A preamble to defining the word "God"
I’ve been struggling to write my first substantial blog post, on the Greatest Commandment:
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. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
– Jesus, in Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)
I think it will be an easier start to take a step back and define the word “God”. As you might imagine from the blog’s name, this has been a point of contention between me and other Christians.
I can’t help but pull another quote that I love into the mix, that gives us a couple of definitions:
If I say “God,”
You might think of a man sitting high in the clouds
Or a glory that the word fails to sound
My definition is closer to Glory than to a Man in the Clouds. Great song, by the way.
Before getting into it, I think it’s important to set our foundation with a few more quotes. They are, conveniently, back-to-back in Matthew’s gospel, so I’ll share them all at once:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
– Jesus, in Matthew 7:15-27 (ESV)
The vehemence of our “Lord, Lord"s is not important; what matters is the righteousness of our actions.
And don’t take my words at face value; they are personal and probably flawed. I write this with what I think are good intentions: to clarify my thoughts, to walk in the light, to open discussions. But good intentions can bear bad fruits.
Please come to your own understanding of God; it is your responsibility to distinguish the shepherd from the wolf and the good tree from the bad.