God invites us to join Him in a loving relationship. We can be so close to Him that He actually speaks through us by His Spirit.

¹⁹ But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, ²⁰ for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:19-20

How can anyone be so close to God as to have Him speak through him? It has to do with God’s purpose for us, His children. He wants us to be like Him. We have been studying what it means to be holy, which is, to be like God. What is holiness? Holiness is the character of God. Whatever God is like, that is holiness. Let’s look at some verses that tell us about the character of God.

PART 7

For our last installment on the character of God, we will look at how Jesus portrayed His Father in Matthew 10:28-31,

²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

In order to discern who’s who in this passage, we must look at verse 31, which tells us to not be afraid of Jesus’ Father, who is God. Knowing who not to be afraid of tells us that the person in in verse 28 must be someone other than God. Since man fits the first description of being able to kill the body, it looks like the devil must be the person who can destroy the body (through addiction, deceit, corruption, etc) and soul (misguidance concerning who Jesus is) in hell. This passage is still about WHO Jesus is.

Jesus was establishing Himself as the Son of God, the Messiah. At the same time, He was tell us about the true character of God, one of a loving Father who cares for His creation (v. 29) and especially His children (v. 30).

To sum up, in order to be like God, we must love as He loves. John identifies God as love (1 John 4:8). Since Jesus is God in the flesh, He loves us, too, enough to die for us. Since we have His Spirit living in us, we now have the desire and the power to love as He loves (Philippians 2:13). What does it mean to love as God/Jesus/Spirit loves? We will see tomorrow.

Abba, as You have loved me, may I love my fellow brothers and sisters. Teach me compassion, O Lord. Amen.