Whether God be Good, or Not!

We are often told we ought to obey God for He is good and His purposes are for our good. But what if He were not... nor His purposes? Would then have reason not to obey?

Faith is the act by which we choose be believe God both in mental concent to His sovereignty and to our actions to submit to His authority. It is by faith that we accept that God is good and therefore worthy of our love as well as our obedience, but if we link obedience to God's goodness we give ourselves reason to disobey when we find reason to doubt that God is indeed good. If God's goodness is our motivation for obedience, we will disobey when what He chooses to do (or not do) does not seem good to us. Obedience flowing from God's goodness is a trap we lay for ourselves that will ultimately result in sin because our ways are not His ways so He will always disappoint in the short run, and in our disappointment (not understanding His good purposes at the time) we will choose to bring the good into our life we desire in our own way... which is the definition of sin.

Oswald Chambers writes, "We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith... [not so]; faith brings us into right relationship with God and gives God His opportunity. God has frequently to knock the bottom board out of your experience if you are are a saint in order to get you into contact with Himself."

Oh, I've had the board knocked out from under me, and God has certainly gotten my attention - but there is encouragement here as well - he does this to his saints. Not 'saint' in the common use suggesting someone is a super-Christian (then I am far from sainthood!) but instead as the simple title of a soul that belongs to God. It is His saints He knocks down so that they might look up!

Oswald continues, "God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of sentimental enjoymnet of His blessings." See? That is the danger of obeying because 'God is Good' - we are then in search of blessings instead of God Himself. He later warns, "Faith by its very nature must be tried." If God were to 'bless' us as we wish - give us all we want and yearn for... would we ever truly know Him or ever truly love Him?

He concludes, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do." That is indeed the test! Not whether everything we touch prospers, like Joseph, but whether we remain faithful equally when we feel more like Job, who lost everything. Oswald warns, "Faith in its actual working out has to go thrugh spells of unsyllabled isolation." It is in that isolation that obedience is tested and is transformed into love. For only love can motivate to obey when the object of the obedience does not seem good at the time.

Therefore, I will not obey God because He is good, nor even because He is worthy. (though He certainly is!) But I will obey God because HE IS GOD whether or not He seems good or worthy.

But in the process I will discover that He is worthy of my love, and that is ultimately what God is truly after. Not to obey God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, but to LOVE HIM with all of ourselves, but we show our love through obedience.

In the end, you don't even have to obey God anymore... just love Him, and you will find obedience ceases to be an issue.