How to Know God

The second commandment, ‘You shall not make idols’, deals not so much with who God is, but who, or what, God is not. Idolatry is giving worship to things that are not God.

But defining an idol is difficult, so let’s try this.

A Christian could make the following statements:

• God gives purpose, meaning, and fulfilment to my life.
• God governs the way that I act.
• God is the focal point around which my existence hangs.
• God is often in my thoughts and I get enthusiastic about God.
• Thoughts of God comfort me when I am down.
• I desire more of God.

Now idolatry is where something – anything – takes the place of God in any of those statements. Try it with money, possessions, my career, holidays, sport, music, sex or almost anything else. An idol is what fills our thoughts when we lie awake at night. An idol is what our mind drifts to when it is in neutral. Idols are what we buy magazines about, idols are what we read websites on, and idols are what we spend our time, money, and energy on. Idols are the centre of gravity of our lives. Idolatry occurs when we hold any value, idea, or activity higher than God.

In essence, the second commandment is about how we love God, a relationship for which the nearest parallel we have is marriage. In marriage, there is no room for any other person; it is a unique and exclusive relationship between two people. That exclusivity is at the very heart of what a marriage is all about. And our relationship with God is to be similar.

Idols tempt us away from our exclusive bond to God. They strike at the very foundation of this relationship with him by introducing ‘someone else’. It is adultery, unfaithfulness, a breaking of a sworn agreement, and the very deepest breach of trust and devotion.

God is against idolatry. It’s precisely because he loves us so passionately that he urges us to stop being involved in anything that would hurt us – and that’s exactly what idolatry does.

Idols also enslave their followers. We may think they serve us, but it is the other way around. And idols are cruel masters.

What is more, what you worship, you end up resembling. So when we worship idols, we become more and more unreal, more and more false, and more and more dead.

There is room for only one woman’s photo in my wallet: her name is Killy. There is only room for one Lord in my life: his name is Jesus. What about you? Jonah in the Bible learned the hard way that ‘those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them’ (Jonah 2:8 NIV). We’re hurting ourselves as well as God.

If we pursue false gods, we will find ourselves disappointed and devastated. They will only take, take and take again. The true and living God gives, gives, and gives again.