Today we want to start our journey in search of the characteris- tics of Christlike transformation. The first question that comes to mind is: Is there a predominant trait in the character of Jesus Christ that God’s Spirit also wants to produce in my heart and in my church?
The answer to that question is a straight ‘yes’.
Everywhere the Old and New Testament acclaim that love is the most characteristic trait of God’s character. The apostle John proclaims it twice in one chapter in his first letter: “God is love”.
(1 John 4:8 and 16)
And as Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), we read in the same letter: “We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us.” (1 John 3:16)
We also read various times about God’s Spirit in the New Testament that He is the Spirit of love. In his letter to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul specifically refers to “the love of the Spirit” (Romans 15:30).
Indeed, the most distinctive character trait of our triune God – Father, Son and Spirit – is their love for each other, for the entire creation and all humanity and especially for all those who follow God's Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah! (see also meditations
15, 16, 17,28)
So, if God wants to restore His image [i.e. Jesus’ image] in us, how would we receive that most distinctive character trait of God, His true and pure love? After all we know how rebellious we are by nature.
The answer to that question lies in the gift of God’s Spirit.
The apostle Paul reminds the followers of Jesus in Rome of the fact that they all received God’s Spirit when they were made right with God.
First he mentions their conversion:
“God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.”
(Romans 3:25)
Then he recounts their rebirth:
“...God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5)
It is God’s Spirit who wants us to experience the love of Jesus Christ. It is also God’s Spirit who wants to empower us to love like Jesus did when He walked on earth. The apostle Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he [God the Father] will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.
Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
In his first letter, the apostle John shows the link between conversion, rebirth by God’s Spirit and the gift of God’s love:
“All who proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect [or: more mature].” (1 John 4:15-17)
In the same chapter John writes: “... love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
But anyone who does not love does not know God-- for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
(1 John 4:7-10)
As they have received God’s love by His Spirit, Paul urges the followers of Jesus in Ephesus to put that Christlike love into practise in their daily lives. And in doing so, they should personify the character of God the Father and of God the Son:
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Ephesians 5:1-2).
God’s Word and the example of Jesus’ life show us that true and pure Christlike love is expressed in a double relationship: love for God and love for others (see meditations 15 and 17).
Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-40:
“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets [i.e. the entire Old Testament] hang on these two commandments.”
In the coming meditations we want to read God’s Word [the Bible] and investigate how God’s true and pure Christlike love, given by His Spirit to all Jesus’ followers, should characterise their relationship with God and with their fellow men.
We also want to explore in the Scriptures how that Christlike love should characterise the life and ministry of every local church, the Body of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
The Bible verses Matthew 22:37-40, Romans 5:5, Romans 15:30 and Ephesians 5:1-2 are quotes of the New International Version. The other texts are all quoted from the New Living Translation.
About conversion, see meditations 18-26.
About rebirth or baptism in God’s Spirit, see meditations 27-34,
37 and 44.
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