This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Undeviating Test”, promises that God operates by an “eternal law” where “life serves you back in the coin you pay,” claiming judgmental people will face divine retribution while the truly righteous recognize their own capacity for evil through grace.
Here’s what this divine law actually delivered:
“Life serves you back in the coin you pay,” the accountability group leader warned. “If you judge others harshly, God will judge you the same way. The truly righteous person recognizes they’re capable of the same sins they criticize.”
Robert absorbed this teaching completely, believing it revealed how God’s justice operated in the world. He became paralyzingly careful about criticizing others, convinced that harsh judgments would boomerang back through divine law.
When colleagues cut corners at work or lied to customers, Robert stayed silent. When he witnessed financial irregularities, he looked the other way. Speaking up would trigger God’s retributive judgment against his own character flaws, wouldn’t it? The eternal law demanded spiritual humility, not moral oversight.
This divine caution created a sickening dynamic. Robert watched unethical behavior flourish while he remained passive, believing that calling out wrongdoing would invoke punishment for his own imperfections. The promised “eternal law” made him complicit in harm he could have prevented.
His coworker Sarah took a radically different approach. As a former prosecutor, she understood accountability practically, not spiritually. When Sarah witnessed fraud or negligence, she documented it and reported it through proper channels—not from moral superiority but because organizations require functional oversight.
Sarah didn’t worry about divine retribution for holding people accountable. She recognized that pointing out problems was often the most compassionate response for everyone involved, including those who needed intervention before facing serious consequences.
When federal auditors eventually exposed their company’s financial irregularities, Robert felt vindicated. Surely those who had been “shrewd in finding defects” would face divine retribution while his gracious silence would be rewarded by God’s eternal law.
The opposite happened.
Investigators commended Sarah for her detailed reports and ethical vigilance. Her willingness to document problems had limited damage and protected pension funds. Robert’s spiritual passivity had enabled harm to continue longer than necessary.
Where was the divine retribution for Sarah’s “judgmental” behavior? Where was God’s reward for Robert’s humble non-judgment? The eternal law that was supposed to punish those who held others accountable never materialized.
Sarah’s career flourished because she’d demonstrated integrity and professional competence. Robert faced uncomfortable questions about why he’d remained silent when he could have prevented harm.
The breakthrough came when Robert realized that calling out genuine problems wasn’t hypocritical judgment—it was ethical responsibility. Functional oversight served protection and accountability, not self-righteous condemnation.
The divine retribution system he’d feared was completely imaginary. Good outcomes came to those who addressed problems constructively, not to those who stayed passive out of spiritual terror.
The silence where God’s eternal law was supposed to operate revealed the truth: there was no cosmic justice system rewarding non-judgment or punishing accountability. Just human consequences for human choices.
Reflection Question: When has addressing problems directly been more effective than staying silent out of concern about being judgmental?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 