Recently, someone challenged my idea that God can truly be reduced down to "God is Love". I was told that while we know God is Love, God is also a multitude of other things: Light, Grace, Peace, Holiness, etc. I stated, more or less, that I needed God to be this simple, because all my years of church doctrine and complicated theology failed to help me comprehend God. If I really were to simplify Him, I could easily say everything about Him is Loving, and therefore have some comprehension of His character. This isn't to say, in my opinion, that knowing God is Love is akin to knowing God in His entirety. I believe we all have a very minimal view of God, no matter how we know Him or view Him, because we are flawed and human. However, this simple understanding of God as being Love is the filter through which everything I know about God must pass, or it is decidedly not God.Last week I was helping my son with his math; he is working on fractions. We were discussing the concept of the 'lowest common denominator'. That is, reducing or increasing the numerator and denominator of two fractions so the denominators are the same and therefore a math function can be performed.
I got to thinking: in reading the Bible, I have always believed God reduced Himself down to the simplest terms possible so we, in our limited humanity, could comprehend Him; He never expected us to thoroughly understand Him. For instance, He speaks of Himself as Father because this is a relational concept we are familiar with, not because it sums up the whole of how God feels about us.
So I can't help but wonder if God somehow doesn't mind if we reduce Him down to simple concepts to aid in our knowing of Him. Way back in history, God already knew we couldn't truly know Him, so He created images and glimpses of Himself that we could understand. He knows us well enough to know that Love is a great and expansive thing to us humans, even if our understanding of it in relation to God is completely flawed. Why would we think today He would be offended if we simply said "God is Love"?
Image courtesy Cindy Bryan
7 comments:
Erin this is so awesome!
Why would a God who desires a relationship with all of his creation want the relationship to be expressed in lofty grand mystical terms that only the few elite incircle types can know or, on the other hand, why would he present himself in a way that no one at all can know.
Jesus was the perfect example of the lowest common denominator - the great equalizer.
Love God Love your neighbor. People are hard wired to know how to Love and we are hard wired to want Love from others..... this is something everyone can relate to!
God is Love.
I like the way you put this, and I am going to commit it to my heart..
"God as being Love is the filter through which everything I know about God must pass, or it is decidedly not God."
Amen amen amen
Peace and Thank YOu!
Keren
Thanks Keren. It's hard to unravel years of theology; habit wants me to have "head" knowledge of God, but my heart wants to have "Love" knowledge of God.
Sometimes things people say make me question the simple concept of "God is Love". Thanks for affirming it.
Erin, your post greatly affirmed some things I have been pondering, and you gave me something to use on a day to day basis.
so I am glad what I said affirmed your thoughts. I believe we are here for some reason we probably wont ever figure out, but the way we get through it all is supporting and affirming each other. To me it seems to take courage to offer sincere affirmation.
Thanks again
Peace
Keren
Thanks Keren. I agree completely.
I re-read all of this today. Last night it seems I focused a little on affirmation in my last comment. This was based on my real life,(not internet related), relationships and experiences.
I am aware that my affirmation comment may seem somewhat a segue from your original post. However, it seems some people compliment or praise as if distributing cupcakes to make friends. On the other end are people who never compliment or praise anybody at all.
When the the lowest common denominater in any situation is found, ....you will find a place that is not above, nor is it below any line.... this is where you will find the people who are called to affirm others, and those who also let themselves be affirmed.
Oh and also... dont get me wrong..Ilove cupcakes and compliments of any kind... I also dont mind silence either.
Peace
Keren
P.S. Erin I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this post!
Affirmation is simply an aspect of Love, so it fits right in. ;-)
I think if we look up Love in the Thesaurus (ignoring the R-rated synonyms), we find out who God is. Affirming is one of those things.
Nod :-)
and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them
coooool
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