What’s So Bad About Idolatry?

Typically, we view the condemnation of idolatry simply as a rule mandated by the first commandment (in Exodus 20:3-6 and Deuteronomy 5:7-10). We may even go beyond the first commandment as a rule to understand that God rejects idolatry because He is a jealous god (Exodus 34:14), though what this means can be problematic given our tendency, noted by St. Augustine along with many other Patristic Fathers, to understand the infinite and incomprehensible God in finite and human terms.  

In any case, this doesn’t really tell us why idolatry is such a serious sin. For this, we can turn to Psalm 115:3-8: 

Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. 
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 
They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. 
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. 
They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; 
and they do not make a sound in their throat. 
Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them. 

On the one hand, the Psalm mocks idols: their eyes are sightless, their mouths silent, their ears unhearing, their hands unfeeling. It speaks of the foolishness of idolatry: in and of themselves, idols are powerless, inanimate, and inert.

But the Psalm also speaks of the tragedy of idolatry. The idol, created by human hands and itself lifeless, assumes power over those who create and worship it; as the Psalm expresses it, “Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.” The idol worshipper, who is made in the image of God, instead chooses to take on the image of, and to be controlled by, a lifeless idol. The idol’s creator thus becomes the victim of his own creation, which assumes power over him. Idolatry is sinful, then, not because it violates an arbitrary rule, but because it transforms an individual made in the image of God into the image of a lifeless idol that is itself the work of human hands. While still moving and breathing, the idolater is in fact dead, because the object of his worship is not alive and has remade him in its own image. 

But Psalm 115 goes beyond describing why idolatry is so sinful to recognizing the tendency toward idolatry among the people of God. Along with contrasting the foolishness of the pagan nations with the Israelites, with their belief in the one true God, the Psalm admonishes the people of God – Israel, the house of Aaron, and “you who fear the Lord” -- to trust in the Lord (Psalm 115:9-11) and notes that the dead – implicitly, those who have chosen to worship idols instead of the living God – “do not praise the Lord” (Psalm 115:17). It closes with a call “from this time forth” to worship God (Psalm 115:18), which implies a turning away from past idolatry. 

We tend to see idolatry as an issue confined to pagan and non-Christian peoples. But in his essay “Idolatry 2.0” in Surprised by Scripture, N.T. Wright, the former Anglican Bishop of Durham, writes that the pagan Greeks would easily recognize our gods. A quick glimpse at contemporary American Christianity reveals numerous gods that we often place before the one true God: 

• Narcissus, a Greek mythological figure known for his self-adoration. Sadly, the Greeks were wise enough to recognize that Narcissus was not a God; we are not. We see an image of Narcissus in Christians who refuse to wear a mask or socially distance because it infringes on their personal liberties.  
• Hedone, the Greek goddess of pleasure. When we watch Jesse Duplantis say that God told him to buy a bigger plane unless he wants his ministry to stagnate, we are witnessing worship of Hedone. The prosperity gospel – the notion that the purpose of the divinity is to pour out material and financial blessings upon us – expresses this idolatry.  
• Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of pleasure, love, and sex. Ebay tells us that we can buy the things we love; it doesn’t tell us that, if those things are inanimate objects, instead of our owning them, they will own us. 
• Mars, the Greek god of war. Worship of Mars is reflected in the love that many Christians have for guns and in the belief that our so-called “Second Amendment rights” are the foundation of American democracy. We trust in our guns more than our God. 
• Mammon. Contrary to the belief of many, mammon is not a god of the ancients. When Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), he is referring, in the classic Jewish tradition, of the human tendency to make money the center of our lives, allowing it to dominate and control us. 

Many people live for their careers, others for their bodies, their houses, their smart phones, their cars, their clothing, or even their lawns. The list of modern idols is unending. But Psalm 115 calls on each of us to examine ourselves carefully and ask ourselves what the idols in our lives are, and to abandon idolatry and embrace freedom by returning to the one true God. When we do this, we can look around us and begin to understand our own connectedness to God, to humankind, as well as to the whole of God’s creation.