We are family

If you don’t like hot, buttery popcorn, you’re probably not a Scott. And if you don’t see food as an excuse for condiments, your place in the genetic heritage is definitely questioned. And your feelings about frozen sweets- well, our attitude is, “you can’t fight while eating ice cream.”

Your family has it’s things as well- maybe not about food, but sports, or music, or politics…most families share a few characteristics that just mark each individual as part of a tribe.

That’s what John goes into here. After his emotionally charged exclamation of wonder- “Can you believe it?! God calls us his children!” John describes for us a couple of things that mark us as belonging to God’s tribe. We don’t make sin a habit, and we practice obedience.

Following Jesus is hard. I mean, it’s not complicated. It’s way beyond worth everything it takes, but it is not an easy way to live. Our man John knows this even better than we do, so he is weaving together words of motivation and encouragement along with words of caution and correction.

Because, after all, following Jesus has always been hard. We get distracted, we are drawn away. We wonder if the sacrifices we have to make to be obedient- are they really worth it? We wish we had a simple list of rules and procedures, so we develop one. Then we realize that doesn’t work either.

But we know God loves us anyway, so do we really need to worry about messing up? Can’t we just relax and live our lives out without worrying so much about what living like Jesus?

I don’t think it’s an accident that John keeps calling his readers “little children.” I think he is reminding us that, just like we are constantly assuring our children they are loved, we also constantly correct them and guide them in ways that will allow them to grow up healthy and strong.

There is not cruise control, no algorithm, no checklist. We are children, not projects, employees, or robots.

So John helps us see that as children of God there are some family traits we have to cultivate. My prayer today is we can model for our kids what it looks like to cultivate those traits, and that our kids can see the heart behind the behavior.