God’s passion for His glory (Part 1)

God is uppermost in His own affections, John Piper would say. God’s supreme and driving passion is for His own glory.

It’s perhaps the most provocative and uncomfortable of all of Piper’s statements.

It’s been the source of a dozen heated discussions between myself, my sister, and my dad. Anna and I take Piper’s side; Dad argues that Piper can’t be right. God is love (I John 4:8,16) and love does not seek its own (I Cor 13:5). Surely the whole of Scripture, the redemptive story reveals that we are uppermost in God’s affections, that God’s supreme and driving passion is for our redemption.

I don’t like to admit it to my dad, but I sympathize with his argument–an awful lot. (Believe it or not, even “perfect” homeschooled daughters like myself have difficulties admitting that they agree with their parents!)

I see Piper’s point and agree with it. God is certainly jealous for His own glory. It is certainly in man’s best interest that God be glorified rather than man. God’s glory is undoubtedly a major theme of Scripture.

But God is love. And love does not seek its own.

Piper’s response to this–that it is in man’s best interest that God be glorified rather than man–does not fully address this issue. Basically, it says that “love does not seek its own” except when we’re talking about God’s love. The rules are different for God because God’s self-seeking is for our best.

I don’t really buy that. The rules aren’t different for God–the rules exist because of who God is. Love isn’t self-seeking because God, from whom love is defined, is not self-seeking.

I’ve wrestled with this question on and off for years–and while I can’t claim to have come to a full understanding, I do feel that I have come to a position that I have some degree of peace about.

I’ll discuss my wrestlings, and the conclusion I’ve come to, a bit more next week–but first, I want to hear what you think about the topic. Is God primarily passionate for Himself, or for people? Is the idea that God is passionate for His own glory contradictory with the idea that God is love?

(This is a reflection on the first chapter of John Piper’s Desiring God. For more reflections on Desiring God, see my notes here.)

2 thoughts on “God’s passion for His glory (Part 1)”

  1. If God is primarily passionate for himself then why were we created? Reminder, God does not need us for anything Luke 19:40 (Sorry for the poor reference). God is primarily passionate for people. I really like Pipers idea that Mankind is most satisfied when we glorify God. God wants us to be truly satisfied, and the byproduct of that is His glory. Reading Gen 1-2, I get the impression that creation was for man and not Gods glory.

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  2. I don’t think that’s a poor reference at all, Tim. It’s a good point that God does not need man’s praise in order to obtain glory. God didn’t create man because to not create man would lessen His glory in any way. But could God perhaps have created man as an outerworking of His delight in Himself? After all, if man was made as an image-bearer–could this be an expression of God’s delight in Himself, just like you and I like to see pictures of ourselves?

    Your last comment (on Gen 1-2) makes me curious–what about those passages gives you the impression that creation is for man’s benefit?

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