The Deep End

LIke Father, Like Child

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

Ephesians 5:1

Have you ever seen a little boy with a toy lawnmower, following closely behind as his father uses the real thing a few steps ahead? Or a little girl using a pretend steering wheel in the passenger seat of a car, as her mother drives down the road? It’s just a simple fact of life that children like to imitate their parents.

If you have been brought to repentance and redemption by the sovereign grace of God, then you have a “spiritual Father” that should be even more important to you than an earthly parent is to his or her child. In like manner, you should desire to walk after, and to imitate, your Heavenly Father.

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Ephesians 5:2

God is love. (I John 4:8) For a Christian, born into the family of God, and therefore being a partaker of God’s divine nature (II Peter 1:4), to not be loving is to fail to be an imitator or a follower of our Father. It has been well said that, in the New Covenant, love is not something – love is the thing.