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God Is Love 18


You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand └generations┘ of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:5-6) 

“God’s jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 205) 

          Today, I disagree with Mr. Grudem because it seems to me that the god he is describing is a self-centered, petty being. I’m not saying God isn’t jealous. Scripture makes it cleat that He is. I just believe that there’s a better way of understanding that jealousy.
          God knows who and what He is. When we believe Him to be less than He is, or believe something else to be more than what it is, we believe lies. God is True. Love is True. Not only does the deceit run counter to His nature and to the nature of love, but it harms us. God is forgiving, patient, and merciful, so He may not force truth about Himself on us, but He must deal in truth because it is truth.
          We can easily draw love into the discussion here. Love wants what is in our best interest. If we worship some lesser thing. If we put something else in His place or make Him out to be less than He is, we’re believing lies that are harmful to us because they involve our relating to the universe and to Him in a way that does not correspond to reality. God and love must both, therefore, oppose what comes between us and either of them. No substitutes allowed when the real thing is available.

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