Modern Christians often equate other sins to idolatry; greed, lust and the desire for unjust power are held up as modern day “false gods” that must be torn down to restore full obedience to God. Indeed, these sins are terrible and have consequences beyond the individual who commits them.
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.
Hosea 13:1-4
He exalted himself in Israel,
But through Baal he incurred guilt and died.
And now they sin more and more,
And make for themselves cast metal images,
Idols skillfully made from their silver,
All of them the work of craftsmen.
They say of them, “Let the people who sacrifice kiss the calves!”
Therefore they will be like the morning cloud
And like dew which soon disappears,
Like chaff which is blown away from the threshing floor,
And like smoke from a chimney.
Yet I have been the Lord your God
Since the land of Egypt;
And you were not to know any god except Me,
For there is no savior besides Me.
But that is the end of the comparison. Idolatry finds its most similar sins in witchcraft and divination, which both attribute powers we should only seek from God to the natural world or other spiritual beings.
The sin of idolatry is not merely a sin of misplaced priority. It is a sin of misplaced authority. Where God should be our one and only savior, we seek things we can create, thus things we can control, and ascribe the power we want to them.
There is no savior besides God.
Ethan Kirl
Paula
“The sin of idolatry is not merely a sin of misplaced priority. It is a sin of misplaced authority. ”
This powerfully clarifies idolatry!