10) Identity and idolatry

Identity and idolatry (click the arrow to listen)

Idolatry is not something we associate with our modern, educated world. However, it still exists in some countries even where there is formal education. It depends on their religious traditions. However, where Christianity has historically been the predominant religion, the idea of worshipping inanimate objects has long been lost.

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This fact may have led to us accepting idolatry in forms which do not involve the worship of inanimate objects; yet this ‘acceptable idolatry’ is still a form of worship. Paul alludes to it in our Philippian letter:

For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19)

This passage highlights a form of idolatry in which a ‘god’ is created by personal selfish gratification. This idolatry involved bodily indulgence (stomach), shameless sinful practices (shame), and a mentality which embraced materialism (earthly things).

The dangers of idolatry were early recognised by worshippers of the One God. Idolatry was to be combatted by accepting commandments which made it clear what was right, and what was wrong:

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)

The second of those commandments specifically warned us to avoid the dangers of idolatry. The main deception is that idols become loved more than God because of the power of selfish desire:

‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; (Deuteronomy 5:8-9)

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Idols are also a gateway to being under the influence of evil spiritual forces. This was recognised in the New Testament:

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
(1 John 5:19-21)

We are to avoid anything which becomes an idol. An idol will become a false god, and is an indication that we are under the worldly control of the devil.

We have more indications in the New Testament of what forms idolatry may take. Here is one example:

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. (Colossians 3:5-7)

Greed has the sense of the tenth commandment which was to avoid coveting. This could refer to sexual sins but also would include the greed for possessions. In our modern world this would be found in the love of money and the pursuit of riches: an idol has been created from these. Money and possessions are inanimate in as far as they are not images to bow down to. However, they can become a spiritual power which can control us to the degree that they are worshipped. Of course, in some religions where idol images are worshipped, the popular ones will be those that are supposed to bring wealth and prosperity to the worshipper.

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Having established these principles, we can now look at idolatry in terms of identity. So much of modern identity seeking is connected with body image: how we look, how we present, our sexual desires, ideas of achieving physical perfection. This is why the Christian message bluntly deals with this tendency to idolise the physical:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

Our bodies are to be subjected to self-denial. It is what Jesus spoke of when he said that we should take up our cross in order to follow Him. In this way our bodies are offered as living sacrifices through which we worship and love God. This principle of not conforming to the fashions of this world enables us to discover God’s perfect will.

In history, the worship of body image was the playground of the rich. They could afford expensive clothes, adornments and probably forms of body modification which were fashionable in those times. But now that we are relatively rich in historical terms, bodily indulgence has been made possible for so many more people. We have access to multiple fashions in clothes and beauty treatments. We have ways to develop or change our bodies to suit a popular image. We even have welfare health services which not only do the good thing of keeping us alive, but will also provide services for body modification.

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Our emphasis in these studies has been to show that our identity is found in serving God’s will and not in seeking our own indulgence. It is a weakness that when the human mind is set on earthly things, it can become obsessed with personal identity. This mentality is encouraged by the world’s promotions and its ‘influencers’. The one thing that can be said is that idolatry is never satisfied. The commandments were given to us so that we might find satisfaction. The searching of the human heart only ends when it finds Jesus and lives in the will of God – all other destinations are mirages. When St Augustine of Hippo finally realised that all the idols of his life only produced dissatisfaction, he surrendered to Jesus, confessing:

“You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”