Does God obey His own laws?

[humblemuslim]

According to the Bible,

Does God obey the laws that He gives to humanity?

Is God required to do so?

As always please provide Scriptural evidence and explanations.

I realize you might find these questions odd, and I believe I know how the question will be answered initially, although I could be mistaken in my perceptions.

I will reveal the context of my purpose of asking this question once I have some replies to read through. This is not a trick question. And you are more than welcome to change your answer once I reveal my context, if you feel the necessity.

Thank you

 

[chosenpath]

According to the Bible,

Does God obey the laws that He gives to humanity?

Is God required to do so?

As always please provide Scriptural evidence and explanations.

I realize you might find these questions odd, and I believe I know how the question will be answered initially, although I could be mistaken in my perceptions.

I will reveal the context of my purpose of asking this question once I have some replies to read through. This is not a trick question. And you are more than welcome to change your answer once I reveal my context, if you feel the necessity.

Thank you

I look at love, promise and mercy. God is love, has kept his promises and is merciful.

Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts [are] not your thoughts, Nor [are] your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

 

[salida]

Exactly chosenpath

 

[packermann]

There are disciplinary laws and morals laws. Disciplinary laws are like dietary rules or ritualistic rules that were given in the OT. These rules God can change at any time.

The moral laws, for the most part, are an expression of God’s nature. Inasmuch they are an expression of His nature, God cannot disobey them. To disobey them would mean God changed, and God cannot change. This is why the Bible says that God cannot lie. God’s essence is truth, so it is impossible for him to lie. The Bible also says that God is love. God cannot stop loving. For Him to do that, God would change his nature.

This does not mean that God is required to obey His laws. That would be a false view of God. Anything or anyone who imposed that requirement then would be the real God. No, it is not God that God must obey His moral laws. It is more that God cannot by His own nature disobey them.

Scripture teaches that there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2 and Heb.6:18) . God does not change (Mal.3:6). By definition, God is a perfect being. For Him to disobey the moral laws inasmuch they are an expression of His nature, would mean He changed. But for a perfect being to change, he would then be imperfect, then he would stop being God. But it impossible for God to be stop being God. He cannot ever deny himself (2Tim2:13).

 

[DanielRB]

Interesting question, though I'm not sure if I can answer it the way posed. For one, I think that what God does and what He commands flows out of His very nature. He could no more (for example) create a law that adultery is good than He could cease to be. Goodness flows from His nature; to do evil would be antithetical to it, an absurd impossibility.

In other words, God doesn't sit down and write a book of law saying "I'm deciding that this is good and this is evil." Rather, our ideas of good and evil are but limited attempts at describing the nature of God.

Of course, this implies that God doesn't have a "Free Will" as we might define it. But there are other philosophical problems with the idea of "free will" I think.

Daniel

 

[chosenpath]

Huh? I seriously fail to see how that was relevant to the discussion at all...

Anyway, according from what I know of the Bible, an example of God not keeping to his own commandments would be all the murders in the Bible he commits: Flood, Exodus, a bunch of wars, "randomly" stricking down people for really silly things & etc.

This is kind of interesting... Since in... I think it's Peter 1:16, it is said God is Holy & we need to be Holy like him; so God is a perfect example of holiness & we should follow his behavioral examples, yet he murders... Does that mean that in order to be more Holy & like God, we need to kill as well?

Keep reading the Word of God and your questions will be answered.
Now that your two hands have opened the Bible my two hands will come together in prayer that your answers bring enlightenment.

 

[visionary]

God obeys the Ten and lives the others when the time is right and the moment fits for Him to do so. He is governed by His own laws, that is why He is Perfect, and without Sin. Just like His Son is.

 

[DerSchweik]

A couple of posts have been removed, FYI.

Reminder - Exploring Christianity is for non-Christians to pose questions to Christians, so only Christians may respond to the OP

 

[Emmy]

Dear humblemuslim. God gave us 10 Commandments, and Jesus gave us 2, which contain all 10 Commandments, which God gave us. 1) Love God with all you hearts, with all your souls, and with all your minds. 2) Love your neighbour, (all others) as you love your selves. Love each time, and God is Love. Love is the greatest Commandment, and love is what God wants of us. Since God is Love, how can He do any other, but to LOVE. I say this humbly and with love, and send greetings. Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[visionary]

Interesting question, though I'm not sure if I can answer it the way posed. For one, I think that what God does and what He commands flows out of His very nature. He could no more (for example) create a law that adultery is good than He could cease to be. Goodness flows from His nature; to do evil would be antithetical to it, an absurd impossibility.

In other words, God doesn't sit down and write a book of law saying "I'm deciding that this is good and this is evil." Rather, our ideas of good and evil are but limited attempts at describing the nature of God.

Of course, this implies that God doesn't have a "Free Will" as we might define it. But there are other philosophical problems with the idea of "free will" I think.

Daniel

Free Will is the freedom to choice... even God repents of certain actions and can even be persuaded to change His direction... which has nothing to do with the law.. It is like riding the wind current on a hang glider.. but still following the law.

 

[bliz]

Free Will is the freedom to choice... even God repents of certain actions and can even be persuaded to change His direction... which has nothing to do with the law.. It is like riding the wind current on a hang glider.. but still following the law.

I can think of at least one example whee God hangeed His mind, but I can not think of anytime God has repented of san action he took. Can you poin me to one?

 

[visionary]

1 Chronicles 21:15
And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Jonah 3:10
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

 

[bliz]

Thanks.

 

[1985Bears]

The simple answer is "no", he does not obey his own laws.

 

[S.gal83]

I don't think God obeys his own laws. In the bible, one of the commandment is thou shalt not murder. Yet, in the old testament, we had seen God commanding the leaders of Israel to kill a whole other tribe of people.

 

[ebia]

According to the Bible,

Does God obey the laws that He gives to humanity?

Is God required to do so?

As always please provide Scriptural evidence and explanations.

I realize you might find these questions odd, and I believe I know how the question will be answered initially, although I could be mistaken in my perceptions.

I will reveal the context of my purpose of asking this question once I have some replies to read through. This is not a trick question. And you are more than welcome to change your answer once I reveal my context, if you feel the necessity.

Thank you

"God's Laws (TM)" are contextual applications of the Great Commandments (Love the Lord your God... and Love your neighbour...). God is inherently in right relationship with himself and us, but his contextual application of that will be different.

The bible is not a collection of timeless, context free, univeralisms, but the story of what God is doing to restore the relationship between us and himself, and thereby between all creation and himself. Specific commands exist within that story and context.

 

[Jpark]

God is love.

 

[Jpark]

God commanding the judges to punish the apostates should be seen as the execution of God's judgment. His judgment is righteous. His judgment is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (hold false views of God or the teachings of the Bible). He is perfect love and perfect justice. His holy nature requires Him to judge sin.

 

[humblemuslim]

chosenpath and salida,

So you two agree that God keeps His Word? Do you then believe that God can alter His Word for something equal or better?

packermann,

You mention disciplinary laws can change at any time. You have already mentioned on example of God changing such laws, the dietary laws. So God is not bounded by them by any means. If tomorrow God wanted to remove the grace provided by the death of Jesus, God could (Not to say this will happen).

visionary,

So the ten commandments are still in full force? Which set? There are three recognized sets. All of them?

Emmy,

But the 2 commandments Jesus gave are just a concise statement of the ten, correct? That is to say the 10 are not done away by the 2.

 

[chosenpath]

chosenpath and salida,

So you two agree that God keeps His Word? Do you then believe that God can alter His Word for something equal or better?

I believe Jehovah keeps the promise of his word for now and with a new heaven and earth more will be revealed which will be better!

Deuteronomy 29:29
"The secret [things belong] to the LORD our God, but those [things which are] revealed [belong] to us and to our children forever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.

1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.