Worshiping the Lifeless

Robert Jenson writes that "[a] spirit always proceeds from someone; for a spirit is just someone's own liveliness as that life transcends its own boundaries to animate others. So what a spirit is, is determined by from whom it proceeds." The spirit that proceeds from the Father and Son, because it proceeds from the relation of the Father and the Son, is not only a that and an it, even if an extremely personal it, but is a Person--a who and a Him. The love of the Father for the Son and vice versa is to the extent that it generates another Person in the Spirit who, in the typical fashion of love, moves beyond the original relationship to spread this love. The love of the Triune God is what gives life to creation. For this reason, God breathes his breath/Spirit into creation (humans--Gen. 2:7; animals--1:30) and that breath is the breath of life.

The prophet Jeremiah condemns Israel for their worship of worthless idols. In worshiping vain or worthless gods (Jer. 2:5), the Israelites become vain and worthless. This is the necessary effect of such worship because these gods have no breath/spirit in them (Jer. 10:14). The source of life, God's Spirit/breath, is cut off in the pursuit and worship of something other than the living God. If there is no life/breath in an idol, then there is no life/breath proceeding from it and hence the one who gives worship to this idol dies.

This is why pornography, shopping, alcoholism, overeating, and so on never satisfied: These idols have no breath.