Purpose Driven Life

[kayre]

Summary: Many people base their understanding of life on flawed secular metaphors: Life is a party; a race; a marathon; a battle. Three Biblical metaphors for life. 1: Life is a test-- God is always testing us. 2: Life is a trust (stewardship). (3: Life is a temporary assignment-- Day 6)


My thoughts: “God tested Jacob when he had to work extra years to earn Rachel as his wife.” I’m not sure I buy that interpretation-- God was responsible for Laban being dishonest? Genesis 29 does not attribute this to God.

Everything is a test? Eeek-- no thanks! “Every time you pass a test, God notices and makes plans to reward you in eternity.” Gag me.

Creative use of Scripture-- 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God allows us to be tested, not that God tests us (though other passages do take that view; others say the Adversary does the testing, but that view isn’t given here.) James 1:12 also doesn’t attribute testing to God.

Everything is a trust.. so God doesn’t really GIVE us anything, just loans it, with strings attached? Use of Genesis 1:28 seems odd in this case-- and always makes me nervous as Bible study members have used it to argue that environmentalists are nuts, because God made the world for us to “subdue.” Also implies rank in heaven-- do good now so you can be a Big Person in heaven!

Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4:7 is very broad-- specifically mentions God twice, where God is only implied in the actual text.

There is truth in both ‘test’ and ‘trust’ metaphors-- but they both are distorted here until heaven sounds like the kind of competitive society I wouldn’t want to be part of!