What You Believe About God is the Most Important Thing About You



One of the great classic Christian books is Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. It is a book on the attributes of God; or, what is God like? Before he launches into a discussion of the attributes Tozer makes this statement: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us… The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion…no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God…We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.”

I was standing in the fountain area of the University of Colorado one time and one of the university’s most prominent professors came up to me. We chatted for a while and then she commented on my Christian faith. “Phil, what difference does it make what a person believes so long as they are nice.” I was astonished by her naivete and asked her a simple question, “Don’t you think a person’s niceness is affected by what they believe?” I then used an illustration I have used many times. “When we look at Nazi Germany and its appalling evils there is a tendency to say Hitler was insane. But he wasn’t. He simply had differing theological views. He made it very clear that he was a social Darwinist who believed the weaker races needed to be eliminated so the strong could flourish. Handling humans was no different from breeding cows. If a rancher in Wyoming has cows that don’t live up to his standards he doesn’t breed them—he sends them to the slaughterhouse. If you hold that view of human beings then the extermination camps make perfect sense. Hitler didn’t believe in God. It was up to us humans to produce the best world we could. So as you can see, what you believe about God affects how nice you are.

One time when I was a college student I was chatting with one of my favorite professors. He said something to me that I heard for the first time, but have heard many times since. He said,

“Mitchell, Christians are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good.” It took me aback and I didn’t know what to say. I thought about if for a few days and I came back to him. I said, “Christians who are heavenly minded are the most useful people on this earth. They build schools and orphanages, tend to the sick, operate hospices, feed the poor, and do an endless number of good deeds for the needy. They do more good for the people of the earth than everyone else put together. And they do it because they are heavenly minded.”

You see, if a person believes this life is all there is, they can’t afford to waste it on sacrificially serving other people. But Christians believe that this life is just a tiny slice of reality. We can afford to give up everything in this life because we await the glories of the next life. So we can sacrifice ourselves to serve others. The person who believes this life is all there is can’t afford to do that.”

A man asked Jesus, What is the great commandment? And Jesus said there are two. The first is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said the entire law is summed up in those two commands. How many times have I heard someone quote the second command and skip the first. They think loving your neighbor is all you need. You can leave out loving your God. But you can’t! If you do not know and love God you are not going to love your neighbor. Loving God gives you the strength you need to love others. It is a terrible mistake to leave out Jesus’ first command and then try to obey the second.

So as you can see, what you believe about the Lord your God affects everything about you. Every decision you make in life, every action, is dictated by your assumptions about God. Do you want to live a transformed life? Get to know God and determine to live for Him. Your life will be radically changed.