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Deuteronomy 5.8-10
8 “‘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; 9 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, 10 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.’”
1 Corinthians 10.14; 1 John 5.21
The Westminster Catechism reminds us that “God is a Spirit, infinite and eternal…” He is not bound by any limits beyond Himself. The worship we owe to Him is thus unlimited and qualified only by our growing knowledge of and love for Him, as an unseen Being. The more we grow in the Lord, the greater our love for Him will be, and the more complete and satisfying our worship will become.
Idols, on the other hand, create limitations, forcing our ideas of the infinite God into images constructed by our own finite and fallible minds and contained within the parameters of the object we have made. Contrary to what we may suppose, such images, because they limit and constrain our understanding of God, do not enhance worship but actually confine it and, at the same time, bring the honor of the uncreated God down to the paltry substance of created things. While there is a place for depictions of God in the arts and in education, in worship all such representations must be set aside, leaving our hearts and minds free to search the infinite depths of the holy God under the guidance and tutelage of the Spirit of God alone.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.