“Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. “When they know God,” wrote Paul, “they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” A. W. Tozer.
It is commonly thought that idolatry has to do with kneeling before wood or metal objects that have some name of a deity attached. This is simply and deceptively false. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry” (Col 3:5). When we think that idolatry really has to do with acts of adoration to inanimate pieces of wood or metal with names of deity on them, we have cleared the path to sin without guilt. Colossians 3:5 tells us that greed is idolatry. We can only understand that if we come to the realization that idolatry is primarily spiritual and of the heart. When we are greedy for money or other things, our love is given to those things and we love those things and pay homage to them as more worthy of ourselves than God is. That is idolatry.
If we think of idolatry as being the “entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him, how can we reconcile that thought with Colossians 3:5? Actually, the idolatry in the heart of the person that is greedy for money really consists in lowered thoughts of God. The only way anyone could possibly be greedy is if they traded the concept of the true God for a much lower one. How vile it is for a human being to trust in money rather than God. How vile it is for a human being to give his love to an inanimate object such as money rather than God. Surely, then, the human being has chosen money over God because God was lowered in the mind first.
But what human can be free from idolatry if Tozer’s definition is correct? Who can think thoughts that are worthy of God in His glory? Clearly fallen man cannot have perfectly clear and accurate thoughts of God. However, this is what it really means to be conformed to Christ. Indeed man is to be conformed to Christ in his life, but this can only come when the thoughts of God are growing to be more like God. Jesus Christ was and is the perfect representation of God and His glory on earth. He came to reveal God (John 1:18). The actions of Christ were not just to show us what good works are like, but to show us what God is like. So when we look at an action of Christ, we should learn something of the character and glory of God. After all, Christ was the tabernacle of God and His glory that consisted of grace and truth shone forth from His tabernacle during the whole life of Christ.
The entertainment of ideas of God that are unworthy of Him is a hideous sin but is also the source of all other sin. The serpent in the Garden tried to get Eve to think of God in a way that was unworthy of Him. He insinuated that God was selfish and simply did not want her to be like Him. He insinuated that God did not have her best interests in mind. When Eve began to have unworthy thoughts of God, sinful behavior was sure to follow. The same thing is true of our evangelism, worship, and all that goes on at church and in life. If God has given us all that we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (II Peter 1:3-4), then this would require the knowledge to be accurate and true. How would the promises of God come through inaccurate information and knowledge of Him? Whatever God has, then, for His people regarding godliness and life comes through the truth about Him. After all, Jesus is the truth and He is the only way to the Father. The only way to be sanctified is through the truth (John 17:17). God regenerates through the word of truth (James 1:18) and He always uses the truth. Eternal life is defined by knowing God (John 17:3) and so people only have the life of God to the degree that they know God. Can one know God and have unworthy ideas of Him?
It must be a priority in the churches to teach the character of God through Christ in order to deliver the churches from the form of idolatry (the root of all kinds) that consists in unworthy ideas of God. There is a sense in which no one really has low or high views of God, but rather true or idolatrous ones. Each church is determined by whether it is even a church or not in a large degree by whether its ideas of God are true or idolatrous. When a man preaches Christ in truth, he is really preaching the truth about God revealed in Christ. When a man preaches Christ apart from the truth, he is simply committing idolatry and not preaching Christ or God at all.
God Loves... Himself 
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