Why Serve God? Understanding Our Divine Duty

I have no reason to doubt that her question was entirely sincere—however misguided.

Suppose you could prove to me that there is a God. So what! Would that necessarily mean that I would be obligated to serve him? Your God must be on a super "ego trip" if he expects everyone in the universe to worship him.

How should I respond to this flippant comment from an intelligent but confused college student?

First, whether humans should yield their lives to the Creator has nothing to do with the divine ego. God, by definition, is infinite in all of his attributes. He cannot be more powerful than he is. He cannot be wiser than he is. The Lord cannot be any more glorious than he is. Consequently, human servitude could never enhance his ego.

This is implied logically in the language of Christ's prayer shortly before his crucifixion. Jesus petitioned to be glorified with the glory he shared with the Father "before the world was" (John 17:5). If God's glory had been inflated by human devotion across the centuries, the Lord's prayer surely would have reflected a desire for the Father's current glory, rather than the glory he possessed before the world was created (cf. Fuller 23).

God's requirement that we serve him, therefore, is obviously not for his benefit; rather, it is for ours. Because God is love (1 John 4:8), he wants the best for us. We find true contentment only by living for him, which is why he bids us do so.

But let us expand this thought with additional reasons why we, as rational human beings, should obey the Creator of our very being.

The Nature of God

A primary reason for bowing before Jehovah has to do with the nature or essence of this Being. God is worthy of human service simply because of who he is! Exactly what does this suggest?

Two sources of information tell us about the Supreme Being. First, the abstract revelation of nature argues for the wisdom and power of Deity (Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20). Jehovah's power is seen in the vastness of the universe; his wisdom is reflected in its intricate design. The evidence is so clear that those who survey these data, and yet fail to conclude that "he is," are "without excuse" (Romans 1:20; Hebrews 11:6).

In addition to the abstract revelation of divinity in the book of nature, Holy Scripture provides concrete revelations of the Lord's moral attributes. These two "volumes" of testimony complement one another wonderfully. The Bible teaches that God is the eternal Spirit, the Architect and Creator of the universe.

But when did Jehovah, himself, originate? He didn't. God has existed always; he is the eternal "I Am" (Exodus 6:3; cf. Genesis 21:33; Psalm 90:2). Logic demands this.

A venerable argument, still unanswered to this day, goes like this: If anything exists, then something must always have existed. But things exist; therefore, something has always existed.That eternal "something" must be either matter or mind. But it is not matter, for science demonstrates that matter is not eternal. Thus, the eternal something is mind. The Scriptures identify this Mind as God.

As to his essence, God is spirit and not flesh (John 4:24; Luke 24:39; Matthew 16:17). He is the Almighty (Genesis 17:1; Revelation 1:8), whose purposes cannot be restrained (Job 42:2).

God is infinitely wise (Romans 11:33-36), and his loving, benevolent disposition is breathtaking (1 John 4:8; Ephesians 2:4; James 1:17). The gift of his Son to accommodate the redemption of rebellious humanity provides ample motive for surrendering one's life to him.

One of the Old Testament's most profound books is Job. An interesting aspect of that narrative concerns God's worthiness as an object of human adoration. In a mysterious convocation attended by Satan, the Lord introduced Job, the patriarch of Uz, as a trophy of human character—a spiritually mature, upright man unique among his contemporaries.

Satan agreed but suggested that Job's righteous demeanor resulted from bribery! In other words, God had blessed Job so abundantly that the sage of Uz would have been foolish not to serve him. In a word, Job knew who buttered his bread!

The subtle and diabolical implication in this charge was this:

You, God, are not worthy of human devotion on the basis of your character; rather, men serve you only because you make it to their advantage to do so. Let us use Job as a test case. Take away his goodies and he will abandon you.

And so, for our benefit (not for his own), the Lord accepted the challenge. Job lost his wealth, his family, his health, his friends, and his prestige. He lost everything. And yet, the devout dignitary never forsook his faith in God. Though he lashed out in anguish at times—because he did not understand what was happening to him—he nonetheless could proclaim triumphantly: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15).

The noble patriarch thus demonstrated this proposition: God is worthy of human service on the basis of his own nature—apart from the generous blessings he bestows. As the psalmist expressed it: "I will call upon Jehovah, who is worthy to be praised" (Psalm 18:3).

We ought to praise God simply on account of who he is!

The Relationship We Sustain to Our Maker

Certain associations carry with them intrinsic responsibilities. One of those is that of the Creator-creature relationship.

The created thing remains subordinate to that which created it. Paul argued this very point in his letter to the Romans. "Or hath not a potter a right over the clay?" he asked rhetorically (Romans 9:21). In the Greek text, the query implies an affirmative answer, as suggested by the particle ouk (cf. Matthew 13:55). The term rendered "right" in our common versions is the Greek exousia, literally "authority." By virtue of his status, the potter has authority over the vessel he has fashioned.

The historical facts are these. "Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7; cf. 3:19). The inspired writers of both testaments affirmed that the Lord is our "Creator" (Ecclesiastes 12:1; Isaiah 40:28; Romans 1:25), or our "Maker" (Psalm 95:6; Proverbs 14:31; Isaiah 17:7; Hosea 8:14). Hence, by virtue of this Creator-creature relationship, Jehovah has a right to commission human loyalty.

But man has always had a propensity to repudiate the Creator-creature relationship to justify human self-centeredness. More than anything else, some people want to be their own god. Seven centuries before the birth of Christ, Isaiah wrote regarding the rebels of his day:

Ye turn things upside down! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him that made it, he made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, he hath no understanding? (Isaiah 29:16).

Of this arrogant claim—"He made me not"—Edward J. Young rightly observed: "Words more wrong, more foolish, more soul-destroying have never been uttered by human lips" (325). May we be chastened by the inspired writer: "Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves" (Psalm 100:3, NASB).

This haughty and independent attitude, of course, is the motive behind the theory of evolution. Foolish man wishes to cut loose from the moral and religious ties that bind him to a sovereign Creator. Hence, he has fashioned gods of his own design—Mother Nature and Father Time—to whom he owes no responsibility.

As the late George G. Simpson, the renowned paleontologist and evolutionist of Harvard University, once expressed it:

Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconscious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but is his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny (155).

Despite such infidelic protestations, the theory of naturalistic origins offers no proof that man is the "product of a long, unconscious, impersonal material process." Rather, the evidence suggests that human beings are the result of an intelligent Cause who specially designed them (see Thompson and Jackson 1996; Jackson 1993). As creatures of divine planning, we have a responsibility to submit to God—and he has the right to require it!

The Human Condition

Another valid reason for serving Jehovah has to do with the human family's status quo. As an old country philosopher put it: "That's Latin for 'the mess we're in'." Nothing could be further from the truth than the old cliché: "Every day, in every way, we're getting better and better." The fact is, as Paul once wrote: "Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Timothy 3:13).

The presence of evil is universally apparent and has been acknowledged from time immemorial. The Roman philosopher Seneca said: "We have all sinned, some more, and some less." A Chinese proverb states: "There are two good men: one is dead and the other is not yet born." Paul wrote: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And John bluntly noted: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).

How is this deplorable condition to be remedied? Man has never been able to concoct a solution. When it was alleged that education could provide the answer, we discovered that education, without spiritual values, makes only more skillful criminals.

Those who touted psychology as the panacea for human woes have lived to see one theory after another disappear into complete obscurity. Ours is now a world of escapists—alcoholics, drug-abusers, and dream-world mystics. A recent news feature suggested that by the end of the next decade, the third leading cause of work-disability will be clinical depression.

And we have more material security than any generation that has gone before us, but generally speaking we are a miserable lot. Is there no help for the human family?

Someone is bound to claim that religion surely is not the answer, for it has been around for centuries, and yet, here we are, in this sordid predicament. Yes, "religion" has been around alright, but it rarely has been tried on a massive scale in its pristine form. If a significant segment of society adopted the teaching of Jesus Christ sincerely and pursued it rigorously, changes so dramatic would occur as to produce utter amazement.

No remedy for human distress exists apart from the divine plan implemented through the atoning work of Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord declared emphatically: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). This declaration is valid because of the solid historical evidence that undergirds Christ's authoritative claim as the Son of God.

The truth is, no one can find abiding contentment in a world without God. Out of a background of materialism and hedonism, Solomon, an inspired penman, proclaimed: "[T]he way of the transgressor is hard" (Proverbs 13:15). "Fear [reverence] God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

On the other hand, it is a lie that suggests that serving the Creator is all pain and tears. Moses was willing to forsake the temporal "pleasures of sin," which are but for a season, to identify with the people of God. Why? He did so because he knew that the reproaches of Christ are vastly superior to the treasures of any land (Hebrews 11:24-26 — see also He Forsook the Treasures of Egypt).

For troubled souls in a confusing world, the Scriptures offer hope: "And the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus announced: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). This passage has long perplexed multitudes. It cannot be a prophecy fulfilled in events following Christ's return (as some allege), for there will be no earth at that point (Matthew 24:35; 2 Peter 3:10ff.). Rather, it is a promise for those who yield to God—here and now! Barclay has shown that the "meek" person is the one who has been mastered by God (1974, 240-242).

The passage suggests this: as children of the God of heaven and earth, those who yield to Christ will enjoy this planet's blessings more than all others. The point is: people ought to serve the Lord for the sheer joy that it brings—not only in eternity, but right now, here on the earth.

All Accounts Are Not Settled in this Life

Some years ago, an edition of Charles Darwin's revolutionary volume, The Origin of Species, was published. On the back dust jacket were these words: "This book has made a joke of 'the Day of Judgment.'" If there is a joke in this, Jehovah will have the last laugh: "He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision" (Psalm 2:4). The laughable thing is that man labors under the illusion that he can thwart the Almighty's will. If there is no ultimate Judgment—where all wrongs are made right and where justice ultimately prevails—then life is a meaningless riddle.

Consider the plight of Asaph, who, according to the superscription, penned Psalm 73. The poet had assumed that if one enjoyed a right relationship with God, his well-being would always be secure. Conversely, it is implied that rebellion against the Creator would bring only woe. The opening verse of the narrative suggests this concept subtly.

However, as he considered his circumstances, Asaph was baffled by life's inequities (73:2-9). In this state of bewilderment, his "steps had well nigh slipped." He had almost lost his faith in Heaven's providential government of earthly affairs. He surveyed the "prosperity of the wicked" and was confused. Though evil men wear pride like a chain around their neck, and their eyes bulge with opulence, they finally seem to die in peace. The godless live as though the Judge of the earth knows nothing of what is transpiring on his planet (v. 11).

Asaph therefore wondered whether his religious exercises had been for nothing. He had attempted to serve his Maker, yet he suffered hardship consistently (vv. 13-14). What answers this enigma? The writer says he entered "into the sanctuary of God," which refers to the place where divine truth was revealed. Delitzsch and Keil observed that he became privy to the "holy plans and ways of God" (318). He discovered that the "latter end" of the wicked would be destruction (vv. 17-18). He learned this truth: all accounts are not settled in this life!

If there is no final Judgment, then it makes no difference at all as to how men live upon this globe. The life of Jesus Christ amounts to no more than that of Adolf Hitler. But who can live with such a senseless philosophy? No rational person can. Orin Gifford wrote: "You may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, but there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal" (Mead 1965, 259).

Men need to serve God because they possess an immortal soul that eventually will give account to the Creator.

Conclusion

There are multiplied thousands of people who are willing to give intellectual assent to the fact that a Supreme Being exists, but who do not see how that idea relates to their daily personal lives. Technically, these people are designated as deists. They are theoretical theists, but practical atheists. Such people have made a tragic mistake.

There are powerful and valid reasons for surrendering fully to the will of God, as that will is ultimately revealed in the New Testament. May we urge our contemporaries to give due attention to such matters.