Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18
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In an age where corporations gather information about you or the government pushes its Constitutional limits in regards to surveillance, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Big Brother.” As you may know, Big Brother is the dictator in George Orwell’s book 1984, which was first published in 1949. It’s interesting to note that George Orwell wanted his epitaph to say, “I told you so.” Even though, 1984 might have been a bit premature for his prediction, he surely was a social prophet.
So, is that what God is like? Is He like Big Brother? I think a lot of people grow up with that perception of God – something like Santa Clause who knows if we’ve been naughty or nice. When John describes Jesus as having eyes of fire, we ought to take great comfort, rather than immediately feeling like there’s some enigmatic dictator, participating in a voyeuristic exercise of control via surveillance. Here’s why.
First, God is personal. Think about all of the Christians and all of the churches. There are too many to count. God sees each of us; He knows each of us intimately. Last Christmas, a couple of malls were piloting a technology that would track people’s shopping patterns by tracking their cell phones. That’s powerful information in the hands of corporations and marketing, and it may tell them about you. But to them, your worth is what they can get out of you. Jesus knows you more intimately. He knows you – what’s below the surface. That’s what He values.
Have you noticed that on Facebook, your ads are tailored to you and your interests? The information you post in your profile, the places you geo-tag in your pictures and status updates, what you write on yours and your friends’ timeline are all keywords that are used to match you with appropriate ads. Doing this activity for Facebook’s 800 million users is just too daunting for human beings. Instead, they rely on computerized logarithms. I can hear George Orwell screaming, “I told you so!”
God is much more personal than a logarithm. He’s no computer. Logarithms can only measure what’s on the surface. God sees at the heart. Yes, He can see the stuff that we ought not to be doing, but when we think of God, we would be wise to think of Him less like a hidden camera and more like a personal friend. He’s not watching you, waiting for you to screw up. He’s gazing at you like a beloved gazes at his lover. He pays attention to you like a father watching his child play soccer.
Secondly, in having eyes of fire, God demonstrates His just nature. Sometimes we think that God doesn’t care. We see the chaos erupting around us. We loathe the injustice in the world, and so often it seems like God does nothing. I imagine to some of these churches, especially Smyrna, they wondered if God even knew what was going on. He reassures them, like He does with all of these churches, with two simple yet profound words – “I know.” He knows that Smyrna is poor and persecuted. He knows that Thyatira is doing and increasing in great works. He knows that some of the people are enslaved in sin and have unrepentant hearts, but He also knows that some have resisted the temptation.
There will come a time for God’s judgment. It will be a frightful day when the world realizes that there is a God who sees everything and investigates each of our hearts. But for those of us who walk with the Lord, let’s take these words as a great comfort for our lives. God sees us. He sees our situation. He knows what we’re going through. He knows the injustice that we wrestle with, and He knows our deepest secrets. Some are afraid of that type of knowledge. Others, reiterate David’s prayer of Psalm 139. God knows us better than ourselves. He can see our heart, even when we’ve convinced ourselves of lies. Like David, we can pray, “God show me where I’m falling short, because my desire is to become like You.”