Book I, Chapter ii, Section 2
07.18.09
“Who [or what] is God?” We hear that question a lot! Sometimes, when people ask this question, they’re just speculating for the sake of speculating. Hear me out on this: It’s more important for us to know things about God – ‘how He is,’ to put it another way. More importantly, how do we relate to how He is? After all, if we supposed that God didn’t have anything to do with us (and some people believe this), what would be the point in talking about Him?
Knowledge about God – about how He is and who He is – ought to teach us two things: respect, and more respect. (You will also hear this sort of respect referred to as ‘fear.’ What is meant by this is a sort of deep respect – it’s a type of fear, but without the foreboding.) Above and beyond that, our knowledge of God shows us that we should look to God for every good thing that we seek, and when we receive good things, to properly acknowledge that they come from God. How can our thoughts about God come to us unless we realize that we are made by Him ? As His creation, we have an obligation and an debt of obedience – even for our own lives – to Him. Whatever we do, any of the glory of it belongs to Him.
Following from that, if we don’t in turn honor God through a life of service to Him, we have become wicked and ungrateful. God’s will ought to be, for us, the law of our lives. To repeat: We cannot understand God correctly unless we understand that he is the source and origin of every good thing. This alone should be enough to compel us to be deeply loyal to Him and to trust Him, if not for the fact that our sinful nature seduces our minds away from seeking Him.
A person who desires God doesn’t sit around thinking about any ‘god’ they please – they think instead about the one true God. And in thinking about Him, a person who desires God doesn’t make God out to be who they want God to be; rather, they find delight in the adventure of discovering how God reveals Himself to us. This adventure of discovering God is a guided journey, one in which we are listening for His will and taking care to journey along the path the He has set out for us. If we recognize the path of the journey, we recognize the one who carved it, and we trust that it is a sturdy and protective path that we can travel on without fear.
Suppose that along the way of this adventure towards discovering God we encounter opposition or suddenly realize that we’re missing something vital. Not to worry! We know to look to God for help. We know that God is good and full of mercy – therefore, we can have perfect trust in Him. In his kindness and love, God will provide for exactly what we need.
A person who desires God acknowledges that he is Lord and Father, and as such, God deserves the respect that an elder and person of authority should be given. The person who desires God intentionally and thoughtfully obeys God and looks for ways to advance His glory. And also, because the person who desires God recognizes that part of God’s role is also to judge righteously, they keep God’s judgment in mind and are inspired by respect (that deep respect that people also call fear) to restrain themselves from coming upon the wrong side of that judgment. But please understand that it is fear and respect – not terror –that commend obedience to God. It’s not a terror that shrinks down in its seats and tries to hide (as if it were possible to hide from God anyway!). No, it’s a recognition that God’s love means that as much as he blesses us, he must always, like any good parent, punish wickedness. The person who desires God truly recognizes this – both the eternal glory of the people who honor God as well as the punishment of those who are not are equally part of God’s greater glory. And so, the person who desires God does their best to keep from sinning, not because they’re scared and afraid of God, but because they love their Father God and acknowledge Him as the ruler of this world. Even if there were no such thing as hell, the thought of merely offending God would still be enough to cause us to shudder.
And so, this is what true religion is: It is deep faith in God joined together with a healthy respect of Him – a respect that compels us to honor and worship God. And know this most of all: Everybody has a vague and general respect for God, but very few honor and worship Him out of that respect. This is why, when you see over-the-top religious ceremonies, it’s so rare to find a truly faithful person who actually desires God.