We humans have been born with a kind of spiritual “worship gene” embedded within our DNA.

So, the only question is, what or whom do we choose to worship. The consequences of our choices are decidedly eternal.

Most moderns would bristle at the notion that they worship anything. Ater all, wasn’t worship restricted to those backward ancients who didn’t know any better?

Our first hint of worship’s timeless nature is in the way the Ten Commandments start out in Exodus 20:1-4:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before Me.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

God was reminding the Israelites that they have just been released from slavery in Egypt. Do they now want to become enslaved to false gods?

God was warning His people that worship was in their blood (can you say, Golden Calf?). And that they must always restrict their spiritual loyalties to the one true God and to no other “gods,” which are nothing but lifeless idols.

As shared in Psalm 115:3-8:

“Their (the heathens) idols are silver and gold,
The work of human hands.
They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;
They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;
They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
They cannot make a sound with their throat.
Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.”

We Mirror What We Worship

The ghastly consequence of idolatry is that the participants end up mirroring what they worship spiritually.

If we worship money and wealth, we become cold, lifeless and without feeling. If we worship power, position and fame, we become selfish, self-centered and ruthless.

If we worship sex, we will become objectified, impersonal, consumed with self.

Which brings us to one of many modern-day forms of idolatry …

Scourge of Pornography

Did you know that the so-called “adult-content” sector of the global internet is a $100 billion per year industry? And the porn industry continues to grow, fueled by innovations in artificial intelligence that target the vulnerable, weak and young, including fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders.

Pornography reduces precious flesh and blood humans into lifeless digitized images projected onto a screen. And worse, porn quickly becomes a snare for users.

Reading on in Exodus 23:31-33 after God gave the Ten Commandments:

“I will set your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River; for I will hand over the inhabitants of the land to you, and you will drive them out from you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, otherwise they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it is certain to be a snare to you.”

A snare is designed to tighten when its victim tries to pull away from it. Have you ever tried to break away from the iron grip of an addiction on your own?

God had set the boundaries for Israel to be a testimony to the surrounding pagan nations, demonstrating how a nation driven by righteousness and holiness would benefit its people.

Sadly, the Old Testament is full of stories of God’s people importing foreign “gods” into the promised land and paying a terrible price as a result.

It is the same today when Christians get trapped by porn.

So, what’s so wrong with porn?

Porn is about disordered desire. It promises pleasure “at the touch of a button,” but lacks covenantal love, mutuality and personhood, and is devoid of the risk and vulnerability that accompanies true relationship as God intended.

Porn fosters escapism without personal responsibility (except to pay their bill).

Porn gives the false impression that the user is in control of the experience, ignoring the programmed content curation and risk of addiction that so often accompanies exposure to such powerful content.

Porn addiction directly competes for the user’s attention, inserting itself between the user and any relationship they may have (or not have) with the true and living God.

It becomes a “substitute god,” functioning as a source of comfort, pain remediation, “friendship” and intimacy.

As written in Romans 1:24-25:

“Therefore, God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

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