“You shall not bow down to [idols] or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God . . .”
Last Friday, thousands of people around the world stood in line for hours to get their hands on the latest version of the iPhone. The most popular model? Like the calf that God’s people worshiped in Exodus, it was the gold edition.
For the first time ever—since the iPhone’s very beginning in 2007—Andy Girton was not a part of the throng. Deacon Andy leads the production and live events team at Mars Hill Church. Before that he worked for many years in IT and technology, at one point running tech support for keynote presentations for Bill Gates. Suffice it to say, his geek cred is impressive. And he’s worked hard to maintain that image.
“I enjoy technology,” Andy says. “It’s always been a part of my job, but it’s more than a work thing. It’s a competition. It’s a pride thing. You want the latest and greatest so that you can walk into the office and impress everyone.”
In the past, Andy would spend up to 20 hours in line for the new iPhone, arriving hours before the next would-be customer in order to guarantee that he’d get it first. By God’s grace, something changed for Andy this year.
The second commandment begins, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image” (Ex 20:4). In other words, “No idols.” When I preached through this passage last week, I showed various images from culture to prove that we still have plenty of idols in our day—even though these false gods don’t usually come in the form of “carved images.” One photo I included was of a crowd standing outside an Apple Store.
Andy took one look at the photo and knew his days of camping out for an iPhone were over.
For years, he sacrificed sleep, nights away from his family, and a whole lot of time in order to worship his iDol. Andy says, “This wasn’t the first year that my wife has said, ‘Do you really have to get it on the first day?’ But, it was the first year I finally said, ‘No, I don’t.’ That wouldn’t have happened without the Holy Spirit changing my heart.”
Deacon Andy is still looking forward to getting the new iPhone, but now he can simply enjoy it as a useful tool rather than worship it as a worth-giving god. “It wasn’t until I woke up on Friday morning that it struck me: People are getting their iPhones right now, and I’m not. And I’m actually cool with that. It sounds silly to hear myself say it, but I feel liberated.”
Andy hiking with his family
Everyone worships
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”
Andy experienced God setting him free to live free. For the remainder of the post, we’ll look at how that theologically plays out. God provided the Ten Commandments in order of importance. The first commandment teaches us who to worship (and who or what not to worship). The second commandment teaches us how to worship, and how not to worship.
It’s impossible to worship the one true God while disobeying the other commandments. Dishonor, murder, adultery, greed, lying, and envy happen because we choose to commit idolatry, worshiping the wrong god. And our false gods lead us into the slavery of sin rather than the freedom of Jesus.
The dual concepts of worship and idolatry echo throughout the Scriptures as biblical mega-themes. Over the years, a number of theologians have provided great insights on these crucial topics. I wanted to share a few in case they could be of help to you.
What is worship?
From Harold Best
Worship, rightly understood, begins with the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of Image. In his magnificent book on worship, Harold Best describes the Trinity as the uniquely “Continuous Outpourer” who continually pours himself out between the persons of the Godhead in unceasing communication, love, friendship, and joy. It follows that humans created in God’s image would also be unceasing worshipers as continuous outpourers. Best writes:
We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring—we were created in that condition, at that instant, imago Dei.
What is idolatry?
From N.T. Wright
The opposite of worship is idolatry, and every human being—at every moment of their life, today and into eternity—is unceasingly engaged in either the former or the latter. On this point N. T. Wright says:
Christians are not defined by skin colour, by gender, by geographical location, or even, shockingly, by their good behaviour. Nor are they defined by the particular type of religious feelings they may have. They are defined in terms of the god they worship. That’s why we say the Creed at the heart of our regular liturgies: we are defined as the people who believe in this god. All other definitions of the church are open to distortion. We need theology, we need doctrine, because if we don’t have it something else will come in to take its place. And any other defining marks of the church will move us in the direction of idolatry.
How can I examine my heart for idols?
From Martin Luther
Martin Luther’s insights on idolatry are among the most perceptive the world has ever known. He articulates the truth that idolatry begins in the heart of the worshiper:
Many a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and, possessions; he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. Lo, such a man also has a god, Mammon by name, i.e., money and possessions, on which he sets all his heart, and which is also the most common idol on earth. [. . .] So, too, whoever trusts and boasts that he possesses great skill, prudence, power, favor, friendship, and honor has also a god, but not this true and only God. [. . .] Therefore I repeat that the chief explanation of this point is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart entirely trusts. [. . .] Thus it is with all idolatry; for it consists not merely in erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather in the heart. [. . .] Ask and examine your heart diligently, and you will find whether it cleaves to God alone or not. If you have a heart that can expect of Him nothing but what is good, especially in want and distress, and that, moreover, renounces and forsakes everything that is not God, then you have the only true God. If, on the contrary, it cleaves to anything else, of which it expects more good and help than of God, and does not take refuge in Him, but in adversity flees from Him, then you have an idol, another god.
Why is worship better than idolatry?
From Tim Keller
Tim Keller’s teaching on worship and idolatry is excellent. He writes:
Remember this—if you don’t live for Jesus you will live for something else. If you live for career and you don’t do well it may punish you all of your life, and you will feel like a failure. If you live for your children and they don’t turn out all right you could be absolutely in torment because you feel worthless as a person.
If Jesus is your center and Lord and you fail him, he will forgive you. Your career can’t die for your sins. You might say, ‘If I were a Christian I’d be going around pursued by guilt all the time!’ But we all are being pursued by guilt because we must have an identity and there must be some standard to live up to by which we get that identity. Whatever you base your life on—you have to live up to that. Jesus is the one Lord you can live for who died for you—one who breathed his last for you. Does that sound oppressive?
The question is not “do you worship?” but, “what do you worship?” The gods we tend to choose for ourselves may provide some instant gratification, but it’s only a matter of time before they fail or abandon us—how’s that first-gen iPhone working for you these days?
The second commandment is God’s firm yet gracious reminder that we belong to him, the only true and loving God there is.
