Bruce Collins, Evangelist

The personal website of Bruce Collins

There are Fathers and then there are Fathers

 

2 Corinthians 6:17-18  Therefore "COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM AND BE SEPARATE, SAYS THE LORD. DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN, AND I WILL RECEIVE YOU.  I WILL BE A FATHER TO YOU, AND YOU SHALL BE MY SONS AND DAUGHTERS, SAYS THE LORD ALMIGHTY.

 

Becoming a Father

Becoming a father in a physical sense is relatively easy.  I realize that there are some families that cannot have children and will take exception to what I am saying, but generally speaking a father can become a father rather easily.  However, being a Father to the children that have been born may be a whole different matter.

 

Fathers can be fathers without wanting to be fathers.  Other fathers take on the responsibilities of a father without being the reason that the child came into the world.  They may adopt children or just befriend them.   Fatherhood is both a title of one who has produced a child biologically and a responsibility or function of one who provides for a child whether that person is the biological father or not.

 

Responsibilities of Fathers

The first responsibility of a father is to love his wife.  This provides a secure environment for a child’s nurturing.  A father should provide food, shelter and protection for a child.  A father should instruct a child in a practical way and in spiritual things.  The father should be a leader that the child can respect and honor. Of course mothers share in these responsibilities as well but today I am considering the responsibilities of fathers.  Today, many fathers are not providing these things for their children.  On the other hand there are those that are not biological fathers that have provided these things for children that are not their own.

 

Some fathers are good and kind even if they are firm. Other fathers are cruel and evil and destroy the children that they are around emotionally and in some cases they destroy them physical.   However, as a child matures, a Father cannot act like a father if the child will not let him.  We see these things in a practical way in this world and we see them in our relationship with God who wants to father us.

 

Who is our Father Spiritually?

In John 8:44 the Lord tells the religious Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”  That was fairly blunt language.  But children tend to act like their fathers and the Pharisees were acting like their father the devil.  Who would want the devil as their father?  He is the evil father that we have mentioned earlier.  He is a murderer, liar and destroyer.  Those who are captivated by his lies end up being destroyed in this life and they end up being destroyed spiritually for eternity.  Satan is really the father of all of us by our first birth.  We have his nature of sin and rebellion.  And apart from the intervention of the Holy Spirit, none of us would get released from the hold he has over us.  Paul says he is the god of this world and he has blinded the minds of those who believe not (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

 

But God wants to be our Father.  That is why we must be born again (See John 3).  Once we have believed on or trusted in the Lord Jesus, we have a new Father and a new nature.  We now can enjoy the benefits of a benevolent Father.  However, God can’t function as our Father if we as Christians won’t let Him provide for us, guide us, discipline us, and instruct us.  One thing we have to do in order for him to be able to father us is to separate from those who do not believe in Him.  Now many wonder just what this separation involves because we live and work in a fallen world and the unsaved are all around us.  However, we don’t voluntarily put ourselves in a position where we let unbelievers make ungodly decisions for us.  We have to be careful in our social, political, marriage and business relationships so that we don’t end up worshiping in the wrong way and living in a disobedient way in order to get along with people that don’t understand their own sinnership and who have never turned from “idols to serve the living and true God.”  (See 1 Thessalonians 1:9).  In other words, God cannot function as our father if we are letting Satan and the world he controls function as our father.

 

God wants to be a Good Father

Surely, we need to let God be our Father.  We cannot do that without the new life and the new relationship that results when we come to end of ourselves and our own reasonings and strength and trust wholly in the Lord for salvation.  And after being born again, we need to separate from unbelievers so that we are not sucked back into their attitudes and lifestyle.  We need to be obedient children (1 Peter 1:14).  Then the Lord will call us beloved like He did Daniel and we will be able to praise Him for all that He has done for us 

 

Bruce Collins

 

Meditation for the week of June 18, 2017

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