Idolatry

Acts 17:16 "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."

An idol is anything material which is worshiped as a god. That includes where individuals place their own self interests over their Creator's. The individual is the "god", but it's "the flesh" which is the idol. You see, each person's god is pleased when their idol is appeased. How are idols appeased? Worshipers submit to it. They kneel to it. Mankind's problem is kneeling to their own idol instead of or besides God.

Anything which pleasures the Self over God becomes and idol in self-worship. Throughout scripture graven images are not a threat to God. He destroys them himself or his emissaries do it for him. After the Jews were freed from bondage, they immediately put their chains back on! The golden calf which they worshiped in Egypt miraculously (sic), according to Aaron, appeared from nowhere even though it was they who constructed it. As they danced and sang around their idol, Moses appeared fresh from Holy Ground, threw the tablets down and destroyed the golden calf:

Exodus 32:19 "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."

The man of God destroyed the idol of gold, but the many gods lived on! We see from later events that the Hebrew people continued to long for Egypt, symbolic of sin. Just as Lot's wife did at Sodom, they looked back in fond memories of what was in Egypt. The idol was destroyed yet the gods were still very much alive. The new idol replacing the golden calf was the flesh of each person.

The flesh is the material part of each person which transmits pleasure to the individual. Pleasure takes many forms because different gods want to be pleased in different manners. All manners of pleasure, where it's directed toward Self, is sin. The true definition of sin is "doing what's right in your own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8). Sin is whatever the Self enjoys which God forbids!

The most prevalent sin is sexual. Just look at society. It's focus is on sex! People are insane for sex. It's a demonic virus which almost everyone has! It's how almost everyone appeases their Self. In fact, it was the chakra of the loins which damns most people. That's the part of the human body where spiritual power is the most intense. Unfortunately, it's not God's Holy Spirit which dwells in the loins, but your own god's unholy spirit. Because the loins are the primary erogenous zone of the Self, it's nakedness which shames us the most. It was the genitals which Adam and Eve covered because they were caught in self adoration. They did what was right in their own eyes and became their own gods.

The idols of wood, stone, clay, and gold were always easy for God to destroy, but the Self he leaves up to the  person. He could destroy that God as easily, but then it wouldn't be an act of love and worship on our part! The Jews danced around the golden calf, but it's himself that God wants his people to dance around. When David retrieved the Ark of the Lord he rejoiced because thereon is where God rested! David danced in joy to God after his idol of Self was destroyed:

2 Samuel 6:14a "And David danced before the Lord with all his might!"

You see, David danced just as did the Hebrews did around the golden calf. They sinned greatly. Similarly David danced around a Holy Place; God's mercy seat. Dancing wasn't the problem. It was that the flesh in case #1 was being pleasured, and in case #2, providing pleasure to God who takes joy in David's joy!

Likewise, is the case for sexual pleasure. That pleasure is ordained by God to suit his purpose! It's for two to become one, to multiply and to enjoy each other. That's holy sexual knowledge of each other.

If the same mechanical act of sex is used beyond it's intended purpose, then the two are doing "what is right in their own eyes" without regard to pleasing God. Fornication and adultery are grievous to God because it's the worship of each one's own Self, the other gods besides him.

God understands those ungodly people who do what they please. They claim no God, but make themselves god. They are ripe for salvation because their sins are many. They fornicate which is wrong, but when Christians have sexual relations outside of marriage, they don't abandon God, but continue on with their own idol, claiming faith, but being unfaithful. They commit adultery against their first love, God!

Sexual pleasuring of the flesh is the most obvious way to appease the Self. Whatever it is that our idol of the flesh pleasures, becomes the method of pagan worship of our Self.

For some it is sexual promiscuity. Their god is greedy and needs many to adore them. Because of pagan rituals and later pagan worship, it's right to assume that the Jews danced provocatively around the golden calf. Most idol worship involved sexual rituals and homosexual intercourse to appease idols. Some even had male temple prostitutes who engaged in sex with men and women.

However, there are other ways people appease their idol. They want power, wealth, knowledge and prestige. All of those become idol worship if they are more important than God! Some who sought wisdom committed the sin of Adam and worshiped "an unknown God" (Acts 17:23). That's who the Greek philosophers were worshiping, but in effect that is "the love of knowledge". They were worshiping their own Self.

There were all sorts of idols in Athens. Athena was the primary one. described as "the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, mathematics, olive oil, strength, war strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill..." (Wikipedia). No wonder it was wisdom who had become the god of the Athenians. They became what the serpent warned back in Genesis Chapter 3! It was their own knowledge which they worshiped. They worshiped each their own Self!

Self-worship is the god which is in competition with God. It's he that God is jealous of! He easily destroys material idols, but it's the control center for the idol which is the hardest. It's the mind which receives pleasure from the flesh and our other god is the mind. Our mind is stronger than your mind! My mind is stronger than God's mind! It's self-centeredness and the resultant rebellion which it takes to keep our god number 1!

Is there a problem with idols? There sure is! It's not the statues of Lady Liberty or Atlas or any of those. It's the statue of the many "You's" which adorn the streets of the world. It's a multitude of flesh. In order to destroy our idols, they must be handed over to God who will pulverize them and throw them in blood. We do that, not at our altar, but at God's:

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.