Pondering God IX: Pondering God Rightly

I will start right from the get go by saying I could've named this post Pondering God Correctly but the word "rightly" directs us to a specific verse to lead off us off and sets the tone I am looking for.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. ~2 Timothy 2:15

We need to be approved and be acceptable to God as His workers. It doing so we are to rightly divide the word of truth. We are to divide "cut straight" [orthotomeo], dissect metaphorically (as is it is used here). Basically we are to carefully perform a task. This is also how we "rightly" understand God because what He wanted humanity to understand about Himself He revealed through His Son and the Bible (word of truth). If we are going to dissect something it should be His word not Him. He is not dissectible. Let me clarify here also, when I say divide I do NOT mean take things apart and use what you want out of context. I mean pull it apart, hash over it until you understand ALL of its true meaning and true intent as it was intended by the auther God working through men. In the case of 2 Timothy it was God working through Paul.

It is human nature in this scientific and modernistic age to try to measure, compartmentalize and dissect God. God does not get measured because He is immeasurable. God cannot be compartmentalized. The idea of a compartment implies measurability and a size that is tangible. God has immeasurable love, mercy, grace, strength, wisdom, patience and the list goes on indefinitely and infinitely because his attributes are limitless. God has these limitless number of attributes and picking Him apart is to no avail because He is spirit and dissecting or picking assumes we could…we cannot even physically see the spiritual unless He allows us to.

We are finite beings trying to quantify the infinite nature. We would need to transcend our limitations and that is not possible. Methodological naturalism does us not good when trying to assembly the pieces of the picture that is God Almighty. How do you pull the Trinity apart if they are one God? If we can’t truly fathom and firmly grasp the nature of the Trinity’s multiplicity of persons being one God what makes us think we could actually pull them apart mentally and figure them out? Our arms are too short to get them around God. It is enough to know that He can get His (anthropomorphism) around us. The Bible only gives God human attributes or humanly knowable characteristics so that humans can understand Him yet he is all of those things described ad infinitum. He is also more than words could ever describe.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? ~ Numbers 23:19

God measures, quantifies us and gives us our worth. He tells us what we are and gives our intrinsic value. He is the measure of holiness and we are measured up against His holiness…and we are continually found wanting.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." ~1 Peter 1:15-16

We are allowed to understand God but only through what the Son and the Bible has revealed to us about Him. He revealed to us He chose to reveal to us. He has told us how to think and we need only to maintain a relationship with Him in prayer, meditation and read the Bible because these acts help make us think more rightly. If we don’t think rightly about Him it may not be Him that we are dealing with.