence to why what he is about to say is required. He opens the decalogue with the words, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:1-2 ESV) He is the Lord God, their (ours too) deliverer, and therefore there ought to be nothing before him in our lives! God is the only one to whom we render worship and service. From the onset, this sounds like a demand, which in a sense, it is. But, as it always is with scripture, it is the best and most reasonable path.

Note: Decalogue is just another way to say the Ten Commandments.

YHWH

The word that many of our English Bibles translate as “LORD” in Exodus 20:1-2 is the covenant name of God. It is as though he is saying; I am the one, I am the only, I am your all in all. And because of who I am (creator) and who you are (creature), what I’m about to tell you is what’s required of you. It is the terms of our relationship together. It’s like a husband and wife making their vows. The relationship suffers damage if one or the other strays outside of those vows. In the case of God and us, he lays out a set of commands that show us what it means to worship him as God. Worshiping God with our entire life is best for us despite the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We were created to worship God and God alone. Anything else falls short of the purpose for which we were created.

Romans 12:1-2

The Apostle Paul says this a little differently in Romans 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1 ESV) Paul shows us that we must give our whole lives (bodies) to the Lord! Everything we do in our bodies is meant to be worship. How does Paul tell us to do this, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to worship the Lord? By doing precisely what he says in the next verse, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2 ESV) Don’t let the culture define you. Don’t let what’s popular become your source of truth. It’s idolatry when we allow something or someone other than God to sit in the driver’s seat of life. One of the hardest pills to swallow is that the one in the driver’s seat is often us! Dying to self, dying to our self-focused desires, and seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is our calling. Who is in the driver’s seat of your life?

The Image of God

Let’s address one more thing about total service to God before moving on. Jesus gave us a pretty sweet visual in Matthew 22. The Pharisees are trying to trap him into contradicting the laws of the land by saying people shouldn’t pay their taxes. Of course, Jesus being the master strategist he is recognizes their folly. Jesus responds by telling them to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. There’s a subtlety going on here that we need to pick up. On the coin, there is an image; the Greek word for image is similar to what we would know in English as the word icon. You know, like on a computer—a little picture indicative of the program it represents. So the money contains on it the image of Caesar, and it should be rendered to Caesar, but human life is made in the image (icon) of God (Genesis 1:26-28), and human life should be rendered to God. Thus, Jesus teaches us that our life is to be rendered to God. We are to give God what belongs to him, our life!

Practically Speaking

Practically speaking, we need to take a serious inventory of what we devote our lives to. Idols come in all shapes and sizes. A few examples could be the fear of man (man’s opinion), self-serving attitudes, comfort, legalism (keeping all rules to be holy), money, status, and the list could go on and on. John Calvin said that our human nature is a perpetual forge of idolatry. That means that our fallen nature is always trying to create a tangible God to worship for us. It is part of our human predisposition. It is wise of us to be alert to this tendency and do what we can to combat it.

In the next article on idolatry, we will move into the part of the decalogue that specifically targets idolatry, and we’ll expose some interesting behavior from the golden calf incident in Exodus 32.