Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Father
- Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle. God is the Father. He is the creator. He is love. Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us. We get our identity through Him. When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.
We are
the children of God. That is truly the
undercurrent of the whole of God’s Word.
God created us. We sinned; God
sent His Son to us to redeem us. God is
coming again so that when He appears we will live with Him. It really, truly is a simple message. It is an inspirational message, too. No matter who we are, no matter what we’ve
done, we can belong to Him. He is our
true Father.
Following
this message of inspiration, John then returns to the idea of obedience. This is really a question of identity. If we are truly getting our identity from the
Father, shouldn’t our actions demonstrate this?
If the Son came to take away sin, what does it mean when we keep on
sinning? If He is our Father, should we
not spend more time imitating Him and following in His love?
To this
end, John reminds us about love. He
loved us. He loved us enough that He
sent His Son to lay down His life for our sake.
If we are truly in the Father, then we should do likewise. If the Father gave up everything to come and
be like us for our sake, should we not follow in that pattern?
In the
end, though, regardless of how often we try to imitate the Father or even how
well we do it, He is still the Father.
He loves us. He desires
relationship with us. He forgives. He restores.
Again and again – we never deserve it – He is the greatest Father we
will ever know.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment