We are what we worship

The Bible has a lot to say about mankind, and one of the biggest issues that rubs against modern culture is the fact that we are a people made for worship, or as I heard it put a couple of weeks ago, we as a species are less Homo sapiens or thinking man and much more Home adorans or worshipping man. We may resist it, but the continuing mirror held up to us is that if we are not worshipping the true God, then someone or something else will receive our worship.

All fine and well, but I've been struck recently by the fact that the object of our worship doesn't leave us unchanged, and so we are not only made for worship but made to be transformed by our worship. So then, if our worship is something false, then the results will be clear:

"The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak;

they have eyes, but do not see;

they have ears but do not hear,

nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them!'

Psalm 135:15-18

We will become what we worship. Tom Wright brilliantly rams this point home by revealing the truth of this Psalm in our modern context:

"Those who worship money define themselves in terms of it, and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners or customers rather than human beings. Those who worship sex define themselves in terms of it (their preferences, their practices, their past histories) and increasingly treat people as actual or potential sex objects. Those who worship power define themselves in terms of it, and treat other people as collaborators, competitors or pawns. These and many kinds of idolatry combine in a thousand ways, all of them damaging to the image-bearing quality of the people concerned and the lives of those they touch."

Surprised by Hope, pg 195

Idolatry is something real and very much alive among us, and so it becomes less of a trivial issue when we open our eyes not only to its existence, but they very real and present damage that it is causing to people around us.