Is God Selfish?

Orthodox belief and practice in Christianity claims that man’s ultimate purpose is the glory of God.  Being orthodox in belief and practice, I wholeheartedly agree.  Something that has always been a struggle intellectually for me, however, is answering the critics who paint a picture of God as a selfish megalomaniac who is so insecure that he “recruits” believers to go around singing his praises all day, somehow making him feel better.  Now reading that statement might sound like blasphemy to you. . . and it is.  But just acknowledging the scoffers who say this are unregenerate blasphemers does not ease an honest mind who recognizes that it does seem a little selfish for God to want the “praise and glory.”  So while not going the route of the God-attackers, I hope to address this question honestly, “Is God’s desire for glory a selfish desire?”

1.  God is not human. Of course we know this, but we need to be reminded of this truth.  Whereas human emotion, tendencies, and desires come from being created by God, God is above emotional thoughts, and weak tendencies.  God cannot sin because in doing so, he would cease to be by definition “God.”  Everything about the Biblical God hinges on the perfection of God.  So we must acknowledge that God is not selfish for desiring glory or the other alternative is to assume that selfishness is not sin.  Of course, I am going with the former.  God is not selfish, because he completely deserves all the credit for everything good and righteous and even that evil which he turns to righteousness. We would not begrudge giving the Vince Lombardi trophy to the Super Bowl winner.  We would not hold back our applause for an excellent musical performance.  Nor would we feel the performer was selfish because they took a bow at the end of the concert.  In considering the adoration and glory of one and only God, we should magnify that performance and adoration infinitely. God is worth infinite glory and praise because he is infinite!

2.  The Creator should receive honor. In Revelation 4 we notice that the praise and glory bestowed upon God is in proportion to the greatness of what he has created.  In Revelation 5, we notice that the praise and glory given God is reflective of the “new song” a song of praise due to redemption.  In both situations, God’s glory and praise is owed him because of his creative power.  Whether it is the creative power of God that “made the mountains rise”  or the creative might of God in re-creating in sinners a clean heart, forgiving of sin.  Redemption and Creation are both ex-nihlo acts.  God through Christ made the physical universe out of nothing creating all in it by the power of His Word.  God through Christ gave eternal life to sinners out of nothing, nothing good, nothing worthy of redemption was present in the heart of a sinner before Christ forgives and regenerates the dead soul. Therefore, whether we are speaking of natural creation or spiritual re-creation, obviously someone is responsible (this is why evolution is so vehemently defended, natural man doesn’t want someone else to be responsible for this world) and that someone (God) deserves the recognition for what he has done.

3.  God delights in Man’s delight in glorifying God. This might sound a little confusing, but what I am postulating is that the picture of God as selfish comes from a false idea of what God wants.  God wants his children to be full of joy, not so he can glean some kind of self-satisfaction out of it or so that he can pad his “small” person (I hate even writing those words).  But rather the glory of God is a natural overflow of sinners delight in God.  God is not going around looking for people to bring him glory he needs because God already has all the glory imaginable. Our glorifying God, exalting him is not that perfect gift he has always wanted, and is so overjoyed because he finally got what he always wanted.  Rather, God’s glory is his, it never went anywhere-it is not going anywhere, whether we rejoice and glory in him or not, he will be glorified.  He would be glorified if no sinner ever came to salvation, because glory and exaltation is who God is in his essence.  Glory and goodness are related words in the Bible and because God is ultimate goodness, he is ultimate glory.  Like a loving Father, God takes great delight in seeing his children happy.  He loves to see his children overwhelmed with excitement and I have no doubt God delights in giving gifts to me more than I do in seeing my children’s faces on Christmas morning as they see what I have given them.  The relationship we have with God and his glory is reciprocal,  as he delights in giving me all good things, I rejoice in him which naturally brings him glory.  As I rejoice more and more in him, it is his delight to continue to shower me with goodness and grace (better gifts than materials) which, of course, brings more delight to me and more glory to God.

Illustrations using the temporal and material never live up to the actual, but I will give it a try.  My eldest son loves his wooden train set.  Each day he tries to construct a new track scenario, play for a while then mess it up so he can make another.  When his mother and I bought that train set, we took great joy in seeing his face and what appeared to be the disappearance of all other features besides his smile.  But one of my great delights for both my son and me is when I create a scenario with the tracks and then he plays with it.  To him, it is like getting a new gift from me every time I make a new track.  He will step back and admire the finished product and exclaim, “Dad, that’s great!” or my favorite “Super-cool!”  I beam with joy when he says that to me.  Not because I am selfishly seeking validation from a four year old that I can build a wooden train-I may be immature in a lot of ways, but I am beyond that.  The reason I am lifted up with glory and delight is not that I did something, but rather that the son whom I love with all my heart delights in what I have done for him.  If my son never touched the track, there would be an inherent glory upon me as creator, but when he plays with that which I have made, delighting in my gift, my joy increases even more. I delight in my son’s delight.

On a far greater scale, our heavenly father delights in our delight.  But being a good and perfect Father, he knows that our flesh will seek to delight in that which is not given by him.  We will seek to delight in sinful pleasures, in wickedness, so God desires that we delight in the goodness he bestows, the righteousness he imputes to us.  The more we delight in him and find our satisfaction in Christ and what he does for us, namely redemption, the more glory is heaped upon God and the more joy and delight we have.

Joy in God and what he does brings absolute satisfaction to our souls and infinite glory to God our Father.