Standards by Comparison

When they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding." (2 Cor 10:12)

Paul here addresses a fundamental problem that, I think, is a the core of a majority of our difficulties with perspective, both as humans and as Christians. The problem, basically, is the standard. The problem of the standard we use to measure is that it is us. The problem is that this is not a viable standard.

We do this all the time. Am I pretty enough, smart enough, capable enough, good enough? Am I a good person, a good parent, a good spouse, a good child, a good sibling? We answer these kinds of questions by looking around at others. "How do I compare to them? Do I stand up to their standards?" But it goes way beyond that. We will typically answer the question, "Is God good?", on the basis of us. Do people feel like He is? Do I like what He does? Does He meet our expectations, conform to our standards? We compare God to us to see if He stands up to our scrutiny. Often He doesn't. That's why we have theodicy (the vindication of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil). "It doesn't look good for God; we're going to have to get Him out from under this pile of a problem. We're going to have to explain away His deficiencies. Because if He was more like we expect He should be, He'd be okay."

In all of this we demonstrate, as Paul said, that we are "without understanding."

If we started from the right place, it would change rapidly. If we start with "God has revealed Himself as ..." and work from there, it changes dramatically. We know, for instance, that God is good. No question. It's part of His nature, part of His character, one of His attributes. So why do we feel the need to vindicate His goodness? Instead, what we would really need to do is point out that 1) God is good, so 2) whatever He does is good and 3) we need to realign our understanding of "good" with the God who defines "good". But ... we don't seem to want to do that. We are unwilling to budge. Even Christians. Especially Christians (who should know better).

We know, for instance, that God claims, "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (Isa 45:7) One respected fellow believer told me, "If I believed that God did that to me, I'd have a hard time with God." That is, "God would have failed to conform to my standards of what I consider good." We are comparing God's standard of good against our own and He is in danger of being found wanting.

God's Omniscience requires that He knows everything, including who will and who will not be saved. Jude writes of people who were designated before time for condemnation (Jude 1:4). And a dear church lady told me, "If that's true, then God is making people who He knows will not come to Him!" In other words, "God would have failed to conform to my standards of what I consider good." We are comparing God's standard of good against our own and He is in danger of being found wanting.

Scripture repeatedly says things like, "The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble." (Prov 16:4) We know that He "works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph 1:11), "does all that He pleases" (Psa 115:3), and that "none is able to withstand You." (2 Chron 20:6) Clearly "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." (Prov 16:9) And, yet, the objection always arises, "But ... what about Free Will???" Or, to put it another way, "God would have failed to conform to my standards of what I consider good." We are comparing God's standard of good against our own and He is in danger of being found wanting.

It is bad enough when we compare ourselves with ourselves as our measure of what is good and right, demonstrating that we are "without understanding". We have a tendency, however, to compare God with ourselves as a measure of what is good and right. We need to strike that, reverse it, and look again. We need to start with what God says about Himself in His Word and work back down to correct our misguided ideas.