A Worship Disorder
I used to think years ago that Tim Keller’s focus on idolatry was a sophisticated, interesting, but maybe too clever of a way of talking about sin. In other words, I wondered if the focus on idolatry was a way of sidestepping the severity of sin in order to be palatable to late modern New Yorkers. But honestly, the more I’ve delved into what Keller actually wrote and preached, the more I’ve seen that I was the one who didn’t have a sufficient understanding of what he was trying to communicate. What he was trying to communicate is that sin is far worse than mere law-breaking. Is sin missing the mark, like archery arrows sailing past the target? Yes, but that’s an impersonal illustration. Sin is even worse. Sin is a worship disorder. Sin is a problem of giving our hearts and our love to lesser gods.
And so far from trying to make sin more palatable, Keller was actually trying to show sin in all its ugly colors. When you think of sin in terms of idolatry, it’s almost like being shown a three-dimensional object after only having access to a stick figure. And Keller found that, especially in New York, he was able to get traction with people who were enslaved to other things without realizing it, living for other things, things that are ultimately task masters that will demand and ultimately destroy and crush you into the ground. But only Jesus is a master who will satisfy and save. And that’s the beauty of the gospel, that true freedom is only found in Christ.
Matt Smethurst distills over 40 years of Tim Keller’s teaching topic by topic—drawing from popular books to lesser-known conference talks, interviews, and sermons—to present practical insight for generations of readers eager to grow in their walk with Christ.
Now, this emphasis on idolatry was something that developed as Keller ministered. In his first nine years of ministry, in a small town context in Virginia, his sermons didn’t hum with this theme. But when he got to New York, he read a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon on 1 John 5:21 called “Little Children, Keep Yourselves from Idols” and a David Powlison article called “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair.” These both helped him come to see that the inner workings and structures of the human heart are far more complicated and insidious than we like to let ourselves believe.
Keller would often bring out these heart diagnostics. He would ask us to look at how we spend our money, how we spend our time. He prompted us to look at how we respond to unanswered prayer, frustrated hopes, or our deepest emotions. And he would often show that an idol is not so much a bad thing as it is a good thing gone bad. An idol is a good thing made into an ultimate thing.
And how do you know if you’ve made a good thing into an ultimate thing? Well, how do you respond when it’s threatened or lost? If it’s a good thing, you’re going to respond with sorrow when it’s threatened or lost. But if it’s become an ultimate thing, you’re going to respond with absolute devastation and despair. And that is how we can know whether we have slowly and subtly put something in the place of Jesus Christ as being our most ultimate love. And when we do that, we actually aren’t just breaking God’s rules; we’re breaking ourselves against them, because he made us to know and enjoy and be satisfied in him.
Matt Smethurst is the author of Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel.
