| We can easily imagine
a god that does not care to know us, and we cannot know. In fact this
view is common enough that it has a name, "agnosticism." Such a god
would obviously be difficult to love, perhaps impossible to love. We
might admire such a god for its accomplishments, or status, but loving it
would be problematic. As it turns out, we have a God that has revealed that He very much wants us to know that He is our God and the only God of the Universe. God has told us that we should not recognize any worldly, or even spiritual beings other than Him, as gods. God has told us that as the one and only God He requires that we respect Him, His name, His works, His example to us, and the examples of Him in us. Now some of us are wondering why not recognize other gods? Could we not recognize God as the Supreme God, and perhaps Gaia as a minor god? There may be reasons why God forbids this that are all His own, but He does forbid it. We can, though, get some insight into this situation from the fact that we were created directly by God's hand and also in God's image. It may be that there are other powerful spiritual entities that can create intelligent beings. Indeed, we are attempting to create intelligent machines, and genetically modified organisms that may also be intelligent. Someday we will probably succeed. Such creations may be able to worship their immediate creators as well as others as minor gods, and God as a Supreme God. But for us the option is not available; it is beneath us, and it is an insult to God. We can recognize spiritual beings, angels for example, but we are not to consider them as gods, and we are not to worship them. In the case of our parents, God commands us to love them, and everybody else as well, but also to honor them. But that is the limit of our regard for them, we are not to worship them. It is difficult for us to even consider that God is the creator of the universe. The universe is too big and intricate for us to fully comprehend that it was designed or built by anyone. Our ability to comprehend God is certainly challenged, but one thing we can recognize is that such an awesome being may require that those in His creation honor Him. And that is certainly the case. Amazingly, though, that is not the end of the story. By God's loving nature, He also commands from us only behavior that is ultimately beneficial to ourselves. This is the reason for morality. Unlike the gods of man's creation, God does not require that we harm each other, or ourselves, out of routine, or only to show fealty. God recognizes His own unparalleled worth to creation by the very fact that He designed and built it. Even more so the moment by moment operation of the universe may also depend on God. Therefore, God desires to draw us, whom He created, closer in relationship to Himself. Ultimately God desires that we love Him as He loves us. Indeed God has described the relationship we are to have with Him as a marriage. There is imagery in this description for love, exclusive and absolute dedication to each other, and unity of goals which can be described as oneness. There is no better relationship than that for us. God has already shown His love through service to all of us individually and as a whole. We need to recognize, though, that God's service is indeed an act of love and not a sign of our intrinsic value; our value can only come from God. By God's love we have value. Confusing God's love for anything else is to fall into the very temptation that causes sin. God will always be God and we will always be a part of His creation. |