The Unscrupulous God
There is an old name—scrupulosity—for the burden of an uncontrolled conscience that presumes God demands we carry a greater burden of his law than we were made to bear. I have seen many of the best sort of people suffer from scrupulosity, which, among the susceptible, is one of the most stubborn and persistent of spiritual ills. By my scrupulous friends I have come to believe that the proper treatment is not in ceasing to care, or in finding some way to evade legally the demands of the law, but in observing repeatedly something that is true but uncomfortable to the pious mind: that the God of the Bible himself is not scrupulous in the way the devil tempts us to think and be ourselves. God can easily be faulted for the lack, so that those who abide in his Spirit are in good company and can learn to be comfortable in their own skins.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
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