Is God self-centered?

I agree. It's okay to be self-centered if you ARE the center. God is. We're not.

 

I agree as well.

However, God's self-centeredness is a lot different than man's self-centeredness. When God is self-centered, He gives and loves. When man is self-centered, he takes and hates.

 

Also, God has to do what pleases himself the most for His glory. And give what is best, and most glorified. If He does anything else He would be esteeming something other than Himself and that would be idolatry.

 

Is being self centered love? What does 1 Corinthians say about love?

 

I agree to. If God was not God-centered, He would not love us, because He desires that we be satisfied in Him.

If God did not think himself to be the supreme One, then we have a serious problem, because sombody must be greater than God. Thankfuly He does see Himself as supreme, and His greatest desire is to be glorified.

 

"In creation, God 'went public' with the glory that reverberates joyfully between the Father and the Son. There is something about the fullness of God's joy that inclines it to overflow. There is an expansive quality to His joy. It wants to share itself. The impulse to create the world was not from weakness, as though God were lacking in some perfection that creation could supply... God loves to behold His glory reflected in His works. So the eternal happiness of the triune God spilled over in the work of creation and redemption. And since this original happiness was God's delight in His own glory, therefore the happiness that He has in all His works of creation and redemption is nothing other than a delight in His own glory. This is why God has done all things, from creation to consummation, for the preservation and display of His glory. All His works are simply the spillover of His infinite exuberance for His own excellence."

John Piper, The Pleasures of God.

 

"The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted."

Jonathan Edwards

 

Hi Whatever;

Being self centered would make God selfish. The God I worship is not selfish but very generous. You can't have a self centered God and have a generous one at the same time because they are opposite's

May Christ Shine His Light On Us all;
Mike

 

Of course He is. God is all about His own glory. Any benefit we get from that is secondary.

 

Humm

i really didn't think anyone would disagree with this statement in the OP. But it goes to show you I don't know much.

I say yes of course He is.

It is God that says this.....

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment"

In Christ..James

 

...it also says in 1 Corinthians 13 4:5 "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, DOES NOT SEEK IT'S OWN, is not provoked...". 1 John tells us "God is love".

To me this sounds like God is NOT self centered, the direct question of the OP. This also shows that God does not pick and choose certain individuals arbitrarily for salvation.

 

Being self centered would make God selfish. The God I worship is not selfish but very generous. You can't have a self centered God and have a generous one at the same time because they are opposite's

May Christ Shine His Light On Us all;
Mike </font>[/QUOTE]Hi Mike,

God is not human, therefore He being self-centered doesn't make Him selfish.

If God did not see Himself as supreme and desire to have the supremecy in all things, then He would be an idolator. To suggest that God is more concerned about us than His own glory goes against what He said: "I am the Lord that is my name and my Glory I will not give to another."

Everything He does is to glorify Himself. In fact God is generous- He is generous because when we are most satisfied in Him, He is most glorifed, which is His supreme desire.

 

Hi 4Hisglory;
Your response to my last post;

First I have to disagree with your first statement of, "God is not human" Anyone who believes that Jesus was and is God in the flesh would naturally have to believe that God is both Human and God.
Temporarily He allowed Himself to be as a man and died for our sins. He was seperated from the God head for three days until He arose. He allowed man to spit on Him and curse Him and then crucify Him. Yes He was glorified all the more for it, but you'll never convince me that He did this for His own glory. Those who believe in Him as the results of His unselfish act of allowing Him self to be crucified are His Glory. Every time a man accepts Christ as savior, God is glorified. His glory is the praise of man for saving Him. God is not self centered nor can He commit idolatry. God doesn't have to think He is the supreme being because He is all ready.I really don't believe that He looks in the mirror and admires Himself in His own glory. Your idea of Him being self centered is presumptive at best.
God being self centered IMHO is an oximoron. Being self centered is thinking only of one's self. How can you claim this when He died for you too?.

May Christ Shine His Light On Us All;
Mike

 

Again you a veiw self-centeredness from the mindset of fallen man. God has to see and know Himself as supreme and the center of all or He would not be God.

 

Perhaps the better question to ask of Mike and webdog would be: "Would you want God to see Himself supreme in all things?"

 

Great Quote! amen

 

I think we need to be careful trying to define God with phrases like "self-centered"....we only view self-centered from our sinful human limited perspective. God is not self-centered in the way we view self-centered. God is God and we need to let Him be God and stop trying to define Him in a nice neat way. He is the center of all things!

 

Persoanaly I think you are right, but the common objection that I get is that God is more concerned about us than His own glory. The opposite is true- God is concerned with His glory hence He is concerned about us.

Perhaps a better way to say it is that God is God-centered since we understand self-centered in our human terms.

 

I think that would be more appropriate.