Tricky God

Just to clear something up at the outset, that title is not about God, the Most High. It refers to the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the spiritual forces of evil (Eph 6:12), your adversary, the devil (1 Peter 5:8).

Think about it for a minute. Have you noticed how just about every virtue that God established is now regarded as evil? Let's look at some examples.

The Bible repeatedly extols the virtue of humility. Jesus blessed the poor in spirit (Matt 5:3) and the meek (Matt 5:5). He said, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). "He said, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matt 11:29). He told His disciples, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). He said, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve" (Mark 10:45). Jesus was abundantly clear that He was under the Father. And so much more. Proverbs is full of the call for humility (Prov 22:4; Prov 11:2; Prov 15:3; Prov 18:12; Prov 3:34; Prov 29:23; Prov 16:19, etc.). We are told "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves" (Php 2:3) followed by "Have this mind among yourselves" -- humility (Php 2:5-8). Over and over, and, yet, the virtue of the day is pride, not humility. The god of this world has managed to convince us that humility is humiliation (a lie) and pride is a lofty goal. Pride was the cause of the first sin (Gen 3:5) and continues to be our primary motivation for sin. But humility is looked down on and pride is exalted.

How about love? Everyone thinks that love is a virtue ... until you look at definitions. Love once meant being concerned for the well-being and best interests of another. We've managed to shift it to warm feelings and mainly a sexual content, as if it is no possible to love someone without having sex with them. Nonsense when I put it here in print, but it appears to be the general concensus in practial living. So "love" shifts to "lust" and we've made that a primary good.

It is an interesting fact that just about everything that we recognize as sin can be viewed as not sin. Here's what I mean. Food is not sin, but gluttony is. Taking things is not sin, but stealing is. Sex as God intended it is not sin, but sex outside of marriage is. All the good things that God has provided are good right up until we take them beyond their intended purpose. We make them idols or masters or passions. We allow them to replace God in our hearts. It can be a spouse or a child, a job, a possession, an ambition ... just about anything at all. These things are not evil in and of themselves; we just make them that way when they become more than God is. Years ago someone asked me, "Do dogs go to heaven?" followed by "Because, if my dog isn't going to be in heaven, I don't want to go." More recently, a parent told me, "If my child isn't in heaven, I don't want to be there." Dogs and children are good, but when they become more important than God, they are idols. The god of this world is very adept at turning the good things of God into idols.

These are just examples. The prince of the power of the air is keen on turning that which God describes as good into that which is evil and vice versa. And even we Christians can have a hard time recognizing it. God said that He designed men to be the responsible party in a marriage (1 Cor 11:3) and we're outraged. God tells us to bear one anothers burdens (Gal 6:2) and we're lackadaisical. God commands humility and we see it as an offense. God limits our sexual expressions and we think maybe He's on "the wrong side of history." That's because we have a tricky god, and he's no friend of God. He's also no friend of those of us who wish to worship the true God. Watch out (1 Peter 5:8).