Our Father Pt IV

Are We All God’s Children?


Even though all are God’s creation, we are not all God’s children. We are neighbors, but not brothers and sisters. Jesus made this perfectly clear to the Pharisees. Those who do the will of his Father in heaven are called children of God. Those who oppose the Kingdom’s advance are children of the Devil. As our favorite theologian Bob Dylan aptly stated, “It may be the Devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”


Before we can continue, we have to make a point however. Perhaps you might recall that at different times, “Christians” have used this to justify shameful treatment of others. Two standouts are the justification of the American slave trade and the Crusades. Perhaps these currents even run in the current war in the Middle East. The idea that “those rag-heads” are lesser human beings due to their social, political, or religious orientations or the view of radical Islam, or the phrase never quite caught on, “Islamo-Fascism” (a phrase certainly destined for the 2008 banished word list) holds the world view that anyone who does not think like them deserves to die. Dangerous ground all around friends; deadly ground.


Christ demands equal love, respect, and treatment for all humanity. Francis Fenelon wrrote, “All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers.” We are all equal parts in the human family, yet, in our spiritual kinship we may be very different. Confession, belief, and repentance lead us into the family of faith through the sacrifice of Christ. If there was any other way, Jesus would not have died and rose again. Paul taught that, “If Christ is not risen, then my faith is in vain.” I would have to argue that if the resurrection were not necessary, it would simply not have happened.


Therefore, when we declare God as “Father”, we are proclaiming our self as His child. So then, and we must embrace this: if we get the privilege of birthright (loving-kindness), then He gets the privilege of Fatherhood (that is authority). Please consider this a moment.


The ancient church father Cyrpian wrote, “The new man, born again and restored to his God through His grace, can say “Father” at the beginning, for he has now begun to be a son.”
(Cyprian (c.250, W) 5.449)


When we earnestly say “Our Father”, he no longer is in Heaven alone, but he now dwells within us. The God in the burning bush, in the pillar of cloud, in the pillar of fire, in the Holy of Holies, now dwells within us. We become part of the Temple of the Living God, of the building up of believers:


For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field , God's building… Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Cor 3:9 & 16 (NASB)


Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God , and that you are not your own?
1 Cor 6:19 (NASB)


The beauty of it is that God condescends, to dwell not only among us, but in us if we will only abide in Him by abiding in His grace. What a great God we serve.