Matthew 5:45 Be perfect, merciful, good, just as your heavenly Father is perfect… as Jesus is perfect
and good, we are to grow into that same goodness, or virtue – being perfect
as our good, wise, and loving Father – who is merciful and gracious – that in
us, now causes us, having received from God this merciful grace, the real
compelling to extend that grace.
A true and real expression of God - that is what we are!
God’s divine power enables us to see Him. This divine seeing, intelligence, enables me, us, having seen Him for who He is, can now see me and you for who He has truly made us to be and act.
This divine ability to see also enables me to see and know what is righteous – that is to “apprehend” and comprehend it – and then be the righteousness He has created me to be and act out that righteousness according to His will and purposes – and this, out of loving appreciation of Him and all that He has done.
This causes me to no longer (want to) live as I once did when I was believing what I though was right to be right but, now, in Jesus, being and seeing and knowing (what is) right, I can rise above this world and its desires and participate in the divine (Ro 1:21; Eph 4:17-18, 22; Col 3:17; 2Pe 1:1-11).
Because I can see God, know God, and, having been first made in His image and likeness, but now am created in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:8-10), I have the right, not only to become a child of God (John 1:12), but having been made a child of God (Ro 8:14-16; 1Jo 3:1), I, having been born anew (Jo 3:3-8), am now empowered and enabled, as a child of God, to be an imitator of God – as that dearly loved child – and live a life of love! (Eph 4:1; 5:1-2)
I can now know how to act, because I see and know God and how God acts – by His word (and Spirit). First amongst Himself (which IS His word), then and because of being exposed to that divine acting, and made to live and act the same way (in Jesus), see His word as correction and instruction in that divine acting toward Him, self, and others. (Mark 12:29-31)
…and the trueness of that real expression is the progressive unfolding of our lives in Christ until we reach the end – functioning at full-strength at each level of strength we obtain as we obtain it – or Him – more and more! (Philippians 3:7-16)
To know God, truly know Him, is to be like Him. Therefore, to be like Him, we must truly know Him.
The nature of God as…
…One Isaiah (Ex 20:1-11; Job 38-42)
54:6,24-26
48:6,8,17-1
Revelation 1:8
…many, as three “let us make… in our image and likeness”
Genesis 1:1-3 (2-3) 1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3And God said…
John 1:1-4; 15:3; 17:15-19; Eph 5:26
1:1-4 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
17:13-19 13“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by d the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
John 14:15-21
15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be c in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
How does act with each other? Well, in brief…
Ephesians 5:1-2,15-20
1Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Then, to know God, is to know self and others. Why is it important that we see God as three?
Who is God? God as one - there is no other God above Him. God, as three, the Divine Us and Our, God as a divine community in mutual submission. And God has existed, always (Rev 1:8) in perfect and perpetual and joyful communion (John 17)
What are the implications of having been made in the image and likeness of this singular God who expresses himself, as themselves, as a divine community? Could it be that we have been made to actually be, live, and act, like Him/Them?
What is it then to act like the Godhead? In mutuality, mutual submission? Maybe we can assume that God acts toward one another the same way He commands us to act with and toward one another in Philippians 2:1-11 - for us to not know God and His Divine mutuality, would be to not recognize how we are then made to act with and upon and toward one another
To not strip a person of their personhood - which is what makes them who they are and as
To not objectify - or not their person, but a utility to be used for one’s own purposes
To not dignify and protect
To not see value or significance
But in fact, to be able to see each person as a person worthy of esteem and engagement and kind and loving service - just as God sees Himself and each Other and lovingly lifts each other.
This is divine
This is divinely inspired, enabled, mutuality
This is God in His/Their Divine community
This is how God made us to be and what it is He redeemed us for
· This is the making the most of every opportunity, doing the good works prepared in advance for us to do - each other in community, having been granted divine intelligence to see and act accordingly - this is being perfected just our heavenly Father is perfect - being merciful…
How do we do this? Yes, His Spirit in us, but also, with our cooperation, our putting in every effort to add to trust God and His word and to add to our faith and loving service – the very words, the very expression, of God and His heart – for us.
We must learn that every command God gives us instructs us to live out the righteousness that He has made us to be (2Cor 5:21) - it is a reflection of Him and His doing, which is His heart. (Ps 32:8; Isaiah 48:17)
Ps 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Isaiah 48:17-18 “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go. 18If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.”
What are the implications of not seeing Him as a divine community?
John 8:19; 14:7; 17:25 We do not know GOD - Jesus said “We no not what or whom we worship - the fact that we know God - at all - and believe in His being, One and Three is evidence of this divine intelligence
We cannot know ourselves as God intends as we have been made to be like Him and we are truly only like Him when we know Him, Them, and one another - as it is not good for man to be alone - as God, is not alone and has never been alone. As God is with one another, so we are meant to be with one another - and Him.
o John 17:20-25
Our eyes have been opened to see the mystery of God and accept God’s word and words (Proverbs 2:1; James 1; those without the Spirit of God cannot accept John 3:11; 5:43; 8:42-43; 12:48; 14:17; 1Co 2:14)
o 1Corinthians 2:5-16
God's commands remind us of who he is, how he functions, how we’ve been made, and to enable us to live according to that likeness. In order for us to truly understand the word of God, and commands of God, we must understand God, and that we’ve been made in his, or their, image, and likeness. When we see the word this way, it makes more sense, because there is an overarching goal to God‘s word, commands, and instruction. That we would be like him. As we worship him, lift him up, the greatest form of worship we can give him, is to recognize his greatness, and to live according to that greatness imputed in us – that is Jesus righteousness – indwelling Holy Spirit – that is the divine intelligence with which way now see his word, him, ourselves, and one another.
