When we think of the word “idolatry” our minds tend to conjure up all sorts of images based upon history or what we’ve seen in various media outlets.  Maybe we think of half-naked tribal peoples bowing and burning incense before a large grotesque face carved out of stone.  Or perhaps we imagine some  nubile virgin laying atop an altar as a witch doctor prepares to plunge a twisted blade into her heart while chanting in a strange tongue.  Or maybe we even look to other religions and cults that exist today whose practices seem taboo or foreign to us western occidentals.  The reality, however, is that idolatry hits much closer to home than you might think.  I would go so far as to say that every Christian who has ever walked the earth has engaged in it in one form or another and some or most to great extents.  Surprised?  It is actually one of the major stumbling blocks to living a life that is wholly devoted to God.  We live in a world that is chock full of distractions, where every pleasure and want can be temporarily satisfied merely by tossing a little money it’s way.   Unfortunately, this very often leads to bondage, or at the very least, hinders one from becoming all that he could be for Christ.  In effect, believers stop serving the Lord, and start serving their acquired vice.  So then if idolatry is such a problem amongst Christians, we must identify it for what it is, that we might live as we should.  And to identify it accurately we must turn to the source of all authority, that being the Bible.

Let’s start off in the book of Matthew, specifically in the 6th chapter at verse 24 which reads thus;

²⁴No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

-KJV

So, a few things to look at in this passage.  Firstly, notice the word “serve”.  The original Greek word is douleuõ which is the verb form of doulos which means “slave”.  Being that the verb douleuo is in the “present tense,” we can understand this to mean an ongoing act of being enslaved to a master. Now the word masters is translated from the Greek word kurios, which can be translated a few different ways, all pertaining to and adding strength to the verse. 1) He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord the possessor and disposer of a thing 2) The owner; one who has control of the person, the master 3) Is a title of honor expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master 4) This title is given to: God, the Messiah.  What is revealed to us then, is a picture of a slave torn between serving, or being enslaved to, two masters.

Skipping over the center of the passage, (we’ll get to that shortly), let’s look at the last sentence in which both masters are identified.  First, we see that the first Master is God, which should be without need of further explanation.  The second master, however, is a somewhat strange word that should be exposited in order to fully understand why Jesus used that specific word and form.  The word mammon is a Greek transliteration of the Aramaic word mamona meaning “wealth” or “property”.  The root of this word in both Aramaic and Hebrew let us know that the word mammon used here is to mean the confidence and reliance upon worldly wealth, property, or basically anything under the sun that one might take stock in.

The question is now begged, “Can one serve God fully, yet at the same time, put his stock and trust in worldly things?”.  Jesus answers emphatically in the negative.  We are told that he (the slave) “will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”  Jesus seems to be implying that there are only options for the two extremes; that there is no middle ground.  This is to impress a couple important points to the hearer.  First, the nature of slavery is a full-time commitment.  It would be absolutely impossible for a slave to serve two masters.  Remember, this is not the same thing as having two jobs, where you work awhile at one and then go to the other.  Slavery means that you are at the beck and call of your master at all times.  If you are busy with a task for one master, it would be impossible to be at the immediate call of the other master. Therefore, you cannot be the doulos of two masters.

The second point, stemming from the first, that is made is the idea that partial servitude is no servitude at all.  Partial servitude to God is full servitude to mammon, which is rendered as no servitude to God.  In other words, God demands everything that we are.  We should be able to give up anything in this world at the drop of a hat for His sake and not think twice about it.  After all, nothing exists in this world that was not from within God, as He is the originator of all things and is sovereign over all things.  Therefore, it is silly to think that you can actually own anything at all in this world, let alone put your confidence in those things.  And so from this verse we can glean that whatever it is that we put first before God, whether it be money, work, various sinful habits, hobbies, family, etc. (basically anything that causes us to not fully serve Him as a slave to a master), can constitute idolatry.

Now that we understand how God defines idolatry, we are left with a decision.  Either we serve God fully, or we don’t.  Let’s look now into the Old Testament to the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal where he asks a question that all of us need to weigh and answer. We will be looking at 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 21.

At this point in the story, we see that Israel, currently under the rule of King Ahab, has fallen into the worship of Baal, the principal deity of the surrounding regions, and forsaken the commandments of the Lord.  Along comes Elijah, the prophet of God, to issue a challenge to those that would side with the worshipers of Baal.  He commands that all of Israel and all the prophets of Baal be gathered together so that the true God of Israel might be revealed.  And so we pick up in verse 21;

21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

-KJV

What a piercing question this is!  To answer this question is to be a witness against yourself!  We already know from the verse in Matthew that you may only serve one master and that there is no such thing as “partial discipleship”, so, if the Lord be God, follow Him!  If you choose mammon, then it is your god, and follow it.  Be honest with yourself and look with clarity into your heart.  Are you willing to let go of everything for the sake of following the Lord? Are you willing to give up the lyrically degenerate music, the internet porn, the excessive booze, the girlfriend or boyfriend that’s dragging you down, or anything else the Lord might find offensive or unbecoming of His own?  As a perfect example of the attitude we should take when it comes to clearing the junk and mung from our lives, let’s look at King Josiah and what he did to bring about spiritual reform in a pagan Israel.  This is 2 Kings chapter 23 verses 4-20.  I know this is pretty much the whole chapter, but in it’s entirety we see that nothing less than a total eradication of sin and spiritual debris will do.

4  Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

5  He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.

6  He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

7  He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.

8  Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.

9  Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

10  He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.

11  He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12  The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.

13  The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

14  He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.

15  Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down Then he demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.

16 Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.

17 Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

18 He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the LORD; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.

20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

-NASB

And there you have it.  King Josiah did not leave any remnant of the pagan influence standing or alive.  He engaged in complete, remorseless, and total destruction of everything that was holding Israel back from the Lord’s blessing.  We too must be absolutely merciless and without regret when it comes to purging ourselves of foreign masters that would vie for our loyalties.  We must serve God with a single-eyed devotion.  In our society we are faced with innumerable distractions that would seek to take our hearts away from our Lord and spiritually cripple us.  Let us be ever vigilant in guarding our hearts and minds that we might not “play the harlot”.  The line in the sand was drawn eons ago between the Lord God and the prince of this world.  Whose side are you on?

SEB