Why do we make God so complicated.  There are people who are so confused about Him.  I suppose there are many different reasons for this confusion.  The first would have to be that people are not going to the source of Who God is.  We find accounts of Him in the Bible.  If you want to know about His character then I recommend turning to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John just for a start.  

Another reason we are so confused on who God is is because, quite frankly, we have too much time on our hands.  Americans can take the time to either sit around and think on God like some philosopher of old or we actually don’t think about God enough because we are too busy pushing Him out with our activities.  Is God complicated?  Yes!  Do we make Him more complicated than what He really is?  Yes!  Why do this to ourselves?  

From what I understand, people learn all types of different views of God and get confused, and frustrated.  God doesn’t change, but we tend to change our view of God.  He is love.  He is just.  How is that confusing?  We can’t have one without the other.  If God demonstrates His justice toward us it is because He loves us.  I am sure most of us heard our parents say, “This is going to hurt me worse than it is going to hurt you.”  Now I understand what they were saying.  Because of their love for me they had to show me justice otherwise I wouldn’t know how to live right in this life.  

Some will say, “How can a just God send someone to hell?”  God has never sent a person to hell.  If a criminal sitting in prison is honest with themselves they understand that they are the one responsible for their current situation and not the judge who carried out the sentence.  Where there is no love, there is no God.  By that I mean people don’t want to spend eternity with an all loving God.  Why would they.  If people live for themselves on earth why would their desires change in eternity?  I have to believe that those who are destined for hell only want out of that place because it is terribly miserable.  Those who  worked so hard at being their own god here on earth are not going to submit before another, though they will bow down one day to Him.

Love is hard work.  It is my belief that we should focus more on trying to love people like Jesus loved and loves them.  I personally do not want to waste another day trying to figure God out.  He is Who He is.  He gives us clues and sometimes He smacks upside the head to show us Who He is.  I really think that if we stop wasting time trying to figure God out and spend more time trying to become like His Son then we will be doing okay.  And more than okay, because when we become like Jesus we are helping in the work of building God’s kingdom.  Grace and peace to you.

Because of Jesus,

David Knapp