Redeemed Woman

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or 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. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:3-6 (ESV)

Before I say more, I confess that the Bible is indeed the written, infallible, all-sufficient words of the living God, Yahweh, creator of heaven and earth (Psalms 19:7-11; Psalms 119; 2 Timothy 3:16). I confess my belief that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)” You can no more separate God from His Word than you can separate the sun rays from the sun itself. So how is it possible for the Bible to become an idol? Unfortunately, man has the unique ability to turn anything, even good things, into idols. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our lives. Here are some of my reflections on Bible idolatry.

Do you read it?

Have you ever been to a church service where the preacher passionately waves the Bible in the air from the pulpit but never actually reads from it? In the simplest sense, when your Bible becomes mere home decor or church decor, or a collection of ancient books, Bible idolatry is a real possibility. The Bible receives high lip-service, but it is rarely read by you. The Bible “thing” is nothing more than a religious prop rather than the holy revelations of God worth studying. The Bible “thing” has become a physical idol.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul” Bible

You idolize the Bible if you read Bible verses as a mere checklist duty to fulfill your spiritual obligations. Bible reading becomes some sort of self-help therapy divorced from the living God who spoke it. A verse read here, and a verse read there like a tossed “Chicken Soup for the Soul” may superficially satisfy your spiritual appetite, but your mind remains fixed on earthly things rather than the things of God. You have not engaged in seeking the LORD by understanding God’s words in context. Most importantly, your life does not have the fruits of submission to Jesus as LORD and Savior. How do you know if you have submitted? You “live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. (1 Peter 4:1-3)” 

Final Thoughts

Virtually, most of the world has access to God’s Word. Those of us who own Bibles (or smart phones) but never read from them will have no excuse before God. Those dusty Bibles will be witnesses against us. ”God, I didn’t know” will no longer be a valid excuse. If we get frustrated in our spiritual life because we can’t “hear” from God or “feel” God, it is our own fault. We have no need to ascend into the heavens or descend into the abyss to retrieve God’s revelations as if they were far off; He has delivered His Word to us in plain human language for us to understand (Romans 10:6-8). We must not forget that when we open the Bible to read it, we are in the presence of God.

Furthermore, I do NOT mean to belittle the power of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word that somehow, we can limit His work (Matthew 4:4; John 16:7-13; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12). Despite our mishandling of God’s Word, every one of God’s words will accomplish its purpose (Isaiah 55:10-11). The Bible will either lead one to brokenness and salvation, or it leads to the multiplying of God’s just wrath (Hebrews 4:12; Hebrews 6:4-8; Hebrews 10:26-27; 2 Corinthians 7:10). All the more reason for us to examine ourselves in how we view and read our Bibles!