The Father’s Love

Father’s Day provides a wonderful opportunity to honor the good men in our lives, for those of us who have them. But on this day, I urge you to examine your relationship with your Heavenly Father. His love is far better than even the best of earthly fathers. But if we do not properly and fully understand His love for us, we will never be able to love as we are intended.

If you believe that God is distant, as many earthly fathers are, then you will only know a cold love. Part of the beauty of Christ is the fact that He was God walking among mankind. The angels called Him Emmanuel which means “God with us.” The very act of taking the form of flesh so that people could see Him, hear Him, and touch Him demonstrates His nearness. When Christ left the earth, He promised that God would be with us not merely as a spirit surrounding us, but as the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. “Do you not know,” Paul asked, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). There is nothing closer than God’s spirit living alongside yours. He is not a distant God; He is an ever-present, living-within-us God.

If you believe that God orchestrates both good and evil, you will only know a twisted love. The whole of scripture affirms His goodness, but with the presence of evil in the world and the claim of God’s sovereignty, one can wonder where evil could come from, if not ultimately from God. We know that evil comes from Satan, the enemy of God, and that it is carried out by people. But since God created everything, including the angels that rebelled against Him and the people who commit atrocities, is He not in some part responsible for the evil?

Perhaps the simplest way to understand evil is that it is the absence of good, which means the absence of God. In the same way that darkness is the absence of light, we cannot claim that light somehow creates darkness when it is obvious that it dispels it. God is not the author of evil, because His goodness overcomes it. It is also true that without the option of evil, there would be no free will and God’s design is for us to choose. It is within our power to dispel evil by choosing good, which means choosing God. And though we can rely fully upon scripture, God invites us to find out for ourselves. “O taste and see that the Lord is good,” the psalmist wrote (Psalm 34:8). You don’t simply need to accept an argument, you can experience His goodness for yourself.

If you believe God is biding His time until He can release His wrath on you, you will only know a harsh love. Jesus did not come so that you could be judged. He came so that you could be saved. Religious people have had difficulty understanding this ever since Jesus walked the earth. Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, struggled with this truth, which is why Jesus told him, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18). If you have been born again, there is no wrath for you because Jesus took the curses of the old covenant law and the penalty of your sin when He was crucified. That is why the writer of Romans said, “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:9). You do not need to fear divine punishment for your sin because divine atonement paid the price. There is no wrath stored up for you, there is only love.

Finally, if you believe that love can be found outside of God, you will only know counterfeit love. Jesus’ claim to be the one and only connection to God was not an expression of hubris or ego. He was mercifully offering the clarity that we need (see John 14:6). If a man was bit by a rattlesnake and rushed to a clinic seeking the antidote, the worst thing a doctor could tell him would be to take whatever he wanted from the pharmacy. That man’s life would only be spared by offering the true antivenom. Anything else would be a counterfeit solution resulting in death. Jesus offers us the only authentic love. You can try everything else, but it will only lead to needless suffering. If you want life and love, you want Christ.

All of these “loves” are not really love. They are lies and distortions designed to take you away from the One true love. You need not fall for them. “Greater love has no one than this,” Jesus said, “that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Then He did it. He demonstrated the greatest love and, in the act, called His followers friends. Not slaves, not servants, not wards, not underlings, or any other designation, but friends.

He then goes one step further, calling us sons and daughters (1 John 3:1, Ephesians 1:5). Even while you were spiritually dead, He died so that you could be made alive (Romans 5:8). He gave scripture and His Spirit to complete the work of spiritual birth (Romans 12:2, Philippians 1:6). He knows all of your thoughts and still loves you (Psalm 139:1-2, Hebrews 4:12). He assures you that His salvation cannot be undone (John 3:15, 10:28). And though you may not always feel it or even accept it, you cannot escape His love (Romans 8:38-39).

So yes, love is the thing we want. It is the mark of a mature follower of Christ. It is the state of being that overcomes every evil and endures eternally. And it is the natural byproduct of a Spirit-filled life. But it begins by understanding and experiencing the perfect love that only comes from a perfect Father.

First, know you are loved by the perfect Father. Then you will love because you won’t be able stop it.