The Love of the Father

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – July 26, 2018

By Tripp Prince

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. Ephesians 1:3-4 (NRSV)

For many years, though my theology may have been clear in my head, in my heart I carried a distorted view of God as Father. Somewhere along the way, I picked up the idea that Jesus was the good guy, and God the Father was to be avoided. If anything, he was more of an angry, absentee father who knew how to punish and correct but knew nothing of love. That’s where Jesus came into the picture. Jesus was a safe place. He was the one who was on our side, saving us by keeping us away from the Father. Yet if we read the Bible carefully, time and time again we encounter a profound truth. Salvation is a team effort.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit move towards us in perfect love. The incarnation of Jesus is rooted in the Father’s desire to reconcile the world to himself. As St. Paul reminds the Church in Ephesus, it is the Father “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.” (Ephesians 1:3) There is never a moment in which Jesus acts contrary to the will of the Father. As he reminds us in John’s gospel, “the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19)

Many of us read these words and struggle to approach God as Father. We love and trust Jesus, seeing him as humble, accessible, and trustworthy. Yet we avoid the Father in hopes of slipping by unnoticed, perhaps how you would treat an alcoholic earthly father who is prone to violent outbursts. Could it be, in fact, that in accepting a distorted and broken view of fatherhood we have in the process missed the very heart of God towards us?

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are” (1 John 3:1)!

To draw near to God our Father is to draw near to love itself. It is to be made more and more like Jesus so that we can be men and women who are able to enter into the eternal community of love that is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God deals tenderly with us and abounds in kindness towards his children. Trust in his goodness today and learn afresh what it means to be loved by the Father.

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