There has been a lot said about the relationship of us, as Christians, to our God. There are some places in Scripture that describe that relationship in terms of parent-child, and other places that talk about a Master-servant relationship.
Let's start by looking at the idea that God is our Father: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to do good works to "glorify your Father," which, tells us that God is our Father, but also tells us to do good works... Later on in the sermon, He tells us what to do in order to become children of God, but, again, there is that 'doing' part... In the Lord's Prayer (or the "Our Father"), Jesus teaches us to pray to God as our Father, but then He goes on to say that we should pray that God's will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven; who do you suppose is going to do His will, here on earth? In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus makes a direct comparison between the relationship that we, as parents, have with our children, and the relationship that God has with us. This is what most of like to think of our relationship with God as being: We want something, we ask God, and He gives us good things. Keep in mind, though, that just as we, as good parents, aren't going to give our children something that we think would be harmful to them, God isn't going to give us something that is harmful, no matter how much we beg and plead for it. I also want to point out that, much as we would like God to be the loving parent who just gives us good things, every other passage that we have looked at places some requirements on us. We have to do things for God. Think about that for a minute: Didn't your parents give you chores when you were growing up? At the time, they probably seemed like things that mom and dad just didn't want to have to do themselves; in retrospect, they were probably things that needed to be done, but would be too hard to fix or clean up after an inexperienced child gave a half-hearted attempt at doing. Something to help build a work ethic, so that you wouldn't grow up thinking that life owed you something (or maybe your parents didn’t give you chores; there seems to be an awful lot of people out there that think that society owes them).
Of course, Jesus did say that at Judgment, some of would hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." (You may not want to read on to find out what happened to the ones that didn't hear those words directed at them.) I don't think God is going to call anyone a good and faithful servant, unless that person has been a good and faithful servant. In many of the parables, Jesus refers to us as servants: In Matthew 18, He even tells us about a servant that wasn't good. In Matthew 24, He tells us of a servant that wasn't faithful. In Mark 12, Jesus tells us a parable to show, not only are we servants, but we are servants that the world isn't going to treat well.
In Galatians 4, Apostle Paul tells us that, to a point, a child is a servant; the real difference is that the child stands to inherit, whereas the servant only works until he dies, or is no longer needed. I think that it's safe to say that a child isn't going to get treated quite the same as a servant, a father isn't going to want to give the nasty jobs to his offspring, but, at the same time, there are some jobs that can't be trusted to a hired hand, so, yeah, sometimes the sons (and daughters) get some nasty jobs, just because their inheritance depends upon those jobs getting done.
Let's start by looking at the idea that God is our Father: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to do good works to "glorify your Father," which, tells us that God is our Father, but also tells us to do good works... Later on in the sermon, He tells us what to do in order to become children of God, but, again, there is that 'doing' part... In the Lord's Prayer (or the "Our Father"), Jesus teaches us to pray to God as our Father, but then He goes on to say that we should pray that God's will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven; who do you suppose is going to do His will, here on earth? In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus makes a direct comparison between the relationship that we, as parents, have with our children, and the relationship that God has with us. This is what most of like to think of our relationship with God as being: We want something, we ask God, and He gives us good things. Keep in mind, though, that just as we, as good parents, aren't going to give our children something that we think would be harmful to them, God isn't going to give us something that is harmful, no matter how much we beg and plead for it. I also want to point out that, much as we would like God to be the loving parent who just gives us good things, every other passage that we have looked at places some requirements on us. We have to do things for God. Think about that for a minute: Didn't your parents give you chores when you were growing up? At the time, they probably seemed like things that mom and dad just didn't want to have to do themselves; in retrospect, they were probably things that needed to be done, but would be too hard to fix or clean up after an inexperienced child gave a half-hearted attempt at doing. Something to help build a work ethic, so that you wouldn't grow up thinking that life owed you something (or maybe your parents didn’t give you chores; there seems to be an awful lot of people out there that think that society owes them).
Of course, Jesus did say that at Judgment, some of would hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." (You may not want to read on to find out what happened to the ones that didn't hear those words directed at them.) I don't think God is going to call anyone a good and faithful servant, unless that person has been a good and faithful servant. In many of the parables, Jesus refers to us as servants: In Matthew 18, He even tells us about a servant that wasn't good. In Matthew 24, He tells us of a servant that wasn't faithful. In Mark 12, Jesus tells us a parable to show, not only are we servants, but we are servants that the world isn't going to treat well.
In Galatians 4, Apostle Paul tells us that, to a point, a child is a servant; the real difference is that the child stands to inherit, whereas the servant only works until he dies, or is no longer needed. I think that it's safe to say that a child isn't going to get treated quite the same as a servant, a father isn't going to want to give the nasty jobs to his offspring, but, at the same time, there are some jobs that can't be trusted to a hired hand, so, yeah, sometimes the sons (and daughters) get some nasty jobs, just because their inheritance depends upon those jobs getting done.
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