|
We all come to God one at a time. In a sense,
we come all alone. It is our personal decision, our choice, whether
or not we are willing to enter into a personal relationship with God.
No one else makes this decision for us. But it doesn't stop there.
Once we come to God, we are joined to Him and born into His family.
Those who love God will love one another. It
is impossible to have a personal relationship with God without also
having Christ-centered relationships with other people. Christ's love
shown on the cross is our example. He showed us that to be close to
the Father means to share the Father's love for others (1 Jn.
4:7-11). As I get to know the Lord, I will also be confronted with a
God who dearly loves those people around me--my family, friends,
neighbors, business associates, acquaintances, and even my enemies.
This is the kind of attitude that Paul
encouraged in the Christians at Thessalonica. After affirming the
reality and evidence of their relationship to God (1 Th. 1:1-7), he
went on to say:
Concerning brotherly love you have no need
that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to
love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who
are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase
more and more (4:9-10). We might like to live in isolation, but we can't
do it if we're going to grow in our relationship with God. Knowing
God doesn't mean just knowing about Him; it means entering into
Him--into His thoughts, His heart, His sacrificial love.
The apostle John wrote:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is
of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who
does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 Jn. 4:7-8).
Those who love God are dependent on one
another. In Ephesians 4, Paul made it clear that our vertical
relationship with God is accompanied by many horizontal
relationships. He pictured each child of God as a member of the body
of Christ. Each part has a function. Just as the eye, ear, mouth, and
foot make distinct contributions to our physical bodies, so each
believer plays a distinct role in the church, the body of Christ.
When every part does its share, the whole body receives the benefit
(see 1 Cor. 12 and Rom. 12).
Even though we have received a complete
salvation in Christ, there is another sense in which we are not
complete without relating to and serving one another. We need one
another just as much as the mouth needs the eye and the eye needs the
hand. This is the outworking of our salvation. We might think we are
independent spirits who can do just fine on our own, but we will soon
discard that idea as we grow in our knowledge of God.
Those who love God will submit to one another.
In Ephesians 5:21, Paul said that we are to submit to one another in
the fear of God. In the counsel that follows, his words become very
specific. He tells us that:
Wives are to serve their husbands as a means
of serving the Lord (5:22). Husbands should lovingly surrender their
own interests in behalf of their wives as Christ lovingly surrendered
His interests in behalf of the church (5:25-28). Children are to obey
their parents in the Lord (6:1). Servants are to be obedient to their
masters as a means of serving the Lord (6:5-7). Masters are to show
consideration for their servants out of deference to the Lord (6:9).
The message comes through clearly. Knowing God
and His love (Eph. 3:14-21) means that we will lovingly and
submissively serve others. As we trust God and obediently serve
others, we will discover deep within our own souls the righteousness,
wisdom, and power of the love of Christ.
Obediently channeling God's love to others
enables us to begin to experience the meaning of Paul's prayer in
Ephesians 3:14-19.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and
earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of
His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the
inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that
you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and
height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Curtis
|
