With meditation 56, we started our journey in search of the characteristics of Christlike transformation. We found out that 'love' is the predominant trait in the character of our triune God – Father, Son and Spirit.
We also saw that God’s Spirit wants to produce God’s love in our hearts and restore His image (i.e. Jesus’ image) in us. We realised that this work of God’s Spirit takes place after the process of conversion and rebirth.
We understood from God’s Word [the Bible] and from the example of Jesus’ life that true and pure love is expressed in a double relationship: love for God and love for our fellow man.
We also realised that this love, which only God’s Spirit is able to produce in us, is the fulfilment of God’s most important commands for human life:
“’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 command-
ment. 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.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
From meditation 57 onwards we concentrated on the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." We saw how Jesus and his apostles describe such God-given love that fulfills this first commandment.
And again, we repeat that only God’s Spirit is able to empower us to such love as was shown by the way Jesus lived on earth. The apostle John states in his first letter: “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did.” (1 John 2:6)
So how could we summarise that God-given love that fulfills this first commandment?
It is a sacrificial love for God the Father and for His Son Jesus Christ that expresses itself in:
• wholehearted devotion to them.
(see meditation 57)
• wholehearted and unconditional obedience to them.
(see meditation 58)
• living in uninterrupted fellowship with them.
(see meditation 58)
• honouring them equally.
(see meditation 58)
• being devoted to the truth, especially the truth of God’s Word. (see meditation 60)
• having a pure heart, a clear conscience, and sincere faith.
(see meditation 61)
The more God’s Spirit empowers us to live such sacrificial lives of love for God the Father and for His Son Jesus Christ, the more we grow in Christlike maturity.
In his first letter the apostle John describes Christlike maturity as 'knowing Christ'.
In fact, he addresses three stages of Christian life:
“I am writing to you, my dear children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus.
I am writing to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you who are young because you have won your battle with Satan.
I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father.
I have written to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning.
I have written to you who are young because you are strong with God's word living in your hearts, and you have won your battle with Satan.” (1 John 2:12-14)
Beyond doubt, when the (Jewish) apostle speaks here about knowing Christ, he doesn’t speak about knowledge in terms of intelligence. In the context of the Jewish understanding of the Bible, knowing Christ means knowing Him personally and loving Him intimately. It means living in close and mature fellowship with Him.
In the above-mentioned text, John says that we start our Christian life after our conversion and rebirth as 'children'.
And for such 'children', the most important thing is that they know the love of God the Father and the fact that their sins are forgiven because of Jesus!
Then the apostle shows that the next stage in our Christian live is being 'youngsters'. Characteristic for 'youngsters' is that, empowered by God’s Spirit and in obedience to God’s Word [the Bible], they have won the battle with Satan. They are strong, with God's Word living in their hearts.
John writes that it is God’s aim that we grow to 'maturity'. Characteristic for such (Christlike) maturity is that we truly know Christ, the one who has existed since the very beginning.
Last but not least, for the entire process of growing from rebirth to Christlike maturity, we need to be controlled by God’s Spirit. He started the process and He will finish it as well! That’s why the apostle Paul commands the followers of Jesus in Ephesus (modern Turkey): “... let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.”
(Ephesians 5:18)
We finished meditation 47 with the following words:
"By now we understand that not only the universal Body of Christ, but also every local community of Jesus’ followers is birthed by God’s Spirit. It is also God’s Spirit who directs the ongoing transformation process into Christ-likeness, so that Christ’s entire Body, spanning all ages, will be prepared for the glorious celebration of the wedding of the Lamb.
In the meditations 45 till 47 we saw that God’s Spirit aims at changing our individual lives as well as our communal life into Christ-likeness.
As ‘maturing in Christ-likeness’ is the theme of our meditations, we need to focus in the future on both tracks: our individual lives as followers of Jesus and our communal lives as local Body of Christ.
So, join me as we soon will start to follow both tracks.”
In the meditations 56 to 62 we saw that God’s Spirit wants to empower me personally to mature Christlike love for God. We realised that He wants to do that in such a way that I learn to fulfill God’s first and greatest commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
But what about the ‘second track’ which we mentioned in Meditation 47? How does God’s Spirit develop my church, as the local Body of Christ, into a mature, loving community that fulfils God’s first and greatest commandment?
That will be the theme for the coming meditations.
(to be continued)
Matthew 22:37-40 is a quote from the New International Version. The other texts are quoted from the New Living Translation.
About being made in God’s image, see meditations 13-16 and 18.
About conversion, see meditations 19-26.
About rebirth or baptism in God’s Spirit, see meditations 27-34, 37 and 44.
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