Been thinking a lot about the idea that we worship a God that we feel we understand. If we run up against something we don't like about God or the way He runs the universe, often, we either rework our understanding of God or get angry and reject God. I want to just believe the Bible. I don't want to soften the God of the Bible by my understanding of what is good and fit God into that understanding. Rather, I want to recognize my primary belief is that God is the attributes He claims to be: Good, Love, Mercy, Wisdom, Wrath, Peace, etc., and conform my understanding of what those things look like, rather than transform God to look like my understanding of those things.
This brings to mind Socrates' claim that "an unexamined life is not worth living." Fair enough in a sense- although unless the examination leads to Christ, it will only be a futile exercise in self-analysis leading either to depression or hedonism (or both). However, for the believer, I think that unexamined theology leads to unsuccessful living, or put less strongly, it will not get you very far. When I hear something vaguely "Christian" or even "spiritual" (which is quite common in this spiritual age), whether a song, a sound-byte or a sermon, do I think about it and run it through the sieve of Scripture, or do I let it wash over me, perhaps even allowing it to influence my thinking? The world is unavoidable, but I have to be careful not to let a secular worldview affect my interpretation of the Bible or God. When we're lazy-minded and apathetic, we can easily be "tossed about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). So, when we have an opinion, desire, or feeling, we must examine His Word to find out what it says about it, to know whether we must treat our response as a canker, cutting it out and subjecting ourselves to the antidote of Scripture.
I practiced this the other day. I had a nagging feeling of "aggravation" and was doing a mental jig of self-justification in my head over it. I was slightly indulging my wickedness because it titillated my flesh, but I knew in my spirit, because of His Spirit, that it was probably wrong. So rather than take the lazy road, ignoring a spiritual exercise, I studied scripture to determine the specific sin going on (it definitely helps to know the Bible in that way, because His Spirit tends to bring those applications to mind). Anyway, I thought of some verses from Proverbs 6 and was quickly convicted and caused to repent, once again, recognizing how easily entangled I am in sin. Ugh.
Anyway, living in a way "worthy of the calling to which we've been called" is living in a way that's examined according to His Word. Though we will have pitfalls along the way because no one has perfect understanding, we must strive to know His Word and apply it to all areas of life (even seemingly agnostic areas). I want to worship the God that is real- knowing that I don't/won't/can't understand Him!
1 comment:
Thanks for the read.
As you know, I told you that Dad said basically asked one of our kids that question about God in a theological discussion that we had, "So because you don"t understand, it can't be true?" The better way to view it is that God is so far beyond our understanding, we will NEVER understand Him. The same can be said for electricity. I will never understand how it works, but it doesn't stop me from using it. And, I don't insist on understanding it before I use it, or accept that I will never get it. A rudimentary analogy, to be sure, but it's good to know that God isn't like humans...easily predictable, and easily understood. Otherwise, we'd be serving a God like us, and that would be a disaster.
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