Famous Bible quote on
idolatry

Thou Shalt have no other Gods before Me

We must put the Lord and His cause first and refrain from worshiping false gods.

Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball.*

False gods or idols include “everything which entices a person away from duty, loyalty, and love for and service to God.” (P. 145)

Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things. . . . . men have lost the faith, they have put in its place a hope in the “arm of flesh” and in “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, hor hear, nor know” (Dan. 5:23) — that is, idols. This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in idolatry.

Idolatry is among the most serious of sins. . . .

Modern idols or false gods can take such forms as clothes, homes, businesses, machines, automobiles, pleasure boats, and numerous other material deflectors.

Intangible things make just as ready gods. Degrees and letters and titles can become idols. . . .

Many people build and furnish a home and buy the automobile fist— and then find they “cannot afford” to pay tithing. Whom do they worship? Certainly not the Lord of heaven and earth. . . (p.146)


Becoming attached to worldly things can make us vulnerable to Satan’s influence.

In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had— in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people— a condition most repugnant to the Lord.

I am reminded of an article I read some years ago about a group of men who had gone to the jungles to capture monkeys. They tried a number of different things to catch the monkeys, including nets. But finding that the nets could injure such small creatures, they finally came upon an ingenious solution. They built a large number of small boxes, and in the top of each they bored a hole just large enough for a monkey to get his hand into. They then set these boxes out under the trees and in each one they put a nut that the monkeys were particularly fond of.

When the men left, the monkeys began to come down from the trees and examine the boxes. Finding that there were nuts to be had, they reached into the boxes to get them. But when a monkey would try to withdraw his hand with the nut, he could not get his hand out of the box because his little fist, with the nut inside, was now too large.

At about this time, the men would come out of the underbrush and converge on the monkeys. And here is the curious thing: when the monkeys saw the men coming, they would shriek and scramble about with the thought of escaping; but as easy as it would have been, they would not let go of the nut so that they could withdraw their hands from the boxes and thus escape. The men captured them easily.

And so it often seems to be with people, having such a firm grasp on the things of the world— that which is telestial— that no amount of urging and no degree of emergency can persuade them to let go in favor of that which is celestial. Stan gets them in his grip easily. If we insist on spending all our time and resources building up for ourselves a worldly kingdom, that is exactly what we will inherit.

We should use our resources to build up the kingdom of God.

The Lord has blessed us as a people with a prosperity unequaled in times past. The resources that have been placed in our power are good, and necessary to our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship them as false gods, and they have power over us. . . .

Forgotten is the fact that our assignment is to use these many resources in our families . . . .to build up the kingdom of God— to raise our children up as fruitful servants unto the Lord; to bless others in every way, that they may also be fruitful. Instead, we expend these blessings on our own desires, and as Moroni said, “Ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not.” (Morm. 8:39)

Love and follow the Lord with all our hearts.

It is not enough for us to acknowledge the Lord as supreme and refrain from worshiping idols; we should love the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.

We must leave off the worship of modern-day idols and a reliance on the “arm of flesh”, for the Lord has said to all the world in our day, “I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” (D&C64:24)

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

Blessings we receive from serving the Lord far exceed the rewards offered by the world.

“Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh.” (D&C 1:11-12)

It may seem a little difficult at first, but when a person begins to catch a vision of the true work, when he begins to see something of eternity in its true perspective, the blessings begin to far out-weigh the cost of leaving “the world” behind.
*Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pp. 145-153

Dinner Talk

1. Why do you think “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” is the first of the Ten Commandments?

2. Ponder this statement. “Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god”.
What are some false gods in the world today? Can false doctrines be idols? Can TV, computer games, internet, famous people?

3. When can hobbies make us closer to God? At what point can hobbies pull us away from God?

4 What can we learn from the story about monkey traps? What do we risk if we take too firm a hold on the things of this world?

5. Why do you think some people willingly forfeit the blessings of serving in the Lord’s kingdom? What should be our motivation when we serve?

6. What do you think it means to “love the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength”? What can parents do to help their children love the Lord?