“A Picture is Worth…”

Deuteronomy 5:8-10

⁸ ‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. ⁹ You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Recently, someone in our Sunday school class asked me if it was okay to have pictures of Jesus in children’s books. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? We love pictures. We gather around grandma’s photo albums and reminisce about the days of old. We sing about them, whether it is Nickelback’s “Photograph,” Jim Croce’s “Photographs and Memories,” or Jamey Johnson’s “In Color,” to name a few.  Of course, the Sunday school question led to a discussion of what God requires in the Second Commandment. 

We live in a day and age where the thinking is “live and let live,” “if it isn’t hurting anyone, then it is okay,” or “what is right for you may not be right for me.” This kind of worldly thinking carries over into the Church and is especially applicable to this issue of pictures of Jesus. It is not anything new. The Church has dealt with it for centuries. Rome and Constantinople disagreed with each other in the AD 1100s, and the Westminster Divines addressed the issue in the Confession and Catechisms.  Dr. Gordon Reed states, “The gods of wealth, power, affluence, and sensuality have captured the minds and hearts of people today as no stone or metal image could ever do in ancient days. What thinking person could fail to see the tremendous hold these modern gods have on people today? Many Christians ignore this prohibition and worship, or attempt to worship, God through images, statues, pictures, and man-made rituals and forms.”¹

The Westminster Larger Catechism question and answer 109 states:

Question 109: What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer: The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature: Whatsoever; all worshiping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any representation of feigned deities, and all worship of them, or service belonging to them; all superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent, or any other pretense: Whatsoever; simony; sacrilege; all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and ordinances which God has appointed. (Emphasis mine)

And The Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer 51 states:

Question. 51: What is forbidden in the second commandment?

Answer: The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his Word.

Again, my mentor Dr. Reed states, “Not only are we to avoid any forms of worship contrary to the Word, but also any images of God, either inwardly of the mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness. We are also warned against accepting traditions of worship which do not come from the Word.”² Unfortunately, there are many churches, good Reformed and Presbyterian churches, that have stained glass windows with a depiction of Jesus. Some allow Sunday school materials in the classroom of adults and children that contain pictures of Christ as a teaching aid. As noble as this sentiment is, our Confession and Catechisms teach us that Scripture says they should not do it. 

The crux of the matter is this—we should not have anything that contains a picture of Jesus or the other two persons of the Trinity, for that matter.  We cannot think it is not a big deal because it is a big deal to God. He gave a commandment not to do it, and it was the second commandment after “you shall have no other Gods besides me.” If it is essential to God, should it not be necessary to us? As our creator, He reserves the right to tell us how and how not to worship Him. God requires us to worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). All that is needed to know Him with “the eyes of your heart” (Eph. 1:18) is the Word of God. So, is a picture worth a thousand words? In this case, no. The words in God’s Word are worth infinitely more than a picture. 

¹ Gordon K. Reed, Westminster Daily Devotional (Philadelphia: Fortress Book Publishers, 2008), May 24.

² Ibid., May 28.

All Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.