Being a BTS Student at Providence University College, I have the wonderful opportunity to participate in an abundance of classes geared towards the study of the Bible. This last semester, I had the wonderful opportunity of taking a class on Biblical Poetry and Wisdom with Dr. Randy Holm. In this class, we spent time looking at Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and even Song of Songs. Seeing as Dr. Holm was teaching this class, it was obviously very enjoyable and very insightful. (Although many people accuse Randy easily getting off topic, I find him to be one of the most personally insightful professors at Prov, and therefore one of my favourites. He is also the one who inspired by blog post on hope).
During our time studying the book of Job, Dr. Holm had one major theme he wanted us to grasp: Is it possible to have a disinterested faith?
Let me explain. This is not disinterest in the sense of not showing interest in God, but rather having a faith that is free from selfish motive or interest. In other words, is it possible for us to have a faith in God that is not focused around what God can do for us? Dr. Holm argued that it is indeed possible to have a disinterested faith, and he pointed to Job as a primary example of that disinterest.
To give some background, Job was a man who was righteous above all else. He was wealthy and blessed by the Lord in every area of his life. In all areas of his life, Job showed obedience to the Lord. In the prologue to the book of Job, the audience sees the conversation between Satan and YHWH where God gives Satan permission to test Job. Satan believes Job's main reason for showing obedience to God was because Job has been blessed by God, and as a result, if those blessings were to be taken away, Job would then fall away from God. God is confident this is not the case, and that Job's character goes beyond the blessing he has received.
Satan goes on to destroy all of Job's property and kills all Job's children, as well as cursing Job's health by covering Job from head to toe in sores and boils. But even through all his loss, Job did not sin (cf. 1:22).
As one reads the book of Job, they realize that indeed Job maintains his faith, rendering God to be right about Job's character and Satan therefore to be wrong. For Job, faith was more than something based on what he can get out of God. Sometimes, I believe we don't share in this idea. We have the mindset of "what can God do for me?" rather than "what can I do for God?" Job challenges us to change our mindset, and make our faith deeper than a cause and effect relationship.
When we change our mindset from "what can God to for me?" to "what can I do for God?", our whole mindset is changed. We become more concerned for others rather than our own interests. And when we get past our selfish mindset, we can delve into a deeper, unshakable faith that is not based on our circumstances.
Imagine, for example, your relationship with your best friend. Are you in this relationship for what they can give to you, or is there something deeper to this relationship? Usually, there is. You two enjoy each others company, often have similar interests and have a commitment to one another that goes beyond what you can get out of them. This is the same way with God. When we reach past having a faith based on what God can do for us, we are able to start enjoying God's presence more, start sharing in the interests of God and having a deeper commitment to acting out the commands of Christ.
My challenge is for us to get past our ideas of a utilitarian faith and move into a disinterested faith. My prayer is that we would all establish a disinterested faith, because, as we see in Job, it definitely is possible, and I believe it is what God wants for our lives.
