Anything a person values more than God, anything he trusts in more than God, anything he believes will give him permanent happiness apart from God is this person's idol. Keeping this definition in mind, what idols are people serving in our society today?"

The class produced the following list:

- Money
- Clothes
- Bicycles
- Cars
- Sports
- High job positions
- Physical strength
- Physical beauty

Can you add present-day "idols" found in our society to this list? Do you think that African natives might find our idols very foolish? Why are all forms of idolatry foolish?

Read the following short illustrations. Name the idol in each and explain how idolatry and the breaking of God's first commandment is taking place.

Sally spends almost all her free hours working and shopping. She spends all the money she earns on clothes. Her thoughts, time, and money are devoted to her appearance. When going to any special occasion, she feels that she cannot be happy unless she has a new outfit for it.

Ron spends hours on his car - cleaning, polishing, and fixing it up. The majority of the money from his part-time job goes into his car. He has purchased chrome wheels, chrome tail pipes, a chrome air cleaner, and several other chrome parts for it. But he is far from finished. In his mind he has an entire list of items he wishes to purchase for his car. Whenever he has time, he loves to think about, talk about, and polish his car.

Mr. Andrews works day and night as a salesman for his company. He has received two promotions in three years and wishes to keep this "trend" going. Time for God, his wife, and children are brushed aside. "I have to get this next promotion," he thinks.