God in Our Own Image

You thought that I was one like yourself.  (Psalm 50:21)

​One of the greatest problems we are having within society, and even within the church, is that there is this greater and greater tendency to create God in our image.  This is because if God is like us, if he is just one of us, then we don’t have to listen to him.  We don’t have to respect him, and we certainly don’t have to fear him.  It reminds me of that 1995 song “What if God was one of us?  Just a slob like one of us.  Just a stranger on the bus.  Tryin' to make his way home?”  Unfortunately, this is how many think of God, that he is just like one of us.  Therefore, God does not really care about how we live or what we do or how we treat each other.  If it seems right and it feels right, then it must be right, and God must be OK with it.  But it is to this kind of thinking that God speaks to humanity in Psalm 50, “For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.  If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.  You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.  You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.  These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself” (vv.17-21).  And therein is the grave mistake that so many make both inside and outside the church, we think that God is “one like yourself.”  This attitude is reflected in the way we behave, in the way we treat others, and in way we do worship.  We are fond of all things casual and relaxed.  And since God is just like one of us, then he must like our worship to be casual and relaxed.  Surely, God likes what we like because he is just like one of us.  Or is he?