Pastor's Corner: Being like God

Sometimes you’ll hear people talk about being godly, or godliness. Maybe it’s more frequent to hear something called “ungodly.” These words are rarely used, and it’s likely that sometimes even the people using them don’t really know what they mean.

The basic idea of godliness is being like God. You can see it in the parts of the word: god…li[ke]…ness. People who believe in God usually see that as the best thing you could hope to be, for good reason. In the Bible, we find God saying: “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). Or again, in the New Testament, Jesus says: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Being like God is a good thing; it’s commanded and encouraged. But that isn’t the whole story.

The first temptation in the Bible was the temptation to “be[come] like God,” specifically by “knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Lucifer was condemned for the arrogant plan: “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). There is a way of trying to be like God that is wrong.

What makes the difference? There are two ways to think about that.

The first way is from theology. When we talk about God’s attributes (basically, what qualities can we truly attribute to God), we can think about what God can share with creatures (communicable attributes) and what qualities creatures couldn’t receive (incommunicable attributes).

Incommunicable attributes include such qualities as omnipotence, infinity and self-existence. Having those attributes is inconsistent with the nature of a created being.

The second way deals with our motivation. Do we desire to be like God to reflect God’s glory in our sphere of life? That’s appropriate. Human beings were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and ought to show what God is like. Do we desire to be supreme? That’s grotesquely inappropriate. Any creature who aspires to be God’s superior or equal is guilty of vicious lunacy. If it worked, you would replace “the overflowing fountain of all good,” as the Belgic Confession calls God, with your own paltry self. There's a nightmare for the whole universe!

Summarizing, we are called to reflect God, not to replace or rival Him.