God Recognizes Two Types of People

Brandon was not an unruly student. If you had been observing the class, you might not even have noticed him. Once, as I was teaching, Brandon began walking across the front of the class. “Brandon,” I said. “You need to sit down.’”

“I’m just going to sharpen my pencil,” he replied, continuing to walk toward the pencil sharpener.

“You don’t need to sharpen your pencil now,” I told him. “You need to go back to your desk and sit down.”

“OK,” he said. Then he added, “I’ll just wait by the pencil sharpener until I can sharpen my pencil.”

“No, Brandon,” I said, “go back to your desk and sit down.” He hesitated, then said, “OK,” again, and began walking toward his desk.

But when he got to his row, he just kept walking toward the windows on the outside wall of the classroom. “I’ll just stand over here by the window while I’m waiting, “he told me.”

“Brandon,” I said, “this conversation is over. You need to take your seat now, or we’re going to begin a very different conversation.” Finally, Brandon sat down.

Brandon was playing a game with me. He was presenting a submissive facade, but he had no intention of submitting to anything I desired for him to do. His method was to present another option for me to acquiesce to and in that way he would be in control of the situation.

I’m sure Brandon thought he looked rather innocent. He might even have believed he was, since this was probably an everyday occurrence between him and his parents. I would guess he was in control of the household. I call it rebellion.

That is how God would see it in our dealings with Him, as well. As with all things concerning Christianity, it is a matter of the heart. We may see many degrees of nuance in our response to God, but God sees either a submissive heart, or a rebellious heart. If our efforts are all about what we can get away with, or how far we can stretch God’s will and still look like we are submitting, we have “rebellious heart” written all over us.

In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu did not lead an uprising against God. In fact, outwardly it appeared they did what God had told them to do. They were to offer a sacrifice and that is what they did. However, God had told them where they were to get the fire for the sacrifice, and they decided they would get a different fire. Verse 2 tells us, “fire came from the Lord and consumed them.” God was looking for submission. What he saw was rebellion.

King Saul offering the sacrifice that was solely the job of Samuel in 1 Samuel 13 is another example. It seems submissive and righteous for Saul to offer the sacrifice since Samuel was delayed. But God made it the job of Samuel. Saul was not being submissive by offering a sacrifice to God. He was being rebellious. God told Saul to sit down. Saul said, ‘I’ll just stand by the window.” Saul’s refusal to totally destroy the Amalekites in chapter 15 was just more of the same rebellion.

This all boils down to a matter of whether we choose to act on what we would have preferred God had said, or whether we will submit to what God actually did say. Who created whom?

The fact is that God recognizes two types of people. There are those who submit to Him, and there are those that rebel against Him. Everyone is in one or the other of those two groups.

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” He could just as accurately have said, “God and pleasure,” or “God and worldly fame,” or God and anything that would compete with God.

If there are two competing directions for your service, Jesus says you will be devoted to one and despise the other. The dichotomy could not be more stark: hate or love, be devoted to or despise, be submissive, or be rebellious. There is no in between, no compromise.

Imagine you are sitting on a wooden fence that runs along a country road, and on the other side of the road is a field of cotton ripe for the picking. Far off in the field on the left are the farmer and his hired hands picking the cotton. You notice, closer to you and on the right, a group of boys with some burlap sacks that go into the field and begin picking cotton as fast as they can go. You’re impressed by their apparent dedication, but after about an hour, they run off with their burlap bags, throwing cotton in the ditch, filling the nearby muddy pig pen with cotton, on across an untended field throwing cotton out of the bags and into the woods, still throwing cotton haphazardly as they go. The effort to recoup the loss would never be worth it. “That’s horrible,” you say to yourself. “What terrible people. I would never dream of doing something like that,” you say.

Jesus makes an interesting statement in Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with me is against me. He who gathers not with me scattereth abroad.” Jesus said if you’re not in the field gathering with Him, there is no difference in you and those who are scattering abroad. You are one and the same. There is no sitting on the fence. If you aren’t devoted to Him, you despise Him. God recognizes only two groups of people. You are either submissive or you are rebellious.

Do the following situations seem submissive or rebellious to you? 1. Crying out “Lord, lord,” to Jesus. 2. Stating factually that you have prophesied in the name of Jesus. 3. Stating factually that you cast out demons in the name of Jesus? 4. Stating factually that you have done many wonderful works in the name of Jesus. 5. Those that gladly received what Peter was saying were baptized.

Jesus’ response to the first four is found in Matthew 7:21-23. He says, “Then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity.” The way that Jesus relates this incident to us, I am forced to believe that the people in question were sincere. They are before the judgement bar of God Almighty. It’s too late to try to lie your way out of a situation. With full belief and sincerity they made their claims, but those claims didn’t move Jesus. He said, “I don’t know you.” In fact, He said, “I never knew you! You work iniquity. Depart from me.” He saw them as rebellious no matter what they thought of themselves.

In verse 21, Jesus makes it clear that the problem is that whatever these people may have done, and whatever they may have thought it was worth, what they didn’t do was, they didn’t do God’s will. They had the appearance of submissiveness, but they were actually rebellious in the sight of God.

God’s reaction to the fifth example above is given in Acts 2:41. Peter preached the first sermon on Pentecost and the people were convicted that their souls were endangered because they had crucified God’s son. “What must we do?” They cried. Peter told them repent and be baptized. Then comes statement 5 above followed by,”and that day there were added about three thousand souls.’ Their baptism got them added to the list of God’s people. Why? There was nothing magic about the water. The reason was that they were submissive to God.

Notice that it is not people who think they are being rebellious to God that Jesus calls out. Saul did’t think he was being rebellious. Nadab and Abihu didnt’ think they were being rebellious. So often in matter of religion, people think of themselves as religious and submissive to God when what they are actually submitting to is what they prefer, or wish, that God would have said instead of what God actually did say. In Matthew 15:9, Jesus said, “In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.” In verses 11-8 he points out how scribes and Pharisees changed God’s word to what they prefer it would have been rather than doing what God actually said. Verse 9 is His summary of the result of such behavior.

If these examples from the Bible seem unnecessarily harsh to us, our problem is most likely that we have been wrapped up in our perspective and we have been ignoring God’s perspective. God instructed Cain and Abel what He wanted in a sacrifice. Abel was submissive, Cain was not; that is to say that Cain was rebellious.

If we will concentrate on God’s perspective (given in His word) we will learn how to be submissive. If we stay focused on our perspective (what we prefer that His word had said) we will learn how to be rebellious. From God’s perspective, these are the only two types of people.