The Life-Giving Love of the
Father
Our physical birth marked the beginning of a growth
process. That process consisted of increasing levels of awareness.
At some point in that process, we became aware of our social status,
whether upper, middle, or lower class. In most cases, we were proud
of our station in life, our heritage, and our parents, who were
largely if not totally responsible for the food we ate and the
clothes we wore.
Some were perhaps less appreciative of their roots,
and others learned to despise their heritage. In today’s
“enlightened” society, some children have resorted to litigation in
an attempt to divorce their parents. Well, I did not have perfect
parents, and would have changed a few things. But I always was (and
still am) proud to be the son of Harry and Grace Roberts.
Our spiritual birth into God’s family similarly
marked the beginning of a growth process. But the increasing levels
of awareness told a far different story. In the Lord God Almighty,
our spiritual progenitor, we have come to find no shortcomings, no
hang-ups, no defects, no regrets. There is but one class—the
heavenly. There is but ONE Father who is THE Father of all who
believe. We are his sons and daughters by virtue of a spiritual
birth that took place the moment we believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ!
The apostle John tells us that the driving force
behind our spiritual life is the love of the Father: “Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1). Sons is from the
Greek teknon, signifying the child who is the object of
parental love. In biblical terms, it is the love (agape)
expressed by the heavenly Father toward his spiritual children.
God’s love toward his children is both unconditional (it was not
waiting for some cause or credential in its objects) and sacrificial
(it spared no expense in the rescue of those objects). Moreover, no
child of God has ever found him- or herself unwanted, abused, or
neglected!
According to John, this life-giving love has four (4)
key attributes. The first is its importance. Behold is
an imperative that demands our attention for what is to follow. John
uses it on multiple occasions in his Gospel and Revelation, but only
once in his first epistle. The singular usage conveys a dominant
theme. John is saying: “Don’t miss this! Grasp its greatness! Never
take it for granted! Stay focused on this theme—one that is worthy
of earnest contemplation and subsequent motivation for living in a
world ravaged by unlovely things!”
The second is its transcendence. The phrase
“what manner of” is the translation of the Greek potapos,
whose origins meant “what soil?” then “what country?” and then “what
sort?” The word contemplates something that is beyond the realm of
(or foreign to) previous experience. It was exactly the impression
left upon the disciples by Jesus as he turned a “great tempest” into
a “great calm” with a word of rebuke. They exclaimed: “What
manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him”
(Matt. 8:24-27). It was something new to their senses, something
they had never before experienced. So John declares to his readers
that the love shown by the Father toward believers in his Son
transcends any and all worldly loves. Charles Wesley so wrote: “Love
divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heav’n to earth come down.” Of
unique interest is that John wrote his first epistle about 60 years
after seeing Jesus ascend to heaven. Six decades of ministry had
failed to diminish one iota in John’s mind the wonder of the
Father’s love toward his children!
The third is its permanence. Bestowed
is the perfect tense of the Greek verb didomi. The verb
generally refers to a giving (or bestowal) born of good and free
will without coercion. The perfect tense signifies a past action
with abiding results. The bestowal of the Father’s love upon his
children is an eternal commitment on his part. Once bestowed, it
remains a bestowal. So Paul, in speaking of God’s love as a
permanent fixture in our divine benefits package, affirmed that no
power on earth or in heaven would be able to separate us from it
(Romans 8:38-39). This love is at times exciting, nurturing,
guiding, teaching, encouraging, and forgiving. At other times it is
correcting, disciplining, and chastening. But at all times it is a
bestowed love that will not let us go!
The fourth is its severance. The fact that we
have a new nature as a result of the new birth means that we assume
the same relationship with the world that Jesus had. The world did
not know him (on an experiential level), and therefore, because we
are his, our former relationship with the world has been severed.
The implantation of his nature should make a difference in our
behavior. The effect of life-giving love should be a new lifestyle.
Therefore the world finds it impossible to relate to those who are
related to the Father through his dear Son. That’s why the local
church is so important! It provides the opportunity for those who
are “other-worldly” in their life focus to rally around their common
heritage. And what greater commonality is there than the life-giving
love of the Father?
The manner of love that the Father has bestowed upon
those of us who believe is totally foreign to our worldly
experience. The Father reckons us to be and calls us his
children—the children of the Most High! What a love! What a
privilege! What a bestowal! What a motivation for 2009!
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