Dear Bro. Eli,
What is God’s main reason why fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness are considered idolatry in His eyes not only worshipping of graven images as a god?
I hope for your nice answers with biblical supports.
May the Lord always protect you.
Ally of ADD
Dear Ally of ADD,
Idolatry is the worship of image. The Greek word ‘eidololatreia’ means image worship.
eidololatreia
i-do-lol-at-ri’-ah
From G1497 and G2999; image worship (literally or figuratively): – idolatry.
(Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionary)
God prohibits the making of images and the like.
(Deuteronomy 5:7-9) “Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me…”
These are called idols in the Bible.
(Psalms 115:4-8) “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”
If we are of God, we will not even think that these images have anything divine in them.
(Acts 17:29) “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”
The reason why God does not allow us even just to make graven images (because other people claim that they do not worship them) is that, it is impossible to reflect God’s glory in anything except in the being of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Isaiah 42:8) “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”
(Hebrews 1:3) “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high…”
The Lord Jesus Christ is the “express image” of God’s person! The Father dwells in Him.
(John 14:10) “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
Not even a small amount of breath is present in any graven image.
(Habakkuk 2:18-19) “What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he that fashioneth its form trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.”
Kneeling before these idols and praying to them constitute the Old Testament term of idolatry.
(Isaiah 44:13-17) “The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshipeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.”
Why is it that in the New Testament, the term ‘idolatry’ is defined as mentioned in this verse?
(Colossians 3:5) “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry…”
Remember that idolatry means ‘image worship’. Satan, the god of this world, is another god outside of the Father. Satan has images or appearances.
(1 Thessalonians 5:22) “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
The word 'appearance' used in the preceding verse means form or shape in Greek.
εἶδος
eidos
i’-dos
From G1492; a view, that is, form (literally or figuratively): – appearance, fashion, shape, sight.
(Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionary)
The image or the form of the devil is reflected in these carnal acts: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness.
The commission of such acts constitutes idolatry or the worship of satan who is not the true God. Anyone committing such is called an idolater.
(Ephesians 5:4-5) “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
I hope and pray that you will be enlightened by these verses.
God bless you,
EFS