I don’t mean to suggest by this quote that doctrine and forms are unimportant. But what I mean to say is that when Phillips titles his book, he is really making a point that speaks to us all, and comes from this response of the heavenly commander to Joshua. Even when we are trying to be most biblical, we are nevertheless in our thoughts limiting God in some way because our minds are finite; and we cannot comprehend the infinite. So, we have to hear that challenge and response personally. We say to God, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” What we mean is that God better be for us because we count ourselves as the faithful ones. And when we say this, we need to hear the kind of response that God gave to Joshua: “Neither—not if you approach it that way. But I’m your commander. And what I have come to do is command you and enlist you in my cause.”
Well, we have talked about this error of partiality as regarding God as our party leader, making God into a member of whatever tradition or denomination we happen to identify with. Let me say that while that is all too common, it is also the case that there are other kinds of people. They’re not people who are indifferent to doctrine. As a matter of fact, they’re very concerned about doctrine. And they’re certainly not indifferent to the way things are done in churches; they’re often very active in them. But when you talk to them, you’re aware that there is something else there. You’re aware that while they may be a Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopalian, or something else, they are not primarily these things. Rather they give evidence of having a larger view of God—a view of God which fills their heart and mind, and motivates their actions.
This view of God enables them to embrace a wide variety of operations and people. And when you meet them, you wonder, “Well, why are they like that? What is the difference? How do they get this large view of God?” The answer is that they are people who have done what Joshua did. They have met God. God has told them to bow before Him, and they have done that. And then they have asked, “What message do you have for your servant?” And what they’re primarily interested in doing is carrying out that message in the world. That’s the kind of people we need. We need leaders like that because what makes them leaders is that they are following the leader. Because they’re following Him, they lead us not to narrow views of God that revolve around one’s particular denomination. Instead they lead us to that great God who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and who will be the object of our learning, worship, and adoration throughout endless ages.
