The world has a Father

Welcome to the last of six articles about God—our Father.

In previous articles, we’ve seen that the life of Jesus is all about what the Father wants him to do, and how much we need to know his Father as our Father.

And then, we saw that the apostles describe God—the Father, being the start and finish of all things—their fountainhead and finale. Wonderfully, Paul also shows us how our attention comes to be focused on the Father. The Holy Spirit evokes the cry of ‘Father’ within us. We know where we have come from and where we are going.

And now, the apostles, Paul in particular, show us that the Father, by actually being Father to us, creates the framework for our families, and churches, and for the future of our world.

Some years back, I read the story of a young fellow in trouble with the police. All the controls and therapies available to him were proving fruitless. But his own analysis of what he needed was simple. I’ve forgotten his exact words, but his meaning was, ‘All I want is a family to belong to.’

The life God has given us in this world is not about having a career, wealth, excitement or popularity. It’s about sharing our lives with others—giving ourselves to them, and being served by them.[i] Family life is given to us to practice living in this way.

But it takes more than a happy home to create this new community and a new world. It takes everything the Father does through his Son, and everything the Father continues to do through his Son and Spirit.

As we have seen, all this is deeply personal. But it’s not private. When God shows us that he is the Father, he is showing us how things are meant to work, and how they will work in the world to come.

This is not a system or an ideology that will be successful because we do things in a certain way. God’s family is created and functions because God actively gathers us to himself. We are adopted into his family, or made part of his household.[ii]

All this begins to happen the moment the church is born. Peter announces the gospel. Many confess that Jesus is the Christ and are forgiven. They receive the Holy Spirit. But then, look at what happens. These new believers begin behaving like a family—distributing property assets to ensure all are cared for.[iii]

Each believer needs to know that they belong to each other. Each member of the family has equal access to the Father and may approach him without fear.[iv] In the certainty of this, the need of each one becomes the concern of all.

This Jerusalem church soon encounters the reality of division. Cultural differences challenge the freedom of this movement. So, the church elects deacons to make sure everyone is treated as equal members of the one family.[v]

This issue continues to surface and Paul must show that the one-ness we have as children of God is greater than all our cultural differences.[vi] The Father’s care for each of his children teaches us to love and care for those our Father cares for—perhaps, not immediately, or easily, but surely.

Without God as Father and without the church as the community he is building, the world imagines they can find a meaning within themselves and in pursuing personal goals. But God has set his church in the midst of this world to be a working case-history of community. His community.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul celebrates what a great thing God has done in choosing us, drawing us to himself, to be holy and blameless before him. He is gathering a family from all nations. Paul marvels at this. And he worships the Father.[vii]

Then, he shows how the church grows. There is one Spirit—we are sharing one life. There is one Lord Jesus—we are dependent on one Saviour. And there is ‘…one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’[viii]

But notice how God goes about being Father. Out of the riches of who he is, he purposes to make us inwardly strong.[ix]

What does that look like? Well, God knows that, by nature, we are anxious for ourselves, protective, jealous and selfish. This is what guilt does to us. But, in his family, everything works by love.

When differences occur, as they do, we need to live in the truth of a Father who receives each of us and whose kindness and will must prevail. We need to know the love of Christ. We need to be filled with God’s fullness. And we will find that God our Father can do more that we imagine.

This love of the Father through our Lord Jesus is not so much something to be understood as to be received. If we live with one another in this way, our usual point scoring can be dropped and our egos can be shaped by the Spirit’s fruits. We will have become strong. We have become imitators of God, as beloved children.[x] This is what we are created for. And this will be the future of our world—shaped by other-person-preferring love—our affections all reflecting the broadness of our Father’s mercy.

[i] If eternal life is knowing God as our Father and knowing and Jesus as the Son (John 1:1-5; Col. 1:13-17), it follows that temporal life is all about knowing other people—really knowing them so as to see who they are and what they need.

[ii] Eph. 1:5; 2:19-22

[iii] Acts 2:38-47; 4:32-37

[iv] Eph. 2:18; 3:12

[v] Acts 6:1-7

[vi] Eph. 2:18-19

[vii] Eph. 3:8-14

[viii] Eph. 4:4-6

[ix] Eph. 3:14-21

[x] Eph. 5:1

[i] If eternal life is knowing God as our Father and knowing and Jesus as the Son (John 1:1-5; Col. 1:13-17) , if follows that temporal life is all about knowing other people—really knowing them so as to see who they are and what they need.