Every family has pictures on the wall.

Wedding photos.

Grandparents.

The kids’ school pictures (even the awkward ones).

Nobody thinks you are worshiping Grandma when you kiss her photo.

You are remembering someone you love.

Hold that thought.

Wait… Aren’t Statues Idols?

A lot of Christians point to the commandment:

“Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing” (Exodus 20:4).

And they think:

“Catholic churches are full of statues and images. That looks like breaking the commandment.”

And at first that sounds right.

The commandment is real.

And God takes idolatry very seriously.

But then you read a few chapters later in the same book, and you have to stop for a second.

God Commanded Statues

Just five chapters after the Ten Commandments, God gives Moses instructions for the Ark of the Covenant:

“Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle.”
— Exodus 25:18

Wait.

God commanded Moses to make carved images.

Of angels.

And put them on the holiest object in Israel.

And God said He would speak to Moses “from the midst of the two cherubims” (Exodus 25:22).

More Images in the Bible

God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole so the people could look at it and be healed (Numbers 21:8–9).

Solomon’s Temple was covered in carved cherubim, palm trees, and flowers, and had two huge carved cherubim in the Holy of Holies (3 Kings 6:23–29).

God filled His Temple with images.

So the commandment cannot mean “no images at all.”

So What Does the Commandment Forbid?

Read the next verse:

“Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them” (Exodus 20:5).

The problem is not making images.

The problem is worshiping them as gods.

That is idolatry.

And when the Israelites later started burning incense to the bronze serpent as if it were a god, King Ezechias destroyed it (4 Kings 18:4).

Same object.

Once a sign of God’s healing.

Then turned into an idol.

The difference was what people did with it.

God Gave Us an Image of Himself

There is another reason Catholics use images.

In the Old Testament, no one had seen God.

But then God became man.

Paul calls Jesus “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

God gave Himself a face.

So Christians can now picture Him.

That is exactly how the Church answered people who wanted to destroy all images.

At the Second Council of Nicaea in A.D. 787, the Church taught that honoring an image passes on to the person it shows.

Honor, Not Worship

Catholics do not worship statues.

Worship belongs to God alone.

A statue of Mary is like a photo of your mom.

You might kiss it.

You might put flowers near it.

But you know it is not your mom.

And you know your mom is not God either.

(See Do Catholics Worship the Saints?)

Then You Read the First Christians

In the catacombs of Rome, from the 200s onward, Christians painted Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

They painted Noah, Jonas, Daniel in the lions’ den, the Magi, and Mary with the Child Jesus.

The first Christians did not think images broke the commandment.

They covered the walls with them.

So What Is the Catholic Claim?

Here it is in simple terms.

God forbids worshiping images as gods.

But He commanded the cherubim on the Ark, the bronze serpent, and carvings in the Temple.

In Jesus, the invisible God became visible.

Catholics use statues and images to remember and honor Christ and the saints, the way families keep pictures of people they love.

The Catechism says honoring sacred images is not the worship of idols (CCC 2132).

So the real question is not:

“Why do Catholics break the commandment?”

The better question is:

“Why did God command images for His own Temple?”

Because the problem was never the art.

It was always the heart.

Keep reading: Why Catholics Make the Sign of the Cross, or browse more questions in Catholicism Explained.

If this helped you, consider supporting Christian Catholic Media so we can keep creating content.

Catholic Sources

Scripture (Douay-Rheims): Exodus 20:4–5; Exodus 25:18–22; Numbers 21:8–9; 3 Kings 6:23–29; 4 Kings 18:4; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 9:5.

Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 1159–1162 (holy images); CCC 2129–2132 (the commandment and images).

Early Christian writers: St. John Damascene, On Holy Images (c. A.D. 730).

Church documents: Second Council of Nicaea (A.D. 787).

← Back to Catholicism Explained