When we see Jesus always doing whatever the Father was doing, it means that, in everything Jesus did for people, we see what the Father was doing for people.[1] The gospels not only tell us what Jesus is like; they clearly tell us what the Father is like.[2]
When we see the apostles doing their ministries as branches of the vine bearing fruit to this day, what we see them willing to do for the church expresses something of what Jesus was doing for his church.[3] The apostles “flesh out” what it looks like for Jesus to shepherd the church because the Triune God loves the church.
When Paul told us, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…”,[4] he was telling us how strongly God was working in him to will and to work for his good pleasure, and how devotedly Paul was working out his own salvation with fear and trembling because of the reality of God’s work in him.[5]
This means that, Paul’s desire that “their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,”[6] is our Father’s desire for us.[7]
I encourage each of us to turn on our relational circuit with God as best we understand how to do so,[8] and thank him that he wants our hearts to be encouraged in fellowship with one another, that he wants us to know the satisfaction of hearts that are truly knit together in agapè-love,[9] and that he wants us to feel the restfulness of full assurance of understanding.
Thank our heavenly Father that he wants us to have the genuine knowledge of his own mystery, which is Christ. Thank him that he wants to make his hidden and secret reality known to us so that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ are revealed to us so we may, “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”[10]
Not only will our joy-based relational circuits build in our brains as we express appreciation for these wonders no matter how little we have experienced them, but our willingness to know God like this means that we will be encouraged, just as he desires for us. We will be blessed with the very attachments in Christ that we long for way down deep under our layers of self-protection. We will feel that elusive assurance of understanding and knowledge that is desperately needed in a world of ignorance and blindness. And knowing Christ in his kingdom will feel like we have found a treasure in a field that we would give up everything to enjoy as our own because it is so much more valuable than whatever we have experienced in the world.[11]
Not only is this specific lesson an encouragement to us all, but it is also an invitation to look at all the men who served God so devotedly and allow our hearts to receive their work as evidence of the Father’s great love for us. His agapè-love consuming these men’s hearts, minds and souls, tells us how determined our Father is to seek us, find us, and bring us home.[12]
As was said of one man of faith, the same can be said of all the servants of God who gave us the holy Scriptures: “through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”[13] And what each of these men speaks is that their God is here for the knowing as our God.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”[14]
© 2020 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1] John 5:16-21
[2] John 14:9
[3] John 15:5-8
[4] Colossians 2:1-3
[5] Philippians 2:12-13
[6] Continuing Colossians
2:1-3
[7] This is also obvious
from II Timothy 3:16-17 that shows that the words written down by the human
writers of Scripture were actually breathed-out by God himself, which is why we
can live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God as Jesus taught
(Matthew 4:4) by letting the words of Scripture dwell in us richly (Colossians
3:16).
[8] In physical terms,
this means trying to relate to God in relational attachment rather than merely
left-brain agreement. In spiritual terms, this means deliberately seeking to abide
in Jesus as branches in the vine so that his life and ours are united in
fellowship.
[9] Agapè
is the distinctive love that unites God and his people. It means: “love (affection) n. — a strong positive emotion of regard and affection”
(Bible Sense Lexicon).
[10] I Peter 1:8-9
[11] Matthew 13:44-46
[12] Luke 19:10; I Timothy
1:15; John 14:23
[13] Hebrews 11:4
[14] John 1:12-13
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