"You shall have no other gods before Me. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Exodus 20:3-6

For this seventh installment on idolatry, let’s consider the danger of imagining God.

All physical images begin in one’s imagination. That is where idolatry begins. So let us never “picture God,” or even the Lord Jesus, in our minds. These mental “images” can, and often do, become idols.

Imaginary (and therefore idolatrous) gods, even if we do not imagine physical appearance, are virtually always contrary to who God truly is as revealed in the Bible. God warns us against thinking about Him according to our imaginations. Psalm 50:21, God says, “You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.”

The problem with imagining God is that we end up creating God in our image. When people imagine God, they can’t imagine Him doing things they wouldn’t do—like judging sin. Our thoughts of God must be according to the Bible, or our thoughts are idols of ourselves. I am sure you can see the danger in this.

Idolatry is a huge issue, mentioned 115 times in the Old Testament, and 30 times in the New Testament, for a whopping 145 times in the entire Bible. (And that does not include the numerous times the word “image” is used!) How many times is idolatry mentioned in a positive light? You guessed it: not once.

Though so much more could be said, I will close this seven-part discussion of idolatry with the New Testament equivalent of the second commandment (Exodus 20:4-6):

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. 1 John 5:21