I’m starting this blog, mostly for my own benefit in articulating my thoughts through writing, and because everything I want to think through here is for the spiritual benefit of myself and others. If it doesn’t come out clearly, it’s because I’m still thinking it through and I just want to write something—it will never be perfect, but it will be something. (I used to do basically the same thing in Discord dms to my Christian friend anyways so why not do it on my website?)
I learned not too long about about a concept called the ‘condescension’ of God. Doesn’t that sound horrible? This doesn’t refer to a prideful looking-down on someone—“God is not in the least concerned about His dignity”—it refers to a loving humility and a willingness to meet us where we actually are. St John Chrysostom would frequently (and very eloquently) preach about the condescension of God. The word ‘condescension’ (Lat. condēscēnsiō, Grk. συγκατάβασις (synkatábasis)) means something like “lowering to be together with” someone. It refers to how God is always willing to come down from the heights to be at our level, so He can lift us up to where He is. Chrysostom describes many passages in the Scriptures where language is applied to God that is not literally true, in order that we can understand the nature of God. For instance, God is described as becoming angry. This cannot be taken literally, because God doesn’t change, and He is the Lover of Mankind—He has immense patience with our faults; and besides, He knows what we will do before we even consider it. So why would the Bible describe God as becoming angry if this teaching can be misunderstood? Because the words still convey a deep reality, showing the seriousness of our sins, and motivating us to be reconciled with God.
Once you think about it some more, the existence of the Scriptures is a condescension (in this sense of the word). So many times I read the Scriptures and realize something: maybe something basic, like God loving us. I feel like I should have realized it already. Once you see it, it makes sense of so much, but to get there on my own, through super deep philosophy, would have been too much (and due to my nature, I would still forget immediately). So God provides the Scriptures to illumine what I half-knew already; and since it’s in the Scriptures, I don’t have to take it on the authority of my own reasoning but because it’s part of the tradition of the Church and the revealed word of God to us, given for our benefit.
Obviously, the greatest example of the condescension of God is the Incarnation, leading to the death on the Cross of Christ. God was willing to be mocked and spat upon, betrayed and given to a bloodthirsty mob, executed by a tyrannical state while (the leaders of) His own people rejected Him too, and to accept the scourging and tortorous death. Because God humbled Himself so much, in case my natural philosophizing couldn’t show me the love of God, His act of coming down to my level proves with no doubt that I am the beloved one of God.
The goal of condescension, meeting us where we are, is to lift us up. The whole concept is that we are at square one, God is in His perfection. He could expect or demand of us that we “be better” and figure stuff out, that we don’t doubt His love for instance, and then once we are “where we should be” He’ll work with us. But if He did that, if He met us “we should be”, simply put, we wouldn’t be there and so we would not receive any benefit. “Very well then,” I imagine God saying, “since they can’t come here, I will meet them where they actually are. I’ll lower Myself for them, so they can receive life.” Even though it seems “wrong” to my mind, the Scriptures and especially the Gospel tell of God humbling Himself and doing what seems “wrong” or beneath Him, because between that and letting us languish, He picks benefitting us. Of course, this should influence my life: I should apply this same attitude to people I meet and meet them where they actually are, not where I think they should be. If I really want them to benefit, I will be happy to break myself on their behalf, applying the pattern received from God: accepting the utmost humiliation for the sake of raising the person to the loftiest heights, where they really belong.
I also realize that essentially all of my spiritual growth, all of the sermons or confessions or church services, or even just all the teaching (in any area of life) I have received can be viewed as condescensions of God through people working His works. This should really shatter my idea that “I should be this far”, because even God humbles Himself, and that more fully than any human can manage. If God will meet me where I actually am at, can I not even show myself a little grace?? Do I really expect God, who goes through all this effort for my sake, to stop short of helping me through the next trial I am facing? I very much hope to have my mind transformed to keep in mind the condescension of God, not looking at Him anymore as a…“condescending” (in the other sense) God waiting for me to “just do better”, but as a “condescending” (in the sense described) God who is willing to break Himself utterly and come down to lift me up. I hope that changes how I view myself, how I handle my relationships, and makes me think of the generosity of God…
I have more in my mind but I’ll probably come back tomorrow and write some more. Hopefully this was comprehensible. I again, am mostly writing this for my own sake, to learn I don’t have to be perfect. Since I wrote this, it’s in existence, and that is better than not having written it. You can improve on something but not on nothing.