blameless and upright

Guestus Flavious asks...

If Job wasn't good, why did God tell the accuser that Job is "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

That's a good question. You highlight a paradox here, an apparent contradiction. According to the Bible:

1) Job is human, so he is imperfect and guilty of sin.
2) God declares Job is blameless and upright.

So what gives? Both of these statements can't be true. Or can they?

(Steven_J would lead us to (erroneously) believe that at least one of these statements is "figurative language", hyperbole. But as Steven_J is so frequent to do, he leads us down the wrong path, distracting us away from understanding.)

When we admit the possibility that both of these statements are true, what is revealed is a deeper truth.

We take notice that God says that Job is "a man who fears God and shuns evil." What we find the author is saying is that Job has a "right relationship" with God. Job reveres God and Job shuns evil, Job turns his back to sin, and turns towards God with a right attitude.

The deeper truth here is that God imputes his own righteousness to Job. That is, God attributes to Job characteristics which are God's alone. God is not declaring that Job's blamelessness and uprightness has been "earned" or "merited" or is a "work" of Job. Rather, God deems to attribute aspects of His own character to Job.


1) Job, imperfect and guilty of sin, turned towards God with a right attitude.

2) God imputed righteousness to Job.


At first glance, there appears to be a contradiction. But a closer examination shows us that it is a paradox (a literary device of a seeming contradiction) which actually reveals a deeper truth.

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(Let's be sure to get a right understanding that the "fear" here is not a feeling of being afraid due to impending danger, rather the word represents a specific meaning:

v. to have reverential awe of. Synonyms: revere, venerate, honor.

n. reverential awe, especially toward God: the fear of God. Synonyms: awe, respect, reverence, veneration.