How are you? How is your week going? Have you been worshiping images this week?
In this day and age, you don’t have to go very far to come across an image. You go to a bookstore like Barnes, and it is filled with images. They’re on magazines, books, gifts, and CDs. You go online, and the internet bombards you with one image after another. TV or movies would not be a reality if images were taken out.
It would be naive for us to think that these images don’t affect us. Unfortunately, these images start to become our standard of beauty, happiness, and perfection. Before we know it, we start to worship these images. We want to become like the image we see. We want our families and our lives to look like the image the world has presented as happy and good.
The Second Commandment speaks against such idolatry. We must not worship the images of this world. And we especially must not worship images when we worship God. He is Spirit, omnipresent, omnipotent, glorious, and majestic. He is not bound by an idol/image that man has created.
In Ancient Near Eastern times, idols and images were created to better connect to the gods. It was a way to control their relationship with the gods.
However, our Triune God does not permit such image idolatry. The reason is because we don’t need these images/idols to go to God. He has first come to us.
He came to us by creating us in His image. We are not to worship the image in one another, but in our image, we have been created to worship the one true God.
However, because of sin, we have ruined this image. We worship other gods. And we worship the right God in the wrong way.
But in His grace, God has sent forth His Son, the perfect image of the invisible God, to restore our image. Through this restoration, we are able to not desire and pursue the images of this world. We are able to worship the right God in the right way.
New Life, the Second Commandment condemns us, just like all the other commandments. However, let us cling to the restoration we have in Christ, and let us worship Him in the right way.
Have a blessed week! See you on Sunday for Lord’s Day Worship. Pray for one another.
In Christ,
Pastor Tim
Photo Credit: http://www.haugen-art-gallery.com/digital-photography-tips-family-portrait-pictures-and-landscape-digital-photography-for-newbies/