40. What is idolatry?

Idolators are:

a) those who value/love/trust something or someone else more than (or instead of) God;

b) those who forget their Creator for His creation and those who honour the tools and gifts of God more than God Himself.

• I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. (Isaiah 42:8)
• No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Matthew 6:24)
• He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:37)
• Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. (Jeremiah 17:5)

An idol is anything that keeps us from God and pulls us away from Him. It is something we first value as much as God, and then more than God. That (idol) becomes our “god” that we depend on and fully trust in. Idolatry is serving another “god”.

Money, honour, health, beauty, success, fashion, sport, art, technology, science and even man or animals can become idols.