Perfect Sense

             And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

 

Let’s turn this idea partway around. Suppose you were hired to a new job in a field with which you’re familiar, and your supervisor proceeds to lecture you on the basics, then stops by every couple of minutes to critique your work. And after you leave, he calls you three times before bedtime, and twice more starting at 6 a.m., to make sure you’re going to be to work on time and dressed appropriately – and offers you a ride. Or, what if he started following you everywhere you went, to make sure didn’t do anything that would reflect badly on the company?

I am not suggesting that this is how we treat God, though I suspect that it is, at least sometimes. These are descriptions of what trust is not. Trust, then, would include allowing you to do your job without micromanagement, with the belief that you are competent, capable, and responsible.

Here are some more reverse ideas. Suppose that boss hired you, then shoved his way in and did your work for you, never even acknowledging your existence or your contributions? Would you be happy with a boss who treated you like you didn’t exist, or perhaps took credit for your work as if you didn’t exist? 

What the author of Hebrews is saying in this passage isn’t something shocking. It’s not some special spiritual something-or-other. It tells us more about what trust is than it does about God. If we are going to claim we trust God, we must believe that He exists, and we must believe that He does and will do what He says He does and will do. This isn’t any different from having faith in anyone else. If we don’t have faith in someone, it’s not likely that we will be able to please them any more than we are likely to be pleased with someone who doesn’t acknowledge our existence. This takes us back – at least as a beginning – to the Golden Rule. We should treat God the way we would like to be treated. It’s only a beginning, of course, because God isn’t a human being.

Have you ever met someone who actually treats a dog or cat like a human being? I pity the poor cat or dog, who is being denied its feline or canine nature. It’s as much a form of abuse as treating a human like a dog. In the same way, it is an abuse of God to treat Him as other than God or to expect Him to behave like something other than He is. Once again, Scripture makes perfect sense.