Your God Is Too Small (1st Edition)

During the first part of the year 2013, I have made it a point to grow in my Christian faith.  While that has been happening, I have also become increasingly aware of the views other people have of God.  Both of these actions have led me to the same conclusion: our God is too small.  This does not mean that God himself is small; rather, the way we perceive him is far too narrow.  We have a tendency to put too many limitations on God.  If we are to understand the full nature of God, we need to put off these limitations and open our minds to a more complete understanding of him.  This is what I will be attempting to accomplish here – painting a more complete picture.

You probably noticed that the title of this post includes the words “1^st edition.”  That is because the scope of this topic is quite massive.  The range of limitations we place on God is wide; thus, different parts of this topic will be tailored to different types of people in order to meet their needs.  A balanced view of God is needed in order to have a complete understanding of him, and one post (of reasonable length) isn’t enough for me to accomplish that.  As of now, I don’t know if this will consist of the number of posts that I have planned, or if it will expand and become a sort of running log that gets updated with time.  For now, though, I will just focus on what I have and get started on my first featured characteristic of God.

The single most important thing to understand about God is his love.  The Bible states that “God is love (1 John 4:16).”  Note the way this is phrased.  It doesn’t say that God has love, that he gives love, or that he loves us.  All of these things are true, but it says that God is love.  Not only is it a central characteristic of God, but love is the very being of God.  His love is perfect, and it drives everything he does.  Without love, God is either nonexistent, or he is no longer God.  Because God is love, it means he loves everything he has created.  This includes you.  Because God created you, and love is central to who he is, this means you don’t have to do anything to get God to love you; additionally, there is nothing you can do that will make him stop loving you.  His love is not earned, and therefore cannot be lost.  This concept is difficult for many people to grasp, but it is extremely important to understand.

We live in a culture that bases everything on performance.  When we do anything, we are always evaluated on output, or the end result of our effort.  Everything we obtain is something that we feel we earned in some way.  Thus, we must do something in order to receive something.  If we do well, we will receive the due reward; conversely, if we do poorly, we will be punished swiftly and perhaps severely.  When we see these things every day in our culture, we have a tendency to place those same criteria on God.  Whether we are spiritual or not, many of us believe that God’s love is contingent on our actions.  However, the Bible tells a different story.

While it is true that God does not want us to engage in wrongdoing (I will expand on that in a later edition), it is incorrect to assume that God will withhold his love if we do.  The Bible makes this clear.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).”  And the good news doesn’t end there.  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”  This indicates that we do not earn God’s love.  It is given unconditionally and is not based on our merit.  In fact, the greatest thing you can do for God is to share the love.  One of my favorite Biblical passages comes when Jesus is being questioned by some of the most intellectual people of his day.  Here it is: “[T]he Pharisees… gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’  And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-39).’” 

Since God’s love is the most important attribute of him to understand, that is all I will include in this edition.  If you need further illustration of his love, read the 13^th chapter of 1^st Corinthians, which is commonly referred to as the “love chapter.”  After you have read it once, go back and read it again.  This time, whenever you see the word “love,” replace it with “God.”  That should give you an even better understanding of who he is.