What Does God Say About Idolatry?

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:3

The first commandment comes first for a reason. Get this one wrong and the other nine fall on their own. Before me means in My presence, and everything happens in His presence. God does not ask for a seat on your list of loyalties. He asks for a list with one name on it.

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”

Psalm 115:4-8

The psalmist runs through the anatomy of an idol. Mouths that never speak, eyes that never see, hands that never hold. Then the sentence that should stop you cold: they that make them are like unto them. You become what you worship. Worship what is alive.

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

Isaiah 42:8

God states His policy without apology. My glory will I not give to another. He says it because it is true: He is the only one in the universe whose claim on your worship holds. Every rival is a fraud, and He loves you too much to leave you to frauds.

“They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”

Jonah 2:8

One line, prayed from inside the fish. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. An idol is a lying vanity, a thing that promises and cannot pay. And the cost is exact: chase it long enough and you walk away from mercy that was already yours.

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Matthew 6:24

Jesus updates idolatry for people who own no statues. Mammon is money and everything money stands for: security, status, control. He rules out the arrangement everyone attempts, which is serving both, and He calls it impossible rather than difficult. Two masters means no master, just a tug of war with you as the rope.

“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

Colossians 3:5

Paul relocates idolatry from the temple to the heart. Covetousness, which is idolatry: wanting itself becomes worship when the wanting takes the throne. His verb is blunt. Mortify, put it to death. Idols do not retire quietly; they have to be dethroned on purpose.

“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”

1 John 5:21

This is the last sentence of John's letter, written to believers he calls little children. Keep yourselves from idols. If idolatry were only a pagan problem, the warning would be wasted ink. It is the standing threat to every heart, including a believing one. Keep watch daily.