Is There any Sin but Idolatry?

Recently, I was guest preaching at an Assisted Living Center in Memphis, and I felt lead to show how all the ten commandments could probably be restated as: "Because you love your neighbor, you shall not bear false witness..." or "because you love your God, you shall have no other gods before me.."

This thought came from verses suggesting that love is the root of all the commandments, to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

In a similar thought, I looked at each commandment in its relation to the first and second commands, about idolatry.

If one becomes one's own idol, you may bear false witness against your neighbor. If pleasure becomes an idol, you may commit adultery. The disturbing thing about this line of thought is that all idols demand sacrifices. In adultery very clearly, the adulterer sacrifices his wife, children, reputation and witness on the altar of pleasure.

Since pride seems to place our desires first, it is indeed idolatry. It is pride that cast down Satan.

Other verses even combine these two thoughts, such as "it the love of money that is root of all kinds of evil." Note it is the love of it that makes it an idol.

Would that we would love Him who first loved us that much.

David Peel