Psalm 139:23-24 ~ Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Idolatry is an offense against God. Brad Bigney defines idolatry as “anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds, and affections more than God.”[1] It is a sin that affects the vertical relationship between God and humanity. As Doug Kelly remarks, the Bible clearly shows idolatry as a pagan concept, which God’s covenant people are to avoid unless they acquire divine consequences: “Yet at the same time, it is clear that the prophets of Israel, while recognizing the pagan abuse and corruption of what they knew of God, still held them morally responsible both for their idolatry and immorality.”[2] It is a heart problem that is central to our depravity. David Powlison remarks that idolatry is by far the most frequently discussed problem in the Scriptures. The relevance of massive chunks of Scripture hangs on our understanding of idolatry.”[3]
Unless you are a pagan, you agree that idolatry affects our relationship with God. However, what if I told you that idolatry also affects our relationship with one another. What would you think? Often, we forget a crucial aspect of our humanity: God made us in His image, the image of God, the imago Dei. Because sin shatters our theology of God and the basic concept of our chief end, “to worship and glorify Him,”[4] it also shatters our concept of what it means to be human. Heath Lambert reminds us of this tragedy, “This is tragic. As image bearers, we refer to the God whose image we bear. It is wrong, corrupt, and ineffective to treat image bearers as though the one whose image they carry does not exist or is irrelevant to the problems they are facing.”[5]
The idols we love more than God will take His place. God created us to worship, and when we worship something other than our Creator, that “something” fills the desire to worship (Ex. 20:3–5; Heb. 12:28–29; Josh. 24:15-17). Those idols become the god of our life because they are all we focus on. We think about the idol. We love the idol. We nurture the idol. And because the idol has no life (Isa. 44:6-23; 1 Cor. 8:4), we receive nothing in return. If this is how we view God, we will consider others this way. We will see them as objects rather than people with hearts like ours.
When we view others as objects that get in the way of the pursuit of our idols, Bigney tells us what happens. He says:
If my heart is being ruled by a certain idol, then there are only two ways I can respond to you. If you help me get what I want, help promote my agenda—to move toward that idol, preserve it, protect it, enjoy it—then I’ll be happy with you. We’ll get along fine. I’ll treat you well. I’ll allow you into my world. But if you stand in my way, I’ll be angry, frustrated, and testy when I’m with you. There will be times when I’ll wish you weren’t even in my life because you stand in the way of what I crave. I’ll lash out at you. I’ll push you away, I’ll shut you out.[6]
We must understand the irony that our idols, although dead, will strangle the life out of us and others with whom we have relationships. This strangulation is why Paul tells the Roman church they must put their idols to death. If they do not, they will become foolish and darkened in their hearts (Rom. 1:21-23). What happens then? Conflict. Paul David Tripp writes:
Why do we seldom go through a day without some experience of conflict? The answer to all of these questions is that we think of our lives as our own, and we are more committed to the purposes of our own kingdom than we are to God’s. We need to recognize that the people in our way have been sent by a wise and Sovereign King. He never gets the wrong address and always chooses the right moment to expose our hearts and realign them to his.[7]
God brings conflict in our lives to expose our hearts. As Tripp said above, God will not allow us to put Him on a shelf because He cannot be placed on a shelf. When we are His covenant people, He will not allow us to get away with avoiding Him, pursuing other idols, and mistreating other image-bearers. He will often place some painful conflict with another human being in our lives to expose our hearts and draw us to Himself. Those people are there by His divine appointment to expose our hearts and realign them with His.[8] If you are married, your spouse is number one on that list.
How do our hearts get realigned? We repent. We turn from the idol, spiritually (and maybe physically), walk away from it, and walk toward God. This turning is the heart change. The puritan Thomas Watson states, “Satan would have Christ prove his deity by turning stones into bread. Christ wrought a far greater miracle in making stones become flesh. In repentance Christ turns a heart of stone into flesh.”[9] We must consider when God exposes the idols of our lives and repent and begin walking with Him again. More than our relationship with Him depends on it. Our relationship with others does so as well.
[1] Brad Bigney, Gospel Treason: Betraying the Gospel With Hidden Idols (Phillipsburg, P&R Publishing, 2012), 24.
[2] Douglas F. Kelly, Systematic Theology: The God Who Is: The Holy Trinity, v. 1 (Fearn, UK: Mentor Imprint, 2014), 151.
[3] David Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair,” Journal of Biblical Counseling 13, no. 2 (Winter 1995), 35.
[4] The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms: as adopted by The Presbyterian Church in America (Lawrenceville: Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 355: Question 1.
[5] Heath Lambert, The Theology of Biblical Counseling: The Doctrinal Foundations of Counseling Ministry Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016) 190.
[6] Bigney, 68.
[7] Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2002), 75, 106-107.
[8] Bigney, 58-59.
[9] Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth and Trust, 1999), 53.
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