What they say has been added to the Second Commandment.
What they say has been added to the Second Commandment.
§ 73. They say that Christ added to the Second Commandment [Exod. 20:4–5] “that we must not only not have honor for idols but also that we are not to be found in any places where idols are” (p. 185).
We respond. Idols are not just exterior things, stones and wood, to which one pays the honor that is due to God alone, but they are also interior things, namely, everything that one loves, fears, and honors above God. Therefore if they do not want to be found in the place where idols are erected, they will have to leave the world to free the church from such cancers. In the temple at Jerusalem, Christ Himself taught that the terrible idolatry of the Jews had defiled it [cf. Matt. 21:12–13]. The holy apostle “was carried in a ship which had as figurehead Castor and Pollux, whom the heathen considered as gods” (Acts [28]:11). The same apostle pronounces that “an idol is nothing in the world” (1 Cor. 8:4); that is, he denies that one is contaminated by an idol if he does not consider or worship it as an idol. In the same sense he denies that food offered to idols is anything (1 Cor. 10:19); that is, those who do not consider nor acknowledge as an idol that which the heathen have as an idol may eat the food offered to idols, provided that it not be a source of offense for the weak (1 Cor. 10:27[–29]). That is why he orders us to flee idols not only with our heart but also from their place, that is, to avoid offending the weak, which could result from the untimely use of something that of itself is an adiaphoron. But now, giving offense conflicts with loving one’s neighbor, which is the summary and epitome of the entire Law. Furthermore, the idols of the heathen in the Old Testament were ordered to be broken and knocked down (Deut. 7:5). How, then, would it be lawful to be found in a place where idols were honored?
** Therefore there must be a distinction between a dwelling together among the wicked which takes place without fear of seduction and without suspicion of collusion and only because of necessity, in such a way that we openly bear witness of our separation; and the dwelling together which occurs outside of necessity with clear collusion and without a witness of contradiction. The former sort of dwelling together was never prohibited in either the Old or New Testament by a general commandment. Here we assign the example of Naaman (2 Kings 5:19). The latter sort of dwelling together differs not at all from idolatry itself; here we assign the precept: “Take heed to all that I have said to you; and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let such be heard out of your mouth” (Exod. 23:13). **