Our summer preaching series is called “Gospel Treason.” It will offer a biblical look at idolatry. Idolatry is treason because it is a betrayal of the allegiance due to a homeland, its people, and their king. Idolatry ascribes false reverence to a rival ruler and damages the traitor himself. Only by worshipping the one true God can people be like their King and be made fitting citizens of His Kingdom.

Having delivered His covenant people from slavery, God sought to summarize their ethical responsibilities as a people bearing His name and image to the nations. He did this by providing 10 commandments, that “the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (Ex 20:20). The first two of these commands are prohibitions against idolatry; the first in devotion and desire, the second in the physical imaging of that devotion. God is to be the sole object of His people’s adoration; they shall not bow down to or serve any other gods. The Lord is their deliverer, who brought them out of slavery, made them a nation, and rules as their rightful King, worthy of worship.

God’s exclusive claim on His people’s adoration is an expression of His supreme worth, power, jealousy, and holiness. Only He is God. An anthropological implication underlies the prohibition against idolatry: people become like what they worship. The Psalmist writes, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 135:15-18). The Lord God is jealous for His people’s devotion because He desires union with them. In order for His people to speak and see and hear, they must worship the One who communicates, observes, and listens.

If idolatry disfigures the worshipper into the image of something less than divine, then right worship fashions his reflection to resemble his Maker. The clearest picture of the divine nature in human flesh is Christ. And so becoming like Christ, rather than a block of carved wood, is the result of right worship. Keeping the prohibitions against idolatry is thus how “we all with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory [and] are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

While treason wrongfully attributes loyalty to a rival ruler, right worship of the one true King recognizes God’s supreme worth and just claim on His people’s devotion. While treason disfigures the idolater’s own identity, right worship brings him into union with his Maker. While treason obscures the likeness between the traitor and his King, right worship images forth the transcendent God made flesh through a worshipper who is being transformed into his Maker’s image.