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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).
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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
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