Fathers and Sons

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children – Ephesians 5:1

This, it seems to me, is a dangerous verse.  

I pity those who did not have my father to set an example and to emulate, not that Dad was in any way perfect.  He had a quick temper.  He was often violent toward inanimate objects.  He laughed at his own stories – I’m not sure how much of a flaw that is.  I suspect our Father in Heaven delights in His stories as well.  He was a banty badass.  If I could choose anyone who ever lived to back me in a fight, I would, without hesitation, pick him.  He would appreciate it, because he taught me value of loyalty, and I know that, regardless of the odds or the circumstances, he would not give in or give up. Loyalty may be the single virtue to which I can legitimately lay claim. 

As a son who loved his father and was loved by him, I admired him and sought to incorporate his traits in my own life.  I picked up the flaws along with the diamond, but sometimes those flaws were quite amusing.  I had a good time learning the hard way.  

That’s the way it is when you are a child.  You grow into an amalgam of your parents, if, like me, you are fortunate enough to have two parents who are complementary.  The combinations vary, which is why siblings are not uniform, plus each additional child is influenced by the ones that came before and those that come after.  Parents grow and change, and we learn that from them as well.  Jesus, the writer of Hebrews tells us, is the same yesterday, today and forever.  One cannot improve on perfection.  

As we study the Bible and pray, we bring our lives in line with our Father’s nature and character.  I don’t think it is a mistake to try and be good, to live by godly rules, and operate on a “what would Jesus do” basis, but I do think it ultimately fails.  Do not be conformed (Romans 12:2) – we have to be transformed from the inside out.  I did not become like my earthly father by consciously and religiously imitating his behavior, certainly not entirely.  In fact, for a long time, I thought I was nothing like him. It was only as I grew older that I realized my actions and attitude, my words and the way that I addressed the world grew out of the genetics as well as the mindset he had passed on to me.

All humans are made in the image and likeness of God.  We have, so to speak, the right spiritual genetics.  What we are typically lacking is extensive conversation and communion with our Father.  This comes in hearing His stories, in both speaking and listening in prayer.  It is no small thing that those disciples the resurrected Christ met on the road to Emmaus recognized Jesus at last in the breaking of bread (Luke 24:31).  I become like my earthly father over beans and cornbread.  We become like our heavenly Father through communion.  We are also influenced by and learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ.  And the Lord Jesus is Himself our loving and ever-present Elder Brother. 

We can consciously follow this path, but we will be, generally, a good way down the road before we recognize how much we have truly become like the Lord and the extent to which our lives have been transformed.

Close Quarters Combat

   

Vain is the man who puts his trust in men, in created things.

Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God. Do what lies in your power and God will aid your good will. Put no trust in your own learning nor in the cunning of any man, but rather in the grace of God Who helps the humble and humbles the proud. – Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 7 (excerpt)

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. – 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Paul’s warning sounds a little like the statements of atheists, even those of good will, who believe that religious people in general and Christians in particular are deluding themselves.  I have yet, though, to hear a non-theist correctly state what I believe.  This isn’t too surprising since I have trouble stating it myself.  To me, there is one basic assumption of what we usually call God – but you can say Being, Consciousness, Intelligence, Ground, and so on.  The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao.  The God who is named must be an expression of the One True God.  This is why the Trinity is not a problem – one God expressed in three Persons.  Expression, by the way, is biblical as Jesus is described as “the exact expression of His nature” in Hebrews 1:3 (HCSB).

The cosmos, too, is an expression of God.  That it contains intelligence and understanding, that there are laws  by which it operates and that we can, to some extent, comprehend those laws, tells us something about the creative nature of God and about why we are here.  There is nothing evil about learning and knowledge, but knowledge can lead us astray.  We find it rather easy, even comforting to deceive ourselves. 

We pick and choose those things to which we give our attention.  We are always analyzing, incorporating and discarding, shifting and sifting among the myriad inputs we receive in any given instant.  What we perceive depends on the template we are using, the size of the net, the shapes in the grid we are using to filter. 

If we want the truth, if we want reality, we are going to have to set aside our desires.  The way to find the truth is to try the truth.  Go back to the Word, to the Law, to the commandments of God and live in obedience to God’s will.  When we do that, we will free ourselves of many illusions about how the world is supposed by many to function.  There are lots of people with lots of opinions, with long resumes and the alphabet behind their names who claim to be authorities.  The well-informed can be just as deceived as the ignorant.  Truth is not information.