I was handed a booklet yesterday at church called “Spiritual Formation Training”, the first thing I noticed was the size. It is 9 pages long. You would think that a book on spiritual formation would be thicker, wouldn’t you?
At any rate let’s see what is inside.
1. THE FATHER”S LOVE
God is Love (1 John 4:16), and His love is toward us. He doesn’t only tell us or make us feel that He loves us, God has made us a part of His family because He loves us: God is our Father and we are His Children (John 1:12). Therefore, one good expression that well descrives God’s love is the Father’s Heart.
Looks ok, but there is few things missing from the first paragraph.
God is love. Perfectly biblical, but I wish there had been a larger explanation to the sentence. Any English teacher knows that the verb be signals an equating relationship to but it seems there are at least three ways this can be done.
1. God is equal to love –> I am Keith. A simple equals sign
2. God is a part of something larger set of things that love. –> I am big. There are many big things, and I happen to be one of them
3. God is an owner of many characteristics, one of which is love. –> I am big. I, Keith am big, but that isn’t the only way you can describe me. I am also an English teacher, an American, left-handed, a foreigner, etc….
How we interpret the statement says a lot about our theology. Which option do you think it means? More importantly, which way did John mean it?
“God made us part of His family because he loves us.” I find this far too simplistic a sentence. We have to deal with a few immediate issues.
1. Family here is not “the family of man” but is brought into the church as a believer, not merely an attender
2. What does this say about unbelievers? The need for missions? Does God love some more than others, or loves some differently than others?
3. It isn’t only God’s love that brought us into the family. What I mean by that is God’s love was the reason for the process, but it wasn’t the process itself. God didn’t simply wake up one day and decide to say come on in. The invitation was written with the blood of His Son, who died for our sins, who made fellowship possible.
God is our Father and we are His children (John 1:12) – This makes the assumption that the reader is already a believer. 1 John 3:10 calls those who are unbelievers children of the Devil.
I get the feeling reading this booklet, is a bit like reading the Cliff Notes to a much larger and grander book.
What do you think?
