Today’s reading: Psalms 10-12; 1 John 1-2
I know we have talked about this a lot in this series already, but I just keep getting hung up on the disparity between what God prioritized in the Old Testament and what so many Christians think and teach that He cares most about from us today.
On the one hand, we’ve talked a lot about the common perception today of God in the Old Testament as being vengeful and always looking to judge, but then we see passages like these Psalms where God’s concern is justice and compassion. Who are the wicked in His eyes here? Those who are greedy, do violence, and oppress the vulnerable. It’s not those who violate a dietary law, or fail to make a sacrifice, but those who choose corruption, injustice, and oppression.
But the flip side to this is the perception of God in the New Testament as only caring about our avoidance of sin. I think this is a highly common perception, especially in American Christianity, because of the Puritan roots of many of the early settlers and communities in the US, who taught a very strict moralism. Following along with the Puritanical perspective, Catholic teaching, also very common in the US, melds well into this view, where what condemns you is more so your active sin than it is your failure to do something (not that Catholics don’t teach that we should do good, but that the focus tends to be on avoiding or confessing the sin which keeps us from heaven rather than on necessarily pursuing good). The result is a wrong view of God that what He cares most about is that we are "good," as in that we don't sin. And this generally boils down to a list of sins we have decided are the ones that really matter and avoiding those. One of the big ironies of this is that when we pick what sins we need to avoid, so many Christians pick things like drinking, that the Bible clearly says is not a sin, and don't really care about things like lying all that much, even though the Bible has a lot to say about them. Or they focus on not cussing, even though there is really only one verse in the entire Bible that could be said to speak more directly to that, and ignore things like generosity and compassion.
What God is looking for from us is to grow increasingly into His image. To increasingly care about the things He cares about and prioritize the things He prioritizes. Yes, this will mean moving away from sin, but more than the focus and concern being on what we avoid, it's about what our lives look like in righteousness and holiness and truth. It's what God is talking about in these Psalms, that He desires His people to be compassionate, just, and loving. If your life is increasingly trending in that direction, then I say with complete certainty that God is pleased with that! Does He want us to turn away from sin? Certainly! And if He is calling us to hand something over to Him, or to leave something behind us, and we are ignoring His voice, it's safe to say we are not likely to be trending in the right direction very long. But if our lives are looking increasingly like the life of Christ, in love, compassion, generosity, and goodness, it is safe to say that we are exactly where God wants us to be. And if, as we continue on that trajectory, there is something He wants to address, you can rest assured He will address it.
He is not a God sitting up in Heaven, watching, waiting for us to mess up, to give in to temptation and sin, just so He can turn His chin up at us in disgust and regret that He ever saved us. That is not our God! Our God is a loving Father that has adopted fallen, sinful people into His family. He is a God who knows us better than we know ourselves, who knows our weaknesses and shortcomings, and has called us into His family nonetheless. And while yes, He is holy, without sin, and calls us to be holy like Him, He is not ignorant of the fact that we are fallen and in desperate need of His grace day by day. And as our good and loving father, he pours that grace out upon us every day.
We have a significantly better God than any of us will ever fully realize this side of heaven.
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