This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
“God wants ABC”. “God is angry with Mr X”. “God is a jealous God”. Do statements like this actually make any sense?
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Human Wanting vs Almighty Love
We continue with our discussion about the gap in nature between man and God1 (which began with ““Knowing Of” Is Not Knowing“), and the necessity of a deeper understanding of the concept of Love if we are to correctly interpret The Word.
Our understanding of The Word influences, and is also influenced by, our beliefs about what the Almighty wants or expects of us.
Usually when we want something, it is an expression of a desire to change something in a way beneficial to ourselves.
The exception to this is the case of pure love, such as sometimes when a parent corrects a child, wanting the child to behave better solely for the sake of the child.
This loving-wanting is relatively rare in human life. Even in the parent-child relationship, corrective actions are more often than not influenced by transient emotions, social expectation, personal ambitions, and other considerations that tarnish the purity of the love expressed in the action.
God is Love. And He and everything around Him is perfect and has been so since all eternity, before man was created. So our human conceptions of “wanting” cannot apply to Him.
Only a different, higher definition of want that is based on the highest and purest Love, can make sense in reference to the Almighty.
Can Eternal Perfection Be “Wanting”?
Before Abraham was, I am.
— KJV, John 8:58
Christ said “I am“, not “I was”. Meaning that, unlike Abraham and the rest of us, He exists above time and space, in unchanging Eternity.
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This Eternal Unchanging Perfection of the Almighty obviously exists independent of human activity.
Therefore none of our actions redound upon God Himself. He exists infinitely far above our human wanting and feelings and emotions.
So, if God “wants” something from us, it cannot be because He is lacking something and needs our input; it can only be because it is good for us.
God needs nothing from human beings or any of His creatures – He only gives.
Example: Worship
It is common to hear statements like “God wants us to worship Him”. Such statements are usually made in the context of quotes like the following:
But the hour cometh, and now is,
— John 4:23
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth:
for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
The statement itself is not wrong, but often our interpretation of it is. Many people interpret it as something like “God wants to be worshipped and is not happy if He is not worshipped“.
This is the mistake of anthropomorphism. Such a view drags God down to our level. He becomes merely Super-man; Santa Claus In The Sky (ref. “God Is Neither Superman Nor Santa“).
Anthropomorphism always leads to misinterpretation of The Word.
If we adjust our mindset correctly to The Word and the Nature of God we may perceive the deeper truth that worship must be something good for the human being. But not for God, since He only gives.
This adjusted mindset permits of deeper reflection, which may lead us to perceive that by “worship” The Word means something different and higher than what is generally assumed.
They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth
— John 4: 24
As we shall see in later essays, there are several revelations given in The Word that we are likely to interpret superficially unless we understand that God only gives.
Today’s Resolution
- In all our thinking and praying, we shall not “humanize” God.
- We shall seek a concept of worship that reflects a pure attitude towards the Love of God.
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- For the curious reader the book “Thinking About God” by Stephen Lampe provides interesting perspectives on some of the issues raised here. ↩︎
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