"Idolatry is worshiping someone or something other than God. Worshiping means we make sacrifices (time, energy, money, emotion, thought) so we can give ourselves to someone or something because it is our highest priority. Everyone is a worshiper for the simple reason that we were made by God to worship and cannot help ourselves. But we are sinners, we are prone to worship created things rather than the Creator. Romans 1:25 teaches that this is the root of idolatry/paganism, saying "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator."
Martin Luther taught that idolatry is, therefore, not just sin but the sin that causes of all other sins. He went on to argue that the first two commandments bear this out Exodus 20:1-17. The first two commandments tell us that there is only 1 God and that we are forbidden from worshiping anything in place or in addition to the one true God. Therefore, Luther reasons, we break the other commandments and do such things as lie, covet, steal or commit adultery only as a result of breaking the first two commandments. If we break the first two commandments, we become idolaters who then worship such things as our image, possessions, comfort and pleasures instead of God."
Death by love, Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
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