Idols of the Heart

Ashlea and Tyler attended the New Attitude conference in Louisville over Memorial Day weekend, and they highly recommended a session by C. J. Mahaney entitled "Discern Your Heart - The Idol Factor." (This and all other sessions from that conference are available for free download at the New Attitude website.) The following is a compilation of notes I took as I listened to this very convicting message.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them... Exodus 20:1-5

Idolatry is the most frequently discussed and most seriously condemned sin in Scripture, and yet we rarely hear it discussed in Christian circles. The term often brings to mind pagan images, far removed from our modern experience. But Romans 1:25 reminds us that mankind has "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature than the Creator," and that trade has eternal consequences. Everyone, prior to becoming a new creature in Christ, worships something or someone other than God. I Thessalonians 1:9-10 depicts a sign of true conversion: "you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for His son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come." Once we are new creatures in Christ, however, the presence of sin remains in our flesh, so the propensity for idolatry also remains. I Corinthians 10:14 calls us to flee from idolatry, but our struggle with that sin will last our entire earthly lives. Many evangelicals are ignorant of the idols in their lives because they are frequently overlooked. We need spiritual discernment to detect and destroy the idols of our heart.

An idol can be anything we love in place of the true and living God, a substitute for God. Some idols are readily obvious (money, power, sexual immorality, etc.), but sometimes we have over-attachments to things that are perfectly good, which makes them less obvious. To paraphrase John Calvin, the evil in our desires usually does not lie in what we want, but that we want it too much. Our idols could be gifts from God (leisure, food, health, friendship, marriage, a job, etc.). These gifts from God can become sinful cravings, superseding our craving for God himself.

Idolatry in our hearts can be identified through Scripture (Hebrews 4:12), and by asking the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes to this sin. The church is also important because we hear the Word of God preached, and there is spiritual accountability with other believers. We are too often blind to our own sins, but there are forms of idolatry in our lives that are obvious to others who know us well. We should be willing to humble ourselves and ask our close friends to show us our idolatry.

Circumstances are also helpful in discerning idolatry in our hearts. What is our response if we don't attain something we want or if something is taken away from us (i.e. approval of others, rejection by a certain university, a relationship, etc.) We must ask ourselves if we have created a substitute for God. Idols never deliver; they always disappoint. God is always at work through those tests, and our delight must be in the Lord himself. During those tests (either adversity or prosperity), we should evaluate who or what is ruling our behavior. Our idols will be identified if we ask these questions: what do I seek, fear, desire, worry about, find refuge in, and who am I trying to please. As we study the idolatry in our lives, we should desire to "wash our hands and purify our hearts," confessing that sin and seeking forgiveness. And as we grow in godliness, we will also grow in gratefulness to God for providing a Savior to save us from our sin.