First Principles

Whenever situations arise and I’m stuck, or wondering about why things are happening, or questioning God’s motives, or even if I’m caught in a misunderstanding of a scripture passage, I take a few steps back and start asking questions.  Rather than look directly at my situation, I look at what the reason is for everything!  I revert back to what started it all:  Why did God make us?  What is our purpose? What is His purpose?  Yes, I simply ask myself the most deeply profound question in all philosophy:  ‘Why?'

I like to refer to this approach as first principles, an expression I took from the field of mathematics.  Back when studying calculus, if there was ever a complicated problem that I could not solve easily I could always apply first principles and arrive at a solution.  First principles are the basic definition, the root starting point under which all the other theorems are based. 

So I ask the question ‘Why?’, not out of desperation, but as remembrance, for God has already revealed the answer.  

Some say we were created to worship God. But that leads to the topic of free will.  Why do some people choose not to worship God?  Why make man in the first place?  Why not just let the angels worship as we see in the Book of Revelation?  Others say, we were created to serve God, but the same applies. Are angels not ministering spirits?  While it is true, we are to worship and serve, this is still not the root purpose. Instead, worship and service are mere branches that express what is at the root.  What about fellowship? Were we created to be God's friends? What was wrong with God just hanging out with the angels (apart from the whole Lucifer thing)?  

More so than fellowship, God reveals that our purpose is about a love relationship. True love can exist only when there is freedom of choice. We were created out of an expression of God’s loving nature, as one with whom He can fellowship from the vantage point of love. Our fellowship with God isn’t just casual, but with One who loves us: As a parent loves a child, as a friend loves a friend, as a brother loves a brother, as a husband loves a wife.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) This passage does not say that God started to love the world at a particular point.  Instead, He loved us from the beginning (Jeremiah 31:3). It is clear from the Gospel story that we are the object of God’s love; the subject of God’s heart.

So I encourage you , if you are ever stuck wondering about God’s will or are in a difficult place questioning if it is really God at work, revert back to first principles. God created you in His image for love, and when He couldn't love us freely as He wanted (Hosea 14:4), He gave everything in Jesus Christ to fully restore that which was broken and lost.