Idolatry Quotes

• If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is anything that you seek with greater fervor than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol, and conversion means a turning from every idol.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Giving Up, Mean, Idols

  19 Copy quote

• Not only the adoration of images is idolatry, but also trust in one's own righteousness, works and merits, and putting confidence in riches and power. As the latter is the commonest, so it also is the most noxious.

  Martin Luther

  Riches, Merit, Latter

  Martin Luther (1959). “What Luther says: an anthology”

  104 Copy quote

  Show source

• We make a god out of whatever we find most joy in. So find your joy in God and be done with all idolatry.

  John Piper

  Joy, Done

  22 Copy quote

• The opposite of Christianity is not atheism, but idolatry.

  Peter Kreeft

  Opposites, Atheism, Christianity

  67 Copy quote

• The Human heart is an idol factory.

  John Calvin

  Heart, Idols, Factories

  21 Copy quote

• When something becomes so important to you that it drives your behavior and commands your emotions, you are worshipping it.

  J. D. Greear

  Important, Emotion, Behavior

  J.D. Greear (2011). “Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary”, p.27, B&H Publishing Group

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing that He will not put up with in it--a second place. He who offers God a second place, offers Him no place.

  John Ruskin

  Heart, Great Men, Gods Will

  John Ruskin, Louisa Caroline Tuthill (1865). “Precious Thoughts”, p.101

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that is meant to be worshipped.

  Saint Augustine

  Used, Ought, Meant To Be

  22 Copy quote

• For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself?

  John Calvin

  Worship, Giver, Ifs

  John Calvin “Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion”, Westminster John Knox Press

  103 Copy quote

  Show source

• The idolatry the exists in a man's heart always wants to lead him away from his Savior and back to self-reliance no matter how pitiful that self-reliance is or how many times it has betrayed him.

  Matt Chandler

  Heart, Men, Self

  28 Copy quote

• If I put things between me and Christ, it is idolatry. If I put Christ between me and things, it is victory!

  Adrian Rogers

  Victory, Christ, Ifs

  89 Copy quote

• If anyone does not refrain from the love of money, he will be defiled by idolatry and so be judged as if he were one of the heathen.

  Polycarp

  Doe, Wealth, Refrain

  123 Copy quote

• The heart clings to collected treasure. Stored-up possessions get between me and God. Where my treasure is, there is my trust, my security, my comfort, my God. Treasure means idolatry.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Wisdom, Heart, Mean

  12 Copy quote

• I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily. Opposition to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind that it never had many professors.

  Isaac Newton

  Atheist, Men, Practice

  71 Copy quote

• If we esteem them too highly, good works can become the greatest idolatry.

  Martin Luther

  Christian, Good Work, Esteem

  25 Copy quote

• Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things

  Timothy Keller

  Good Things, Happens, Ultimate

  8 Copy quote

• He who offers God a second place offers Him no place.

  John Ruskin

  Offers, Second Place

  John Ruskin (1867). “Precious Thoughts: Moral and Religious. Gathered from the Works of John Ruskin, A. M.”, p.76

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The heart of all idolatry in the Bible is the de-godding of God.

  D. A. Carson

  Heart

  19 Copy quote

• Saint Augustine defined idolatry as worshiping what should be used or using what should be worshiped

  Colin S. Smith

  Saint, Augustine, Used

  Colin S. Smith (2016). “The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life: Finding Freedom in God's Commands”, p.24, Moody Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• When your thoughts and opinions become intellectual gods in rebellion against the Word of God, you are in idolatry.

  John Hagee

  Intellectual, Opinion, Rebellion

  John Hagee (1989). “Being Happy in an Unhappy World”

  33 Copy quote

  Show source

• The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Art, Government, Organisation

  Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry"

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you want to follow Jesus because He'll fix your marriage, if you want to follow Jesus because He'll give you a better life, that's idolatry. Follow Christ for the sake of Christ; He is worthy!

  Paul Washer

  Jesus, Giving, Want

  140 Copy quote

• Sunday morning in America is the greatest hour of idolatry in the whole week. Why? Because most people who are even worshiping God, are worshiping a God they don't know. They're worshiping a god that looks more like Santa Claus than the God of Scripture. They're worshiping a god that is a figment of their own imagination. They created a god in their own likeness and they worship the god they've made.

  Paul Washer

  Morning, Sunday, America

  87 Copy quote

• The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Christian, Lying, Essence

  16 Copy quote

• Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Hoarding, Wealth, Used

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.120, SCM Press

  58 Copy quote

  Show source