Warning Against False Idol Worship
The overarching theme of the Bible
If someone were to ask me to list only one overarching theme of the Bible - it would be this:
False idol worship is the path of separation FROM God and TOWARDS self-destruction.
As someone who is currently reading the Bible from beginning to end for the first time (I have read parts of the Bible throughout my life) - this message is so glaringly obvious in every book. Every chapter. Every page.
I’ve come to realize that this warning is synonymous with what Jesus said is the most important commandment - You shall Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.
We cannot avoid hierarchies. In order to act, our behavior has to be organized in a way that we choose one action over another. Otherwise, without a hierarchy that drives the selection of these actions, our actions would be randomized. The human species would cease to exist on purely randomized behaviors.
You cannot avoid choosing something to be at the top of your pyramid.
For those of us concerned with our actions being driven by morality - if we do not choose God…we choose ideology.
As well intended as some ideologies are - they lead to destruction. Often at a national level.
Jesus also explains to us we cannot serve two masters. Again - this implies our devotions are unavoidably hierarchical.
This is why the line “One nation UNDER God” is vital in the United States pledge of allegiance.
It is THE line that prevents the crossing into false idol worship territory.
It is the acknowledgment that Americans should not worship freedom itself - freedom is the tool OF worship. God gives us free will. We use that free will to shape our hierarchies - to direct our worship.
Pride is considered the root of all evil and the beginning of sin. Pride comes into action when we choose to worship the self.
The Lord is the God of perfect freedom. The Freedom from sin. Freedom from being enslaved to dopamine kicks from our developed addictions. These addictions being the result of the chasing of false idols….
And here we come full circle. As we do in every Bible story.
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