What is Idolatry?

Hazelelponi said:

It's anything you put in the place of God in your heart and life which could be anything from money to material things to a golden calf.

You don't have to bow down to a thing, it just has to rule over you for it to be considered your God. Anything you allow to rule you is something your bowing to because you've allowed the rule.

It's the one old testament law that made it into the New Covenant of love:

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Luke 10:27
He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

Deuteronomy 6:4-7
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

So, Its whatever you've given God's place to; given primacy in your heart and life to, which is what you worship. And it can be anything.

God will convict His people if they have given place to something other than God, if His people don't listen for long enough the voice of rebuke gets quieter and that is when the true danger sets in as some people can ignore it so long they start feeling themselves righteous in their sin.

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RDKirk said:

Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. -- Romans 6

Whatever a person obeys is his god. Whatever directs a persons choices and actions is his god. Whatever occupies a persons' mind, whatever leads his decisions is his god.

One pastor has said, "Whatever subject you always want to talk with people about, given a free opportunity, whichever way your conversation always goes, is your god."

If we consider the decisions we make every day and think about "What was I obeying when I made that choice?" most people most of the time are obeying their flesh and seek constantly to satisfy its lusts. And that includes Christians.

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tdidymas said:

Old Testament idolatry was bowing down to a carved image, and all the religious (superstitious) activity surrounding it. For example, in Jeremiah it talks of making cakes to "the queen of heaven" which was a false god of the day. Another extreme activity was burning children (alive) to the god Molech. However, it can go deeper to the attitude, as we see in 1 Sam. 15:23 "rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry." So if anyone submits themselves to a false concept of God, such as Muslims, Buddhists, or other religions, or if they deliberately disobey the clear instructions of God, they are practicing idolatry, or something akin to it.

New Testament idolatry is deeper in the thinking, since Jesus told us that thinking adultery is committing it in God's eyes (Mat. 5:32). The apostle Paul wrote in Col 3:5 "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." He is saying that all of these activities are the same as idolatry, because it is trying to draw satisfaction from fleshly (evil) pleasures. It is the idol of self, the idol of pleasure; and another similar statement is that in the last days "men will love pleasure more than God," which is a statement about the idolization of selfish pleasure.

It is the same in Eph. 5:5 "For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Since those activities - immorality, impurity, and wantonness - are activities of making evil pleasures the guide of one's life, it is considered idolatry. It is not an exhaustive list, so there are certainly other things like drug and alcohol addictions that could be added to it. I think also conceit could be added, since it (evil pride) is an idolization of self. The emphasis and priority placed on right of choice in today's society is an idolization of man's autonomy, so it is also idolatry.

It is likely true that most, if not all, Christians do some of these things from time to time, but it doesn't mean they are idolatrous people. The idolator is the one who blatantly practices those activities, knowing that God is displeased by them (thereby being a rebellious person). No Christian is perfect or sinless, so we must forgive and be tolerant to whoever is immature in faith. The true believer is the one who follows the Spirit (although not in a perfect way), but is going the direction God wants them to go.

Repentance from idolatry, as with any sin, is an ongoing and continuous commitment. In this life we continue to have an inclination to idolatrous activity, and part of our mission is to be vigilant and keep fighting against the idolatry within ourselves. That is part of the nature of the Christian life; it is spiritual warfare. Therefore, the one who practices faith in Jesus for deliverance from their sin, is the true Christian, and such a person is not an idolator because God's will takes priority.
TD

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Stone-n-Steel said:

The simple answer I always liked was anything you put before God. Since I think we do that more than we know the call to not be an idol worshiper is to wake up and pay attention to what we are doing.

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Pethesedzao said:

Anyone or anything that replaces fanatical worship of Jesus Christ.

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HTacianas said:

Idolatry is assigning that to an object that rightly belongs to God. It's not something common in the Western world today.

The ancients would create objects or even beliefs and assign to them the creation of the world or the regal power of the universe. While we would say that God himself is the single sovereign in the universe and is himself only worthy of worship, an idolater would give that worship to someone or something else.

To create an object and say "this is god" is idolatry.

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