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One argument which the Gnostics used to prove the lawfulness of eating things offered unto idols was this, That an idol was nothing in the world.
But how nothing? It was not materially nothing, for it was wood or stone: but formally it was nothing, it was nothing of God's creation, nothing that the idolater took it to be, there was nothing of a deity in it, and nothing of a deity could be represented by it: an idol is the vainest thing in the world, it is a mere vanity, a perfect nothing, (called therefore the vanities of the Gentiles,) it is of no worth or value, it has no power or virtue.
Some observe, That the same Hebrew word signifies both an idol, and sorrow,and labour; partly because idols are made and formed with much labour and great exactness; the wood or stone, figuratively speaking, is put to pain; you must cut it and carve it to make an idol or statute of it; partly because idols are served and worshipped with much pain and labour.
False worship is more painful than true: the service of the true God is an holy and honourable service, and noble and ingenuous service, an easy and delightful service; but the service of idols is slavish, a toil rather than worship.
Idols are troublesome both in making and worshipping, and after all the bustle made about them, an idol is nothing in the world, because there is no God but one.