CHANGED BY BELONGING
Put on the garments that suit God's chosen people, his own, his beloved: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Col. 2:12, N.E.B.
Many people will read this passage and, ten seconds later, remember only the list of qualities that they know ought to be in their lives. "I really must be more compassionate," they might say. And some might even turn the verse around, concluding that when they have succeeded in becoming more compassionate they can then count themselves as "God's chosen people, his own, his beloved."
But Paul's argument runs in the opposite direction. He knew full well that our character qualities do not establish relationship, but that relationship leads to character qualities. Paul's powerful plea is for us to recognize just who we are within this relationship. For God's point of view, as He describes us, He chooses His words with care and meaning. We are His "chosen people, his own, his beloved." That's God's statement of who we are, and it is more than sentimentality. Is our own opinion of who we are more reliable than His?
It is a principle that is so very obvious on the human plane; why do we obscure it on the divine plane? Read any book on family relationships and check what it says about how children become loving, confident, secure, patient people. Virtually all authors would agree: They must be loved securely, wisely, unconditionally, by their parents. Any parent who uses emotional distance as a form of punishment, who shatters the parent-child bond in the interest of the child's present behavior, will only compound the problem. Ask a child to tell you the opposite of forgiveness; his answer in essence will be "condemnation." And condemnation stifles human growth.
Is God less than man? Would He use methods to restore and mature us that are less effective than those used by a wise parent? Oh, that we could recognize how intensely we are loved! How powerfully that would make us whole again.
People who are loved walk tall. They do not do it because someone tells them they ought to. They do it because there comes welling up from inside a solid sense of self-esteem, a sense of dignity, the security to dare and to adventure. With their own needs met, they are free to reach out to meet others' needs--to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.
And that's why God loves us as He does!
Put on the garments that suit God's chosen people, his own, his beloved: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Col. 2:12, N.E.B.
Many people will read this passage and, ten seconds later, remember only the list of qualities that they know ought to be in their lives. "I really must be more compassionate," they might say. And some might even turn the verse around, concluding that when they have succeeded in becoming more compassionate they can then count themselves as "God's chosen people, his own, his beloved."
But Paul's argument runs in the opposite direction. He knew full well that our character qualities do not establish relationship, but that relationship leads to character qualities. Paul's powerful plea is for us to recognize just who we are within this relationship. For God's point of view, as He describes us, He chooses His words with care and meaning. We are His "chosen people, his own, his beloved." That's God's statement of who we are, and it is more than sentimentality. Is our own opinion of who we are more reliable than His?
It is a principle that is so very obvious on the human plane; why do we obscure it on the divine plane? Read any book on family relationships and check what it says about how children become loving, confident, secure, patient people. Virtually all authors would agree: They must be loved securely, wisely, unconditionally, by their parents. Any parent who uses emotional distance as a form of punishment, who shatters the parent-child bond in the interest of the child's present behavior, will only compound the problem. Ask a child to tell you the opposite of forgiveness; his answer in essence will be "condemnation." And condemnation stifles human growth.
Is God less than man? Would He use methods to restore and mature us that are less effective than those used by a wise parent? Oh, that we could recognize how intensely we are loved! How powerfully that would make us whole again.
People who are loved walk tall. They do not do it because someone tells them they ought to. They do it because there comes welling up from inside a solid sense of self-esteem, a sense of dignity, the security to dare and to adventure. With their own needs met, they are free to reach out to meet others' needs--to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.
And that's why God loves us as He does!
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