Happy Father's Day everyone.
As we think of our fathers, including those who've gone on to heaven, I think especially of our heavenly Father. He is so, so good to us. I was impressed with that fact this morning while reading 1 Thessalonians 4.
In this chapter Paul moves from doctrine to ethics, from knowledge to obedience. Please don't miss what he says in the first two verses (4:1-2).
Paul tells us that we are not to think of Christian ethics primarily as law but as love. We are not to think of our duties as sons and daughters of God primarily as a lot of dreary rules and regulations. Instead, we are to think of obedience primarily as a relationship with God, whom we love and whom we want to please.
The point is that I am not to think of the Christian life as primarily obeying instructions. It's about pleasing a Person, the God who made me, loves me, redeemed me, adopted me into his family, put his Holy Spirit in me, and who is my loving Father. As believers, we want to please him. And the more we come to know him, the easier it is to know what pleases him.
If children love their parents, they will want to please them. So with God. As we come to know him as our loving heavenly Father, we develop a certain moral sensibility. When faced with a moral choice we ask, "Will it please him? Or will it displease him?" And note: We are to please him more and more. Can you love the Father better? Can I? I think so. There is to be continued growth in our love for the Father.
On this Father's Day, let our heart cry be, "Father, I want to please you more and more." Let's ask ourselves often this week, "Will it please God?"