Love
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
At the center of an ideal family relationship is love, agape love. By family I mean a father, mother, and their children. In this kind of relationship with each other there is security, peace, faith, hope and joy….and freedom.
My perception of God is that He meets mankind on this basis…as His family. Not on a scientific, forensic basis of pure justice under Law…like is required in the government of men. We are not dealt with out of His overbearing demand for obedience to His just Law, but under the Grace of a loving parent who gives us an ideal standard to live by, then allows us to test this standard within our own unique set of circumstances. Eventually all will agree that abiding by the advice of an omnipotent parent would have been best.
”When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:11-13)
At the center of an ideal family relationship is love, agape love. By family I mean a father, mother, and their children. In this kind of relationship with each other there is security, peace, faith, hope and joy….and freedom.
My perception of God is that He meets mankind on this basis…as His family. Not on a scientific, forensic basis of pure justice under Law…like is required in the government of men. We are not dealt with out of His overbearing demand for obedience to His just Law, but under the Grace of a loving parent who gives us an ideal standard to live by, then allows us to test this standard within our own unique set of circumstances. Eventually all will agree that abiding by the advice of an omnipotent parent would have been best.
”When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:11-13)