ARE WE IDOLATROUSLY WORSHIPING THE BIBLE RATHER THAN GOD

Is it possible to love the Bible too much to the point of idolatry? Does this love deprive God of His well-deserved love and adoration? Although distinct, God and His Bible are inseparable. Consequently, as Jesus had taught, to love God is to love His Word, and to love His Word is to love God:

•    …“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:23–24)

We cannot sweep God’s floor or even make Him a cup of coffee. The only way we can love our Lord is by keeping His Word. Likewise, blaspheming God is equivalent to hating his word:

•    "But anyone who sins defiantly…blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people. Because he has despised the LORD'S word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him" (Numbers 15:30-31).

Likewise, God had charged His King David that despising His Word is to despise God Himself:

•    “Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:9-10).

Therefore, the Psalmist had written that hoping in God was synonymous with hoping in His Word and in His promises:

•    I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. (Psalm 130:5-6)

His Word is at the same level of importance as His Name (His character):

•    I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name [God Himself] and your word. (Psalm 138:2)

Consequently, to denigrate the Bible is to denigrate God. Claiming that we are “bibliolaters” because we love the Bible extravagantly is like accusing us of making an idol out of prayer if we pray too much. While it is true that we can make an idol out of anything good, it doesn’t mean that by loving food or exercise, we make them into an idol, as long as they do not compete against God.