Edwards on Idolatry—Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758)

Jonathan Edwards is remembered for his uncompromising bluntness in exposing human sinfulness. In April 1736, he preached to his congregation from Romans 3:11-12, and entitled his sermon All that Natural Men Do is Wrong. Natural men are those who are unconverted, who have never experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit.

Edwards sought to demonstrate that even “good” and “moral” men are, at heart, idolaters. They live “good” and “moral” lives, not to please and honor the true God, but rather to serve themselves, their own ambitions and desires. Only against this woeful backdrop can one rightly understand and appreciate God’s mercy and grace towards sinners.

All that natural men [do] in attending on their secular occasions is wrong . . . They are not moved from a right principle in following the business of their particular calling; but they do all that they do from day to day from a corrupt and perverse principle, and it is attended in a corrupt manner, and for wrong ends. The God that has made us and made the world, and placed us here on this lower world, did that [that] we might here serve him, and live to his glory . . . But natural men don’t attend the business of their particular callings in subordination to the great business of serving and glorifying God . . . Their hearts are upon the world, and the world is sought and pursued by them, as if it were the highest good, and not as a subordinate good.¹

All their labor from day to day is in service of sin. When a natural man goes forth [to] his daily labor, he goes forth to the service of his lusts; and all the while he continues plowing, or sowing, or reaping, or mowing, he is laboring in the service of sin: he serves sin and Satan with the sweat of his face. He is all the while at his idolatry. When a natural [man] works diligently and laboriously in the field from day to day, he is only diligent all day long in worshipping his idol, that he sets up in opposition to the true God.²

All that is done by natural men in an attendance on religious duties is done wrong. When natural men pray in secret . . . when they read the Bible; and when they go to meeting, and attend the public worship, and hear the Word preached . . . they do all these things wrong. There is nothing that they do right. Everything is crooked and out of the way. All these things proceed from a perverse heart and a corrupt principle, and there is nothing spiritual in any of it.³

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