Reflecting the Character of God
As Christians, we are called to reflect the character of God in our lives. But what does that really mean? The Bible tells us that God is holy, loving, just, good, merciful, gracious, faithful, truthful, patient, and wise. These attributes are not just abstract concepts, but a reality that we can experience and reflect in our daily lives.
The Love of God
The love of God is perhaps the hardest to conceive apart from human versions of love. Human love can only whisper of the pure and holy love of God. Our worship of romance has begun to reshape the way we speak of people or things, offering alternatives to the bland uniformity of the verb “love”. We have even invited our worship of romance to invade our worship of God. However, God’s love is not limited by our finite understanding. His love is pure, holy, and sacrificial.
Goodness and Generosity
God extends grace to us before we can even contemplate its possibility or worth. As recipients of God’s good and perfect gifts, we are called to be generous towards others. We recognize that God gives us good things not so that they might terminate on us, but so that we might steward them on behalf of others. We can be generous with our possessions, talents, and time because we see these good gifts as a means to bring glory to their Giver instead of to us.
Justice and Mercy
As children of God, we are called to carry His family identity into the spheres of influence He gives us. We must use our advantages to benefit our neighbors and seek justice for the weak and oppressed. Withholding mercy from others reveals that we do not recognize what we ourselves have received. We must obey the will of God for our lives to “be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
Faithfulness and Truth
The Bible is our great Ebenezer, a memorial stone to the faithfulness of God. When we grow forgetful of God, or when we question whether God has forgotten us, we can turn to the Bible to gaze on His steadfast love to all generations. We become stones of remembrance for those around us, giving faithful testimony that God is worthy of our trust, no matter what.
Sanctification and Holiness
There is a difference between self-help and sanctification, and that difference is the motive of the heart. We seek to be holy as God is holy as a joyful act of gratitude. We never seek holiness as a means to earn God’s favor or to avoid His displeasure. We have His favor, and His pleasure rests upon us. The motive of sanctification is joy. Joy is both our motive and our reward.
Communal Living
God’s truth is communal, given not merely so that the individual can live in right relationship to God, but so that the individual can live in right relationship with others. The Christian faith holds no room for individualism. To “live my truth” is to live in what feels normal to me, to walk in the way that seems right unto man (Prov. 14:12). However, living my truth destroys my ability to live in community as I was intended, a community predicated not on actualizing all of my personal preferences, but on laying them down for the good of others.
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