Children of God our Father
In Chapel today, our RUF Campus Minister Ron Brown preached from James 1:13-27 on Identity. He challenged us to be true to who we are. He laid the framework from the first eight verses (13-21) of three pregnancies and births. First, that our desire leads to sin in our lives that gives birth to death. Then, God as our Father births us as new creations. Finally, we are impregnated by the Word of God which produces or births life in us. And, this life that is produced is not just about knowing the truth, but doing it.
He challenged us to look at three areas in our lives to see our identity as God’s children who have the Word of God in us worked out:
Our speech. Do words of life come out of our mouths? Are we giving grace to those who hear us?
Our care for those around us: According to James, We have a Father, we are to have the heart of the Father for those in need, and we are to be a father, caring for those we see in need. So it is our identity (as Children of God our Father) worked out in our hearts and actions toward others. How are we active in living out our identity as children of God?
Our remaining unstained by the world: How do we view the culture around us? Do we see its staining effects? How do we seek purity in a culture that is falling further from it? And, how do we live IN that culture, without taking on its stain?
And a question for literary types . . . A chiastic structure in literature (and often identified in the Bible) is a series of statements or events that work toward a central statement or event and then back outward again. The structure is ABC…CBA (sometimes ABCBA). A chiastic structure of statements exists here in James’ writing, in verses 15-27 of chapter one. Can you identify it? How does it help us relate the statements to each other?
Published on 8 Feb 2008 by Christiana Fitzpatrick at 3:29 pm.
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