Can The Search For Happiness Become An Idol?

Can the search for happiness become an idol?

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. . . . But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

JESUS (Matthew 6:24, 33)

“Accepting Jesus” is not just adding Jesus. It is also subtracting the idols. RAY ORTLUND

DESPITE SHOWS SUCH AS American Idol and celebrities who earn the nickname “teen idols,” most twenty-first-century Americans don’t believe we’re a nation of idol worshipers. The word idol conjures up images of primitive people offering sacrifices to crude carved images. Surely we’re above that. Or are we?

In Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller writes,

Our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. . . . We may not physically kneel before the statue of Aphrodite, but many young women today are driven into depression and eating disorders by an obsessive concern over their body image. We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised to cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige.^a

Idolatry began in Eden and has yet to end. In the first chapters of Genesis, God had no competition for the affection of his creatures. Humanity found its meaning, purpose, and happiness in God. God was God; everything else wasn’t. And everyone knew it.

The Fall tragically changed that.

An idol is anything we praise, celebrate, fixate on, and look to for help that’s not the true God. Scripture speaks strongly about the sin of idolatry: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the LORD!” (Isaiah 31:1, NKJV).

What does this have to do with happiness? Everything. Satan forfeited his own happiness, and he bitterly hates us—the objects of God’s love. Since he’s committed to making us just as miserable, the devil tempts us toward what will dishonor God by telling persuasive lies to convince us that the things that make us miserable will actually make us happy. After thousands of years of doing this, he’s remarkably good at it. Jesus said of Satan, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44, NIV).

Those who argue over whether to use cheese or peanut butter in a mousetrap agree on one thing: the stronger the attraction, the better the chance of catching what you’re after. Every temptation uses false happiness as bait. A woman told me, “I left my family to find happiness. It didn’t last, but I sacrificed for it the greatest happiness I’d ever known.” In the name of momentary happiness, she made choices that brought her despair.

This is how the devil always works. Like anyone baiting a trap, he offers false happiness to bring utter ruin. How else could he get us to bite?

Everything that threatens to occupy the throne that only God can fill is an idol, and God calls us to ruthlessly dethrone these false gods: “This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire” (Deuteronomy 7:5, NIV).

The happy life is to worship God as God—and not put anything or anyone else in his place. But in this fallen world, we can’t simply affirm God as the source of happiness without dealing with the competition. Potential idols—loving relationships, success, hobbies, comfort, and wealth, to name a few—can be legitimate sources of happiness when enjoyed in their rightful position below God, but they become toxic when we elevate them above him. Hence, the search for happiness becomes an idol when, and only when, we try to find happiness apart from God.

John Piper says, “We all make a god out of what we take the most pleasure in.”^b The one way to avoid idolatry is to take the most pleasure in the one true God. As Christ-followers, we shouldn’t be more tolerant of our idols than God was of Israel’s. Once we recognize those idols, we can destroy them, exalting God alone. Only then can we know true and lasting happiness, for all lesser pleasures are only shadows.

Lord, you alone are God. We are not, nor is anything you’ve created. Help us to turn away from whatever threatens to take your place in our lives. We want happiness because of, never at the expense of, our relationship with you. Remind us that no happiness outside of you can possibly last. Reign supreme in our hearts, King Jesus!