Sometimes I get an impression about God where he is a person much different from me, who created me from nothing and expects me to live according to his rules. I wonder, at those times, if God has to abide by a higher law, one that respects God’s rights and my rights as well. Of course, this is silly. There is no law higher than God. All law, all sense of right and wrong, actually comes from God. God is free to do anything God chooses, and God writes his own laws as he chooses. There is nothing that God cannot do, no higher law or conditions that God has to abide by in choosing what he wants.
Scary!—this fundamental difference between God and me and everything else. What is this person like that can act with such arbitrariness? The basic way I deal with this is to try to understand God’s character through his commandments. Here is a person who does anything he wishes with no obligations to follow a higher code, imposes his desires on us that we should live a certain way. We should not kill each other, not steal, not even desire what belongs to others, honor our parents, be faithful to our spouses, and speak truthfully. I have no concerns about someone with a character like this, even though I would have a hard time living up to these rules. But I would not fear the person who generated these rules.
So, perhaps, this person, upon reflection, is a much better person than I would have surmised from my first impression.
Maurice A. Williams
RETURN HOME