Set Theory

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. Colossians 3:5 NASB

Idolatry – Don’t skip through the collective arrangement. In other words, don’t treat each of these sins as if they are individual unrelated behaviors. Notice that Paul collects them under one heading, i.e., idolatry. In mathematics we would treat these as members of the same set. We would notice the similar characteristics of each. That works for immorality, impurity, passion and evil desire. All of these are tied to sexual behavior. But we usually don’t think of greed as sexual and because we don’t see it that way, we think that Paul designates only greed as idolatry. We read the verse as if the phrase hetis estin (which is) applies only to the last of his list, pleonexia (greed). That’s a mistake.

The first four items are clearly sexually oriented. Immorality (porneia), impurity (akatharsia), passion (pathos) and desire (epithymia) all have sexual application. But what about pleonexia? In Greek literature, the word means, “having or wanting more.” Aristotle uses it in the sense of covetousness. In the LXX, the word describes unlawful gain or material advantage, again connected to coveting. Paul may have the tenth commandment in mind, a commandment that is not limited to economic conditions. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” is clearly a sexual norm. We can see that all these terms are tied together by the common thread. Now the question is: How are these characteristics of idolatry?

Ira Stone’s comment answers the question. “By clearly keeping the face of the other, and the next other, and the next other, open before us, we cannot make the mistake of idolatry, which consists of passing over the face of the closest other . . .”[1]  Idolatry is effacing the person before me. It is discounting the person as a visible and viable image of YHVH. It is treating the person as an object of my desire. All sexual immorality effaces the other. Sexual immorality views the partner as a means for satisfying my needs and desires, as a way for me to gain advantage. Sexual immorality is anti-intimacy. There is only one person in the encounter—the one who controls.

Therefore, sexual immorality is idolatry, not because it is sexual but because it destroys what God considers sacred. I trod under His presence in the life of the other. When the purpose of sex is to satisfy me, it is worship of a god of my own making. There is a very good reason why the covenant relationship between YHVH and His people is analogous to marriage. Marriage is about exclusive intimacy. But even in marriage, it is possible to be an idolater. We are capable of erecting our own high places where we should have observed sacred space. Marriage without the covenant relationship of benevolence toward the other is still pleonexia. The only safeguard is constant watchfulness over my true motives.

Topical Index: pleonexia, greed, covetousness, Colossians 3:5, idolatry, sex

[1] Ira Stone, commentary on Moses Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim, p. 261.