We often hear people saying, “God
is our biggest fan.” Of course, they are trying to encourage others in the faith
or remind them that God loves and cares for them; I get that. But is this
expression of God being “our biggest fan” really an accurate reflection of God according to the Scriptures? Is this now
one of the ways by which we refer to God Almighty, a fan, in a sports-saturated
culture in order to help others relate to God?
I asked my wife, “What is the
first word that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘fan?’” She replied, “The
Vols” (University of Tennessee – Knoxville). You see; in our society, it is virtually impossible to separate the word
“fan” from sports; they are married together in an auto-responsive kind of way
in people’s thinking. Just mention the word fan to somebody, and they will more
than likely inquire about what sport, team, or player! And if they hate sports,
perhaps an entertainer comes to mind. Does God want to be associated with sports
of any kind? Is this one of the ways He wants us to understand Him (cf. Jer
9:23, 24)?
When I first heard this
expression, it immediately caught my attention, and I uttered to myself, “God
is my biggest fan?” After nearly forty years in the faith, it hit me like an epiphany, “God
is a fan of mine! He sits on the sideline and cheers me on! Could this be true!?
People in authority are declaring God is a fan!” It sounded good and pampered
my flesh, but in my spirit, something was unsettling about
connecting God with the word “fan” (Should that be capitalized?).
It is not my MO to be throwing a
wet blanket on a fire, but I first questioned myself if this was simply being semantically
nit-picky to disagree with this metaphor of God. God knows; I have said things
that were inaccurate of God either in my thinking, talking, walking, or
writing. It is not like I purposely sought to mislead others about God, but I
did regardless of the reason. And once I
realized I was guilty of this or that, I asked for forgiveness and quit thinking,
saying, doing, or writing whatever it was.
Repentance is a turnabout or a 180°
turn; we are heading one way (the wrong way), and we turn and go in the opposite
direction (the right way in accordance with Scripture). Many think that the “I’m
sorry” statement is sufficient with no changing of direction in their life is
considered “repentance” (It is the essence of nobody-is-perfect-we-are-all-sinners
kind of thinking.). This is worldly repentance, not biblical repentance. All genuine believers know that calibrating
the thinking (Rom 12:2; 15:5; Php 2:5; Col 1:18; 3:2, 23; 1 Pet 4:1; 1 Jn 2:6),
saying (Col 3:17; 4:6; 1 Jn 3:18), and doing (1 Cor 10:31; Col 2:6; 1 Jn 1:6-7;
2 Jn 1:6) to the life of Christ is a formidable challenge and impossible to
accomplish in our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit to enable and empower
us for the task of Christ-likeness (Gal 5:16; Rom 8:8, 14).
What is a fan anyway? Well, we
can’t go to the Bible on that one unless we spiritualize the biblical meaning
of the Greek verb translated “follow” (akoloutheo),
and it doesn’t apply to Jesus anyway. By the way, this verb goes way beyond any
following of a fan as we know it today. Fans or sheep follow; God does not
follow; He leads as Shepherd of the sheep (Jn 10:4). For example, see Mk 8:34 where
we are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus! This
characterizes outwardly a follower of Jesus Christ because something inwardly
of the heart, the seat of the intellect, emotions, and the will, has radically
changed due to experiencing salvation by grace through faith. So, to be a fan
of Christ doesn’t work either with the definition or understanding of contemporary
“fanhood” (Is that a word?).
As a true follower of Jesus
Christ, the thinker, the feeler, and the chooser desire to conform to the
nature or image of Christ (e.g., Gal 5:22-23, 24) rather than expressing the old
self, the flesh, the sinful nature. Now, that’s radical! So let’s see what some
dictionaries have to say about the meaning of a fan today, the bladeless types,
of course.
“A person who admires
somebody/something or enjoys watching or listening to somebody/something very
much” (Oxforddictionaries.com).
“An enthusiastic devotee
(as of a sport or a performing art) usually as a spectator” or “an ardent
admirer or enthusiast (as of a celebrity or a pursuit)” (Merriam-webster.com).
“A person who is very much interested in and spends a lot of
time watching or reading about esp. an entertainer or sports team” (http://dictionary.cambridge.org).
We all need to be extremely
careful in mischaracterizing God by deviating from what has been revealed, no
matter how slight. Thinking of God as a fan, our biggest fan, is woefully
inadequate and misleading, particularly to the younger generations.
God is more devoted to us than a
fan is; a fan will leave us or forsake us. Fans have a tendency to leave the
stadium while you are still playing because of the score. God will never do
that (Heb 13:5)! Fans are fickle; God is immutable (Mal 3:6). A fan usually has
a love/hate relationship with his or her team. A fan loves you when you are
victorious and hates you when you lose. Lose enough and the fan may bail out on
you! God’s love for us is incomparable
to the love of a fan (Rom 5:8; 8:35-39). God can love us no more or no less because God
is eternally unchangeable by nature; His love for us as believers and followers
of Jesus Christ His Son will never ever change whether we win or lose on the
battlefield.
Fans can only cheer, boo, and be
a spectator. A fan doesn’t tell the “team” what to do or how to execute plays.
For goodness sake, this implies that God, as a fan, has no right or authority
to call the plays in our life because we are in charge (humanism)! The analogy seems
a bit severe here, but the premise and logic are sound. The coaches are the
ones who call the plays. God coaches us in godliness, doesn’t He (cf. 2 Tim
3:16, 17)! God is intricately and intimately engaged in our lives; He lives
within our hearts (Rom 8:9; 1 Cor 3:16; Eph 1:13-14; Titus 3:5, 6; 1 Jn 3:24)!
The Father is involved in our
life to make us more like His Son. He is not limited to a fan that can only
remain on the sidelines cheering us on but unable to do anything else but yell.
One of God’s attributes is omnipotence, all-powerful; He has no restrictions or
limitations (Rev 19:6). Fans judge on the spot by what can be seen (1 Sam 16:7; Jn
7:24). God is righteous and just and knows the heart (Jer 9:24; 11:20; 17:10).
God is committed to us (cf. Jn
3:16), a fan is not. God will not walk away in disgust or frustration and
criticize us for our failures by beating us when we are down. Yes, He chastens
us, but that is what a good Father does (Heb 12:5, 7, 8, 11). A fan condemns;
Jesus bore our sins on the cross (1 Pet 2:24). A fan only shows up at games.
God is always with us before, during, and after the game (cf. Mt 28:20). God
wears no fan apparel; He is holy. This idea of God as a fan is similar to unfortunate
parenting techniques of today where the Father and mother seek to be a buddy
or friend rather than a parent to their children.
Describing God as a fan is for
all intents and purposes theologically incorrect and misleading. In other words,
it cannot apply to God for various and obvious reasons. Yahweh cannot receive
glory from any words or ideas that misrepresent a biblical view of Himself (Col
3:17). When our thinking, speaking, and walking are in sync with the
Scriptures, God is glorified! We cannot be presenting an inaccurate view of God
for the sake of comforting or encouraging others. God wants to be our loving
Father not a devoted fan of us.
Better than the use of the word “fan”
in relation to God as the “extra player” in our life who is there to cheer us
on to victory, is the Word of God,
“Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to
the Lord” (Col 3:16).
“Let Christ's teaching
live in your hearts, making you rich in the true wisdom. Teach and help one
another along the right road with your psalms and hymns and Christian songs,
singing God's praises with joyful hearts” (Col 3:16, Phillips).
“Let the Word of
Christ--the Message--have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your
lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing
your hearts out to God” (Col 3:16, The Message)!
Now, this polemic
on thinking of God as “our greatest fan” works both ways. God is not our
greatest fan, and we are not God’s greatest fan! The word “fan” should be
jettisoned in describing any kind of relationship between God and the believer
in Christ. God wants to be our Lord, Savior, and Father. He wants an intimate
relationship whereby we speak to the Almighty in personal terms, “Abba, (an Aramaic
term for our English word, “Daddy”) Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).
In addition, we
need to quit acting like we are a fan of God and remember our royal station (1 Pet 2:9) as “children
of God” (Rom 8:14-17), a living “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19), and
representing God’s Kingdom as “ambassadors of Christ” (2 Cor 5:20)! Here is
what I find very troubling in this age of increasing apostasy; we seem to be
acting more like fans than followers of Jesus Christ while the world takes
notice, and the Holy Spirit grieves (Eph 4:30).
Remember the denying of self, taking up our cross, and following Jesus back in Mk 8:34? Mischaracterizing God is what the enemy does all day long; it’s what the world of the lost do. Who among us can sit idly by any longer and allow our LORD to be mischaracterized, unintentionally or intentionally, and say or do nothing? Our relationship with the Father is faith-based, not fan-based.
Remember the denying of self, taking up our cross, and following Jesus back in Mk 8:34? Mischaracterizing God is what the enemy does all day long; it’s what the world of the lost do. Who among us can sit idly by any longer and allow our LORD to be mischaracterized, unintentionally or intentionally, and say or do nothing? Our relationship with the Father is faith-based, not fan-based.
In Isaiah's day, he was reminding
the Israelites (Isa 46:8) of the foolishness of worshiping powerless idols (Isa
40:18-20) in Isa 46:5, NASB,
“To whom would you liken Me and make Me equal and compare Me, that we would be alike?”
I would not go so far as to charge anyone referring to God as our biggest fan as idolatry, but I would go so far as to say that God does not want us to think of Him in any way that does not honor Him. Nonetheless, we should take heed of how we “liken” the LORD that is not sanctioned in the Scriptures,
“To whom would you liken Me and make Me equal and compare Me, that we would be alike?”
I would not go so far as to charge anyone referring to God as our biggest fan as idolatry, but I would go so far as to say that God does not want us to think of Him in any way that does not honor Him. Nonetheless, we should take heed of how we “liken” the LORD that is not sanctioned in the Scriptures,
“For I am God, and
there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me” (Isa 46:9).
Truly, God wants us to think of Him as Lord, Savior, Abba,
and Father, not as a fan. Oh, my, how He enjoys His children walking in the
truth (3 Jn 1:4)! The Apostle John
said elsewhere, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us
from all sin” (1 Jn 1:7). And that is a spiritual environment ripe for
blessings from on High! Beloved, God wants to be your Father, not a fan (cf. Jn 3:30; Col 1:18). <><
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