Mark Driscoll » Worship Heart Doctrine Sin Culture

The opposite of worship is idolatry. Every human being—at every moment of their life, today and into eternity—is unceasingly doing 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.

Worship is a biblically faithful understanding of God combined with a biblically faithful response to him. Conversely, idolatry is an unbiblical, unfaithful understanding of God, and/or an unbiblical, unfaithful response to him.

Don't believe the hype

Underlying idolatry is the lie. In John 8:44 Jesus describes Satan as “the father of lies.” The lie in its various forms says that you are god, you can become a god, you are a part of god, you are worthy of worship as a god, you can be the source of your own life’s identity and meaning, you can transform yourself, and you can transform the world and its sin problem as a sort of hero/savior. The answer, therefore, is not to look outward to God for identity, meaning, insight, and salvation. Rather, the answer is to look inward to self for identity, meaning, insight, and personal liberation. The answer, the lie says, is to be found in me rather than in a Creator God who is separate from me and who rules over me. Helpful in this inward process are such things as drugs, trances, yoga, meditation, self-esteem, self-actualization, self-improvement, and self-help, all of which allow a person to go inward for peace, harmony, and enlightenment, it is said, by enabling him or her to experience oneness with the divine consciousness.

Exchanging the truth for the lie

Echoing Jesus, Paul examines worship and idolatry brilliantly in Romans 1:18–32 by contrasting the “lie” of idolatry and the “truth” of worship. His thesis statement on all of this is Romans 1:25, which speaks of idolaters who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

The truth is what we will call two-ism. Two-ism is the biblical doctrine that the Creator and creation are separate and that creation is subject to the Creator. Visually, you can think of this in terms of two circles, with one being God the Creator and the other containing all of his creation.

The lie is what we will call one-ism. One-ism is the pagan and idolatrous doctrine that there is no distinction between Creator and creation, and/or a denial that there is a Creator. The materialistic form of one-ism is atheism. Spiritual one-ism is also often called the New Age, New Spirituality, or Integrative Spirituality

Idolatry is internal

While idolatry manifests itself externally, it originates internally. This is first revealed in Ezekiel 14:1–8 as God rebukes the elders of Israel who “have taken their idols into their hearts.” Indeed, before someone sees an idol with their eyes, holds it with their hands, or speaks of it with their lips they have taken it into their heart. What this means is that they have violated the first two of the Ten Commandments choosing something as a functional god they long for in their heart, and then worshipping it by their words and deeds.

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.

Martin Luther’s insights on idolatry—that idolatry begins in the heart of the worshiper—are among the most perceptive the world has ever known. Luther says,

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.

Ways to avoid idolatry

For those wanting to avoid idolatry, the following insights might be helpful:

• Be careful of making a good thing, such as marriage, sex, children, health, success, or financial stability, an ultimate thing, or what Jesus called our “treasure.” 
• Avoid participating in any religious community where the clear truth claims of Scripture are ignored while contemplative and mystical practices are favored simply for their spiritual experience. 
• Be careful of any church or ministry wherein acts of mercy and environmental stewardship are devoid of a theology of the cross and wind up being little more than the worship of created people and things. 
• And be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing for that is a bad thing.

 

 

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