"Relationship: Primary"
Part 1
It can be said that in His being and essence, God exists as a relationship. From everlasting to everlasting, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell in a perfect oneness of loving devotion to one another.
"The Father loveth the Son… I love the Father… the fruit of the Spirit is love" (John 3:35; 14:31; Galatians 5:22).
Our initial creation in the image of God means that we also exist primarily as relational beings. The Lord Jesus Christ confirmed this in His declaration regarding the first two commands: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mark 12:30-31). We must therefore set forth upon the voyage of each day in devotion to God and others, and in confident recognition that as we do, our own hearts will be filled with the light of life as genuine life actually exists. Indeed, "to live is Christ", that is, to live is to know the love of God the Father, and then to love Him and others as enabled by the Holy Spirit (Philippians 1:21).
This being true, believers can expect our spiritual enemies to ever work to distract us from loving fellowship with God and people. Satan and his minions seek to foment unrest in our hearts toward our Heavenly Father, and then toward others. First, they tempt us first to live in a cloud of uncertainty regarding the bond between God and ourselves. They challenge us to consider our Lord's infinite being and perfect nature, and then ourselves in such holy light. If we could hear them audibly, their sneers would be accompanied with notions like, "Hah! Your God is so perfect and so beyond what you are. And you are so obviously imperfect and unable to meet His standards! Give it up! What's the use?" Our enemies' temptations certainly ring with truth. Relating to God according to His being and standard would be a farcical notion were it not for the very subject of this consideration, namely, the nature of God Himself. His devotion to relationship led Him to make provision for us in this most vital matter by His Son and His Spirit:
"God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
"We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
It stands to reason that proper relationship with God - and then with others as its fruit - depends on His promise to initiate and perpetuate consistent fellowship. We play a role of response, but ever and always, we rely on His presence and working to empower the outworking of genuine love. In fact, no aspect of the Christian life more involves our awareness of need, and our ongoing discovery of God's faithful supply as we trust Him to lead us in relationship to Himself and others. "God is love," and thus He knows how to enable us in accordance with His own nature, and our high calling to join Him in making relationship primary (I John 4:8).
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him."
(I John 4:16)
Part II - Relationship with one another
Weekly Memory Verse
"He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied."
(Isaiah 53:11)
5862
No comments:
Post a Comment