I hope that all my readers will not mind if I begin with the modest assertion that God is the most good (best?) thing (or person) in existence. (Let us call this Premise 1: God is the most good thing in existence.) Thus, if we think truthfully about him, we will think thoughts like “He is good,” or “His goodness is greater than any other.” To think such thoughts is to “think highly” of God.
It’s hard to say what exactly it means to think highly of (or esteem) someone. This is a rather physical/spatial metaphor. Thoughts not being exactly material or spatial, they are never exactly high or low. But regardless of this problem, I believe that my readers intuitively understand what I mean when I say “think highly”. Perhaps another way to put it is that we “think well” of the object of our contemplation (“well” being the adverbial form of “good”).
I hope that we can all agree that we ought to think truthfully. (Let’s call this Premise 2: We ought to think truthfully.) This seems trivially true: to think untruthfully is to be dishonest (at least if we know the truth). Obviously then, we ought to think highly of God, esteem him, praise him, etc.
But he also ought to think such thoughts of himself; not to think highly of himself would not be humility but dishonesty. Were God to say to himself, “I’m not really all that. I’m not the most good being in existence,” he would not demonstrate modesty but dishonesty. This is a terribly faulty idea of God to entertain. Were we to attribute such goodness to ourselves, we would be liars and prideful. God, on the other hand, cannot but think such things of himself.
Let us, then, introduce a third premise. We ought to have affection for good things. Of course, I have trouble supporting this from any logical perspective; it just seems mind-numbingly obvious. Ought we to have affection or disgust for child molestation? (Hint: disgust.) Ought we to have affection or disgust for sacrificial heroism? (Hint: affection.) If you disagree with me on this, then (a) you need to seek counseling and (b) I am unable and unwilling to argue this further with you. (It would be a waste of your, and what is infinitely more valuable, my time. (That’s a movie quote. I’m not actually that pompous. Most of the time.))
An important corollary to this latest premise is that we ought to have more affection for things that are more good (also known as “better”). (As amazing as we all know chocolate is, we should probably love God even more that chololate.)
Let’s conclude with a quick review:
Premise 1: God is the most good thing in existence.
Premise 2: We ought to think truthfully.
Premise 3: We ought to have affection for good things. (And corollary: We ought to have more affection for things that have more goodness.)
Next time: God in the Old Testament—Doing all for “His name’s sake.”
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