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Like Father, Like Son


          “You are doing the works of your own father.”
          “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
          Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. (John 8:41-43)

          Whoever 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." (John 14:21)

          What Jesus tells us in today’s explanation is that He came because God sent Him. Some believe that the god of the Old Testament was the dictatorial “Father” while the god of the New is the permissive “Son,” as if each is in opposition to the other. Jesus rejects that claim here. God, the Father sent Him, the Son. Like the Pharisees, He was doing the works of His father. The difference was in the identity of that father.
          Sometimes, people joke, tease, or simply observe that spouses come to look like each other or people and their pets look alike. Years ago, I put a picture on a table, covered part of it, and when I had the chance, I asked a friend, “Looked pretty good, didn’t I?”
          After looking at the picture for a long time, she asked, “When did you have glasses like those?”
          I replied, “Never. That’s my mother. I removed the book that was on the other half of the picture, to reveal my father standing next to her. My sister and I are both clearly Garingers. 
          There are things that used to bother me about the way Mom behaved. In some of them, I’ve become my mother (and sometimes that’s good, and sometimes, not so much so.) There are things I do now that seem to me to be like Dad, and that’s more distressing, but you can’t live with someone for decades without their having some influence on you.
          The question is very simple. When you look in the mirror, who do you more resemble? Someone has put it another way. If following Christ were a crime (as it is in some places) would there be enough evidence to convict you? If not, I don’t suggest that you manufacture some. Instead, I suggest that you spend more time with God and in His Word.

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