How Loving is God really?
In John 14:15, Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We understand this to mean that the commandments of Jesus are what comes from God, so it would seem that the only way we can express our love of God to Him is to keep his commandments. In this regard, He is a loving God.
But was He always a loving God even in this fashion? 2 Samuel 6:6-7 mentions a man named Uzzah, whom God strikes dead. His “crime,” if you can call it that? He laid his hand on the ark of God to steady it as the oxen who carried it had stumbled. This happened shortly after David was made king of Israel, and David was in the process of moving the ark of God to Jerusalem.
You would think offhand that Uzzah was serving a noble purpose in keeping the ark from falling, but apparently God didn’t see it that way. Some have said that Uzzah’s stature was less than the Levites, so he was forbidden from touching the ark regardless of whether it may fall. Some have said that God was angry with Uzzah not so much because he touched the ark, but because he had no faith that God himself would keep the ark from falling. Both assertions may be true, since the Bible is full of stories of those who’ve skirted His Law, and we know that God tests our faith from time to time.
Where is the Love of God in that incident? It appears that the ark and what it symbolizes is more important to God than Uzzah, who was one of His creations and therefore was one of many sons and daughters of God who live on earth. God doesn’t seem to love Uzzah here; was He making an example out of him? If so, where is God’s Love here?
Did Jesus actually say that God loves us? The closest he comes is JOHN 14:23 in which he says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” But again, it goes back to keeping God’s commandments through Jesus. These raises, yet again, the interplay or conflict between out faith and our works. Keeping God’s commandments can be seen as a matter of works, because it implies we have to do something to gain God’s Love. Some may say that our mere faith in God would enable us to fulfill his commandments, but the Bible says, in James 2:17, that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” So, out love of God, it seems, consists of both faith and works.
Uzzah may have thought he was demonstrating his love of God through his works of steadying the ark, though, but as we see, we have to be careful that our works truly reflect God’s commandments.
Is there anywhere else in the Bible, apart from Jesus and John, that actually says God loves us? Well, we would have to look to Psalm 136:1-3 which says, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever…”
Perhaps Jesus may have believed he need not repeat what it says in the Psalms, so he didn’t harp on God’s love for us. One may ask, though, if God’s love is conditional---That is, whether God’s love is conditioned on how well we abide by His commandments through Jesus.
Many of us have been brought up to believe that true love isn’t conditional, it just happens. There are many in the clergy who would maintain that God’s love is indeed conditional, to the point where if we do not abide by is commandments, they say that fire and brimstone will rain upon us. They say that natural catastrophes are the work of God who punishes those who don’t abide by His commandments. How many Uzzah’s might we have in the world, who believe they may be doing good, but in fact have aroused God’s ire?
We don’t know enough about God to figure out all His motivations, and Proverbs 3:5 says in effect to don’t even bother figuring God out. If we go to help someone who may be carrying one of God’s sacred things, would we risk being punished along with the person because of the way God assesses matters? If we raise an individual in our home, totally unaware that the person is planning to shoot up a school and follows through, how would God see us?
In John 14:15, Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We understand this to mean that the commandments of Jesus are what comes from God, so it would seem that the only way we can express our love of God to Him is to keep his commandments. In this regard, He is a loving God.
But was He always a loving God even in this fashion? 2 Samuel 6:6-7 mentions a man named Uzzah, whom God strikes dead. His “crime,” if you can call it that? He laid his hand on the ark of God to steady it as the oxen who carried it had stumbled. This happened shortly after David was made king of Israel, and David was in the process of moving the ark of God to Jerusalem.
You would think offhand that Uzzah was serving a noble purpose in keeping the ark from falling, but apparently God didn’t see it that way. Some have said that Uzzah’s stature was less than the Levites, so he was forbidden from touching the ark regardless of whether it may fall. Some have said that God was angry with Uzzah not so much because he touched the ark, but because he had no faith that God himself would keep the ark from falling. Both assertions may be true, since the Bible is full of stories of those who’ve skirted His Law, and we know that God tests our faith from time to time.
Where is the Love of God in that incident? It appears that the ark and what it symbolizes is more important to God than Uzzah, who was one of His creations and therefore was one of many sons and daughters of God who live on earth. God doesn’t seem to love Uzzah here; was He making an example out of him? If so, where is God’s Love here?
Did Jesus actually say that God loves us? The closest he comes is JOHN 14:23 in which he says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” But again, it goes back to keeping God’s commandments through Jesus. These raises, yet again, the interplay or conflict between out faith and our works. Keeping God’s commandments can be seen as a matter of works, because it implies we have to do something to gain God’s Love. Some may say that our mere faith in God would enable us to fulfill his commandments, but the Bible says, in James 2:17, that “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” So, out love of God, it seems, consists of both faith and works.
Uzzah may have thought he was demonstrating his love of God through his works of steadying the ark, though, but as we see, we have to be careful that our works truly reflect God’s commandments.
Is there anywhere else in the Bible, apart from Jesus and John, that actually says God loves us? Well, we would have to look to Psalm 136:1-3 which says, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever…”
Perhaps Jesus may have believed he need not repeat what it says in the Psalms, so he didn’t harp on God’s love for us. One may ask, though, if God’s love is conditional---That is, whether God’s love is conditioned on how well we abide by His commandments through Jesus.
Many of us have been brought up to believe that true love isn’t conditional, it just happens. There are many in the clergy who would maintain that God’s love is indeed conditional, to the point where if we do not abide by is commandments, they say that fire and brimstone will rain upon us. They say that natural catastrophes are the work of God who punishes those who don’t abide by His commandments. How many Uzzah’s might we have in the world, who believe they may be doing good, but in fact have aroused God’s ire?
We don’t know enough about God to figure out all His motivations, and Proverbs 3:5 says in effect to don’t even bother figuring God out. If we go to help someone who may be carrying one of God’s sacred things, would we risk being punished along with the person because of the way God assesses matters? If we raise an individual in our home, totally unaware that the person is planning to shoot up a school and follows through, how would God see us?