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Dan Sides's avatar

There is something that is just a little “off” in characterizing our obligations to God as “repayment”. That’s still a little too crude of an understanding for me. It’s not unlike any other relationship I think.

Yesterday My wife and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. Naturally, I gave her a nice bouquet of flowers. In return she expressed gratitude, showed them off to her co-workers, friends, Facebook, etc, showering me with praise. Now, I didn’t give her the flowers to get all those things. And she didn’t do all those things as “repayment” or obligation. We both did what we did because we love each other. And I think that’s what God wants. He just wants our love.

Now if my wife had thrown the flowers into the trash can and told all her co-workers and friends what a louse I am, would that affect our relationship? Of course it would, but not because I didn’t get what I believed I had coming to me, but because it would show that our relationship was broken, and in fact, perhaps we really didn’t have much of a relationship at all.

Suppose she didn’t throw the flowers into the trash but suppose she just did nothing at all, didn’t really acknowledge the gift or show any appreciation. Well, that wouldn’t be as bad, but it would indicate that the relationship isn’t what it should be.

Now the obvious flaw in my analogy is that I’m not perfect nor do I hold powers of judgement, etc, but nevertheless, what I read into scripture is that God wants an intimate relationship with me and relationship always goes both ways, yes? And if my relationship with God fails, is that likely to be because of me or because of God?

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