It’s not hard to understand how people misunderstand when someone in the “Reformed Like John Piper” group talks about God’s passion for his own glory. It sounds like God is the biggest narcissist in the world. People can be put off by the idea that a quality we reject in humanity is somehow OK when it comes to the Almighty. God’s deepest desire and greatest pleasure comes in his being glorified? I mean, how self centered is that?
But what if all it means is that God simply wants to be acknowledged for who he is? How many of us would like nothing more than for other people to simply recognize that we are human souls who deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion? I don’t have to be lifted up on a pedestal and worshiped – though there are many people who think they deserve precisely that. All I want is to be acknowledged for who I am, for people to recognize the contribution I make day by day, to have someone care about what’s going on with me and to tell me how much they appreciate me for who I am and what I do.
Why should we expect anything different from the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth? Indeed, who else deserves to be acknowledged and thanked if not the one who gives us life and breath and every good thing?
That’s what Micah 6:8 is talking about when it asks: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” The Lord wants justice in the world. He wants people to treat each other with compassion. And he wants us to walk with him, but to do that in an attitude that recognizes how great he is and how much we depend on him.
The heart of sin is refusing to give God the respect he is due. And the reason judgment will eventually fall on some of us is that even though we know who he is – all-powerful, eternal Creator – we still refuse to honor Him as God and give thanks. (Romans 1:20-21) When we insist on being respected and treated with the dignity we deserve, but refuse to give God his due, we have sent him a powerful message – a message we would regard as an insult if others treated us the same way.
The Lord is God – almighty Creator, gracious Sustainer, loving Redeemer, and righteous Judge. The least we can do is give him the respect he deserves – to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors the same way we love ourselves. (Mark 12:30)
