Word of Encouragement (12/14/2023)
"With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 27 with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 28 You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down. (2 Sam. 22:26-28)
In the previous section, David focused on his faithfulness, and how God rewarded him. Here, he reflects on the other side: why God rewarded him for his faithfulness.
It may seem like God is being passive, merely responding to whatever people do. That cannot be further from the truth. First, what is described here can happen only because God is who He is—“I AM that I AM.” These descriptions show that God is just, true, and faithful. If God were not merciful, He would mock the merciful. If God were not blameless, He would not care about the blameless and be unable to show Himself blameless. If He were not pure Himself, He would despise the pure. If He were not true, He would delight in the crooked. If He were not gracious, He would not save the humble. If He were not holy and righteous, He would honor the haughty.
These descriptions demonstrate the doctrine of God’s simplicity. The word, “simple,” is not used in the sense of “easy to understand” or “not complex” or “not complicated.” God is so infinite in His being and wisdom that no human mind can comprehend God as He is. If a human being, who is only a finite creature, can be so complex and complicated, how much more so God must be! In this instance, the word is used in the sense of “consisting of one element or part only; not combined or complex [in the constitution]” (Collins English Dictionary).
This doctrine says that God is not made up of different parts: He is unified and undivided in essence. His oneness is such that there is no division between His being and His attributes. We can lose any of our attributes (such as any of our body parts) or have any of them changed (such as our personality due to growth or even loss of memory). But God cannot lose any of His attributes (such as His eternity, infinity, justice, love, righteousness, grace, etc.) and still be God. As God, He doesn’t have attributes; He is each of His attributes—He IS love, He IS goodness, He IS life, etc. And He is 100% of each of His attributes (or “perfections,” as Dr. Pickard said at our family retreat). What that means is that all these perfections are not different parts or traits of God: He is all these perfections all at the same time.
Why, then, does God deal with different people in different ways? In Himself, God is like pure light, which contains the whole spectrum of colors. As you know, light displays different colors when it hits different materials. Such is God’s interaction with people. The perfect harmony of all His perfections is never disturbed within His being. But different perfections manifest themselves in His interaction with different kinds of people.
What is the color of your daily life?