God is a God of Order
“God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.”
1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV
This verse is quoted often in Christian homes and churches, and for good reason. It’s a helpful reminder that God doesn’t orchestrate chaos for His people. A clear distinction that sets God’s people apart is the peace and order among the body of Christ, Christians. That word confusion in the greek is akatastasias, which can mean a disturbance, commotion, or disorder. That’s how Jesus used it in Luke 21:9 when describing the future outbreak of wars and mass deaths within the imminent Roman Empire. But the apostle Paul in quoting this verse is just finishing up an important series of teachings about how God does not sow discord among His people, and he uses this language to point back to a powerful belief that ancient Jews held for thousands of years before this writing—God is a God of order.
There is an important theme that runs throughout scripture where God and the forces of darkness are juxtaposed between order and chaos. In the Torah, the prophets, and New Testament epistles chaos is the result of sin and rebellion. Where there is chaos, evil is reigning and death is winning. Then God comes in to heal and restore, and He brings order. He brings purpose, unity, structure, and harmony. ORDER.
If we go back to the very beginning of everything, we see God introducing this truth to us within the fabric of creation. In Genesis 1:2, on the first day of creation, the author describes the earth God created as “formless and void”
( ṯō-hū wā-ḇō-hū ). People often get stuck thinking about the scientific implications of an amorphous earth with whirling gases and fire, but this misses the more important element being introduced here: God is preparing a place for human beings to inhabit where they can be in close relationship with Him, but as of right now, the land is uninhabitable. It is a land of chaos, where human life cannot survive. It is a wasteland, a desolate wilderness. God is preparing a place of beauty and flourishing, but that place is not yet ready. When God is finished, the land will be “good,” and not stuck in a “not yet” state. A powerful picture is being presented here that will illuminate further the need for God’s grace and power to transform empty wildernesses into beautiful lands ready for God’s people to inhabit. God will defeat chaos and bring order.
Deuteronomy 32:9-10 plays on the same imagery,
But the Lord's portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
The wasteland of the wilderness is where Israel waits before they can enter the “good” land that God is going to give them as an inheritance. The land isn’t ready yet, and neither are God’s people for that matter, but God is doing what only the One True God can do—He’s transforming darkness and emptiness into beauty and fullness.
The prophet Jeremiah uses the same imagery when describing the desolation of Israel as it goes into captivity,
I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
Formlessness and the void are where the forces of sin and death are reigning, but God is up to something! God is bringing order and purpose to what was once chaotic and useless. God is bringing healing and rest to what was once broken and anxious. God is going to create a land of thriving where desolation and wilderness used to be the standard.
This theme is revealed in numerous other passages in the Old Testament.
Exodus 15 displays God’s triumph over evil when crashing waters destroy Egyptian soldiers (the author of Psalm 18 reflects on this).
Isaiah 17:12-14 pronounces a woe to those who rage like the raging sea.
Isaiah 27:1 shows God defeating Leviathan, the ancient near-east sea serpent who represents the depths of chaotic waters (and evil).
God is a God of order. He defeats chaos and brings everything into alignment with His good will.
This creation narrative has even more to consider. On the fourth day of creation, God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night” (1:14 ESV). The syntax of the original text reads more like, “Let the lights in the expanse be for separating…” Many scholars believe the creation account in Genesis 1:1, where God creates the “Heavens and the Earth” refers to the celestial planets, stars, moons, and suns, because of the use of the term “heavens” throughout the rest of the Old Testament implies these planets and stars. If this is the case, then God would not have recreated the lights in the heavens on the fourth day, but instead, He would have given them purpose and visibility from the earth’s vantage point for the sake of humanity, which He is soon to create. In other words, God took the celestial bodies of the universe and assigned them order and purpose by giving them cycles, seasons, and usefulness.
Two of the biggest struggles humans face in contemporary life are discovering our own usefulness and purpose in a vast world that seems to be just fine without us, and the ability to fulfill that purpose and give structure and parameters to it. The National Library of Medicine stated,
Life purpose was significantly associated with all-cause mortality… A growing body of literature suggests that having a strong sense of purpose in life improves physical and mental health and enhances overall quality of life.
Simply put, purpose comes from order, and order comes from God, and without order, we are swimming in chaotic territory where darkness and evil have the upper hand. No wonder lacking purpose leads to poor quality of life. God has been shouting this to us from the rooftops ever since Genesis!
Wherever you see a lack of order, question it. If it is in your own life, challenge it. The enemy would love to have little pools of chaos in your life. But God wants to bring order to that chaos. God wants to establish plans and seasons, purposes and boundaries, where He structures your heart, mind, and priorities.
Order defeats chaos. Light defeats darkness. God defeats evil.
This is why Paul so strongly implores the Corinthian church for 14 chapters about how they need to squash discordant attitudes and the in-fighting in their churches. Their lack of unity produced chaos, and that chaos is where devils and darkness have space to work on us.
When you sense disunity and friction among Christians, don’t shrug it off, and don’t make excuses for it. Do the hard work of pursuing unity, because unity is a byproduct of order, and the author of order is God Himself!
