To bow down to any idol is to hate God. To love him is to obey him. There is no provision made for neutrality. We must choose who we will serve today and every day.
No Middle ground.
Exodus 20:4-6 ESV
[4] “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. [5] You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, [6] but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
To make an idol and serve it is to hate God. We are either for him or against him.
Matthew 12:30 ESV
[30] Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
We cannot take a neutral position when it comes to who we serve. We can not serve God and money. We can not serve ourselves and the savior. To have things made with hands in position of worship is to hate God. Strong words to be sure. No wiggle room here. Joshua said to those who will go into the promised land.
Joshua 24:15 ESV
[15] And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
To choose to serve any idol, any other god, is to hate the oy true God. There is no provision given for neutrality. No tolerance of indifference. We must choose.
But, man has a proclivity to worship the creation and not the creator.
Romans 1:24-25 ESV
[24] Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Paul tells us this in Roman’s chapter one. We like our gods to serve us. We like our idols to be subject to us. We want to be God ourselves. After all, isn’t this what motivated Eve? To be like a god herself.
God tells us that this behavior will hurt generations of our families. It is an expression of hatred of Him. It is diametrically opposite to loving him. To love him is to obey his commandments and His law. To love him is to have no craved images. To only bow down to him.
What idols are we allowing into our lives? Burn them! Eliminate them! God has promised Us unending mercy. Steadfast, everlasting love to those who only worship him.