What does God want from us? [Mc 6.8]

Micah 6.8 KJV

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

One of the bigger gags from Douglas Adam’s comedic sci-fi radio show, then book series, then TV series, then movie The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (H2G2 for short), was the meaning of life. Or as H2G2 put it, “the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.” Some aliens built the best computer ever, solely to figure this out. After 7.5 million years of calculations, it turned out to be “42.” Bit of a letdown, but the computer pointed out it made perfect sense once you knew what the Ultimate Question was. But deducing that would take an even better computer—plus another 10 million years. Problem is, the whole H2G2 story begins with that computer getting blown up.

Adams was atheist, so he wouldn’t have taken his Ultimate Question from the prophets. I’m not, so I will.

See, when you believe in God, he’s part of the question. He created us, and since we recognize him as infinitely intelligent, he created us for some reason. There’s some purpose to our existence. Sp… what’s our purpose? What does God expect of us? That’s the question.

And Christians deduced our purpose is a relationship with God. He created humans specifically so he can interact with us, and because God is love, it’s to love us; and he hopes we’ll love him back. As the Westminster Catechism puts it, the main purpose of humanity (or, in 17th-century English, “the chief end of man”) is yea: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.”

So how do we respond to God’s love? Well, humans tend to think in terms of karma, and figure we owe God big-time for everything he’s given us, for everything he promises us; we have to deserve it somehow. We really don’t, and can’t; it’s all grace on God’s end. But ungracious people struggle to wrap their minds around that idea, and still wanna know what they can do to merit a relationship with the Almighty, and salvation. “Just trust Jesus” doesn’t feel like enough for them.

Well… you can follow Jesus. He taught us a bunch of stuff about his kingdom, and how we oughta live our lives as inheritors of that kingdom. We can do that. And some of those Christians who want God’s kingdom on merit try to legalistically do that, and find it a titanic struggle, or make things miserable for their fellow Christians around them, ’cause God’s kingdom runs on grace. We aren’t following Jesus because that’s how we merit the kingdom; we’re following him out of gratitude!

But if you want a short description of God’s expectation for us, that’s where the verse from Micah comes in. And unlike God’s commands—unlike the greatest commandment or the 10 commandments or the entire Law of Moses—it expresses the attitudes God wants his worshipers to have. Be fair. Be merciful. Be humble. Because Jesus is likewise all these things.

Jesus’s mission to the world.

John 17.6-8.

In Jesus’s John 17 prayer, after he asks his Father to glorify him, he tells his Father he’s been doing the job the Father sent him to do: He’s been collecting followers.

As I said in my previous article on this chapter, this isn’t a prayer we pray along with Jesus, like the Lord’s Prayer. This is a prayer Jesus uniquely prayed to his Father. We’re just agreeing with him as best we can; we’re asking that Jesus’s will be done, same as he wanted his Father’s will to be done.

John 17.6-8 KWL

6“I make your¹ name known to the world’s people,

whom you give me.

They’re yours¹ and mine; you¹ give them.

They kept your word.

7They now recognize everything you¹ gave me

is from you,¹

8for the words which you¹ give me,

I give them.

They accept the words

and truly know I come from you.¹

They believe you¹ send me.”

’Cause we do believe the Father sent Jesus, and how all Jesus’s teachings originate with the Father. Right?

So that, in turn, is what we oughta likewise pray. We belong to Jesus—and our Father. Our Father gave us to Jesus; he’s our Lord now. We accept him.

I should point out in verse 8, when Jesus says his followers ἔλαβον/élavon, “take, receive, choose, accept,” is properly interpreted “They accept the words,” like I have it, or “They accepted them,” like the NIV and most other bible translations have it. Problem is, every so often some preacher with a shaky handle on Greek will notice there’s no actual pronoun there after élavon. Context makes it obvious Jesus is talking about his teachings, but some of these guys will insist Jesus is really talking about himself—“They accept me.” If you ever catch someone preaching that, feel free to ignore them, and go with the way most bible translators have put it.

The Twelve Hours Story.

John 11.9-10.

All my life, whenever I’ve heard people teach about Jesus’s parables, they tend to note, “But there are no parables in John.” Which is rubbish; Jesus uses a number of parables in John. In fact I would argue it’s because of this false belief in John’s lack of parables, the parables which are totally in that gospel get skimmed over—“Well that’s not a parable; that’s just something Jesus said by way of teaching.” No dum-dum, it’s an analogy describing God’s kingdom which you’re meant to figure out, so it’s clearly a parable. And you’re acting like one of those people with plugged ears and closed minds.

Take fr’instance Jesus’s Twelve Hour Story. It’s rare you’ll find a biblical commentary which treats it like the parable it is, and instead treats it as some strange, hard-to-understand thing Jesus says in the middle of the Raising Lazarus Story. It’s only hard to understand if you’re not even trying to understand it. Here’s the thing he said:

John 11.9-10 KWL

9Jesus answers, “Aren’t there 12 hours in the day?

When someone walks in the day, they¹ don’t stumble.

For this person sees the world’s light.

10When someone walks in the night, they¹ stumble.

For the light isn’t in them.¹”

By now Christians oughta know who the world’s light is: Jesus. Do you remember what was happening when Jesus said “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world”? Jn 9.5 It was right before he cured a man born blind. It wasn’t just a metaphor to remind his students he can cure those whose only experience is living in the dark. The king of God’s kingdom personally exemplifies what we’re meant to do to bring hope, healing, and truth into a world which’d much rather stay in the dark because their deeds are evil. Jn 3.19-21

All Jesus’s parables describe God’s kingdom, and this saying obviously describes it too: When we walk in the day, we walk in the light; we don’t stumble. When we walk in the night, we’re not in the light, so of course we stumble. Stay in the light!

We sin. So we need Jesus’s help.

1 John 1.8 – 2.2.

Immoral folks like to figure if God has a dark side, it justifies them having a dark side. I wrote on this previously: Gnostics and determinists regularly claim God co-opts evil as part of his cosmic plan—and if he’s somehow not tainted by such behavior (and exactly how wouldn’t he be?) there’s no reason they can’t commit the occasional sin, if it’s ultimately turns out for the best.

No surprise: Such people often find themselves committing such “occasional” sins. Turns out there are an awful lot of these occasions!

The very idea is rotten to its core. If God has an evil plan, it makes him an evil God. Period. And as John had to point out, God has no dark side. God is light. Not just in the light, like we can be when we follow God: Is light. In John’s other writing, Revelation, he even describes New Jerusalem as lit by the Lamb himself instead of the sun. Rv 21.23 Since Revelation is all apocalypses, I don’t think it wise to interpret that literally. But certainly we’re meant to get the idea we’re going to live there in God’s presence and goodness, in which there’s no room for evil. It can’t exist there.

1 John is written as a corrective to people who develop such messed-up ideas. And, as appropriate for Christians, it’s a gracious corrective. If you’ve fallen for this twisted idea and gone wrong, chill out: Repent, be forgiven, accept God’s grace, and move forward!

Maybe I should just quote John.

1 John 1.8 - 2.2 KWL

8When we say we have no sin,

we mislead ourselves, and truth isn’t in us.

9When we acknowledge our sins,

God is faithful and fair,

so he can forgive these sins for us,

and can cleanse us of everything unfair.

10When we say we’ve not sinned,

we make God out to be a liar,

and his word isn’t in us.

2.1My children, I write these things to you²

so you² don’t sin!

And when anyone sins,

we have a fair aide with the Father, Christ Jesus.

2Jesus is the solution for our sins.

And not only for our sins, but also for all the world.

God has no dark side, but humanity surely does. I sure do. So do you; so does everyone. And the only solution to our problem isn’t self-deprivation, isn’t noble truths and an eightfold path, isn’t gnostic revelations of how the universe really works, isn’t to find a devil to blame for everything, isn’t any of the usual solutions humans invent. It’s an active relationship with Christ Jesus.

The LORD creates Eve.

Genesis 2.18-25.

Continuing the second creation story. In the first story, God created the birds on day five and the land animals on day six, and humans right after the animals. In the second, God creates the male human, “Adam,” first. Then makes him a garden to tend, puts him in it, and tells him all the trees are his to eat from—except the one, which’ll kill him.

And then—part of the same Hebrew paragraph—God decides Adam needs a partner, because when humans are alone, we get weird. It’s not just when Christians skip church. Everything God created is good, Ge 1.31 but this particular situation is not good.

Genesis 2.18-25 KWL

18The god YHWH said, “It’s not good

that the human is all by himself.

I will make for him a helper,

like his counterpart.”

19The god YHWH shaped from the soil

every wild living creature

and every bird of the skies.

He brought them to the human

to see what the human called them.

Whatever the human called each living soul,

that was its name.

20The human called the names

of every beast, bird of the sky,

and every wild living creature.

As for the human, he didn’t find a helper,

like his counterpart.

21The god YHWH made

a deep sleep fall upon the human,

and he slept.

God took one of his ribs

and filled in the flesh under it.

22The god YHWH built the rib,

which he took from the human,

into a woman,

and brought her to the human.

23The human said,

“Now this is a bone from my bones,

flesh from my flesh.

For this person will be called woman,

for this person was taken out of man.”

24This is why a man will leave his father and his mother

and cling to his woman.

They become one flesh.

25The two of them were naked—

the human and his woman.

They felt no shame.

The author of Genesis (who isn’t Moses, but for convenience, I call him “Moe”) tells us right away in verse 24 the reason for this story: It’s why women and men pair up. It’s why women and men have a closer relationship with one another than between parents and children. We’re fully compatible. We’re partners. The woman was created as “a helper, like his counterpart.” She was meant to be Adam’s equal.

No, not a subordinate. Sexists will insist women are created to serve men. It is true we humans are created to serve one another, but that’s regardless of race or gender: White men like me are created to also serve women and nonwhites. (And not by bossing them around; that’s just a devilish redefinition of service.) Men serve women; women serve men. But sexists wanna find biblical reasons for their godless attitudes, and they’ll distort Genesis to justify it.

The bonkers thing is, Genesis was written in a sexist, patriarchal culture, where women were likewise considered subordinate to men. And even then, the writer of Genesis doesn’t describe God creating women to serve men. She’s an עֵ֖זֶר/etsér, “help, aid, rescue.” When the man can’t do it alone, the woman helps. Same as the man—when the woman can’t do it alone, the man helps. Same as God—when we can’t do it alone, the Holy Spirit helps. She’s his counterpart, his partner, his advocate, his friend, his love. They complete one another.

Any interpretation which doesn’t affirm their equal status and mutual service, is exploitative. And is wholly inappropriate for Christians.

Why orthodox theology?

Some weeks ago I was asked, “Okay, so why’s it so important to be orthodox? Why can’t we just believe whatever we want about God?”

Same reason we can’t just believe whatever we want about electricity.

I mean, if you wanted to, you could believe electricity is just fairy glitter moving through copper wires, and because fairies are always so friendly and benign in children’s cartoons (even though in European mythology, they’re really not) they’d never, ever hurt you. So, you figure, it’s okay to take your tablet with you into the bathtub. And it’s okay to leave it plugged into the charging cable while you do it. And… oh, gee, you’ve died.

Electricity isn’t the best analogy, because God is way more forgiving than electricity mixed with water. Run afoul of electricity and you’re dead. Run afoul of God, and he’ll become human and die for your sins.

Skeptics will immediately agree with me electricity isn’t the best analogy… but for different reasons. See, to their minds electricity falls within the realm of reality. God, not so much. To them, God’s a theory—and not a scientific theory, like relativity or evolution or Pythagoras’s formula. God conceptually exists: There is some sort of supreme being or higher power or creator in the universe, and maybe they believe she’s self-aware and intelligent, instead of just the sum of everything like pantheists believe. She’s out there, somewhere. But, they figure, she’s unknowable.

And to their minds, theology isn’t about the study of God, based on revelation. It’s all guesswork. If God’s unknowable, and doesn’t bother to make herself known, nobody legitimately knows anything about her. So… we make guesses. We guess God is good. (I mean, if she were bad, she’d be terrifying, and only cult leaders would want her to terrify their subjects, so we’re definitely gonna reject that idea.) We guess God is benevolent, ’cause benevolence is good. We guess God loves everybody, ’cause love is good. Well almost everybody; we often guess she doesn’t love evildoers, and will probably send the very worst of them to hell. But she loves most everybody.

Yes, I’ve been referring to this concept of God as “she.” Hey, if all your beliefs about God are guesswork, sometimes you’ll guess a different pronoun. I’ve lost count of how often I’ve heard pagans call God “she.” Women create life, right?—so they guess “she.” (Well, unless they’re men. People love to assign God our own pronouns. Little self-projection on our part.)

Since all their God-thoughts are pure guesswork, they admit there’s a chance they might be wrong. These chances get smaller and smaller as these become long-held, dearly beloved beliefs. Or when their favorite spiritual authors teach the very same things, and confirm for them they’re probably right. But because the God they imagine is a benevolent God, they also imagine if they get her wrong… well a benevolent God has to be a forgiving God, right? Has to be. If they were God, they would be… or at least they would be with themselves. So if they get God wrong, it’s understandable; she hasn’t said anything, so they had to guess as best they could, and she gets that, and forgives that. They’ll get into heaven regardless.

So whenever a Christian like me has an objection to one of their beliefs—“No, that’s not who God is”—they wanna know why my guess is better than theirs. And when I tell them I’m not guessing; this is what Christianity teaches, they wanna know why Christianity’s guess is better than theirs. Because again, they think it’s all guesswork, and Christianity’s depiction of a real, immanent, interactive, living God… is also guesswork. Or fantasy.

You can see why someone who thinks like this, doesn’t think orthodoxy matters. God’ll forgive all our wrong beliefs, right? God’ll let everybody into heaven, right?—so long that we’re good and benevolent like we imagine God is, and not evil, and put more good into the universe than bad. So why must I object to their happy thoughts with orthodox Christianity, when in the end it doesn’t really matter?

Because if it really didn’t matter, their belief God is unknowable, and has never revealed anything for us to believe, would be true. But it’s not. God has told us about himself. He did step down from heaven to explain himself. He became human. He became Jesus. Jesus tells us about God. We’re not guessing. We know, because Jesus told us.

Glorifying Jesus.

John 17.1-5.

After the Last Supper, Jesus taught his students a number of things, and capped off his teachings with a prayer we find in John 17. Some Christians call it his “high priestly prayer,” since Jesus is Christianity’s head priest; others just call it “the prayer of Jesus.” Whatever you care to call it, it expresses his will—and since he always pursued his Father’s will, it expresses his Father’s will too.

It wasn’t really meant for us to pray as well, like the Lord’s Prayer. But there’s no reason we can’t pray portions of it, or borrow ideas from it. This is all stuff Jesus wants, after all.

John 17.1-5 KWL

1Jesus speaks these things,

and lifting his eyes to heaven, says,

“Father, the hour came.

Glorify your¹ son

so {your¹} son can glorify you.¹

2Just as you¹ give him authority over all flesh,

so he might give everyone whom you¹ gave him

life in the age to come.

3This is life in the age to come:

They can know you,¹ the only true God,

and the one you send, Christ Jesus.

4I glorify you¹ on the earth,

completing the work you¹ gave me so I may do.

5Now glorify me, Father, by yourself¹

with the glory I had before the world came to be,

with you.¹”

This is the part of the prayer many bibles title, “Jesus prays for himself,” because he asks his Father to glorify him—the verb δοξάζω/doxádzo meaning “magnify, extol, hold in honor, hold a high opinion of, esteem.” The Father had said more than once he does hold a high opinion of his Son, but Jesus wants him to make it obvious because Jesus’s purpose on earth is to explain the Father to us, Jn 1.18 and the more Jesus is honored, Jesus’s exposition of his Father is likewise honored. And you notice how many a pagan, who’s had it up to here with Christians and our churches, nonetheless like and respect Jesus. They may not know him or what he teaches; they might’ve been filled to the brim with Historical Jesus rubbish. But they do glorify him, somewhat—and that’s the route by which the Holy Spirit can get through to them and lead them to Jesus, and Jesus can lead them towards actually knowing his Father.

And this, Jesus says, is life in the age to come. They’ll know the Father, and Christ Jesus whom he sent. And live with them forever; the age to come never ends, which is why so many bibles automatically translate αἰώνιον/eónion, “age [to come],” as “eternal.” Life in the age to come is eternal life. Wanna live forever? Get to know Jesus.