Just Like Your Dad: Nature and Nurture

I’ve seen pictures of my dad as a boy that look exactly the way I did at that age.  People tell me that they recognize my son from behind because he walks just like me.

Yes, children have the nature of their parents built in, and they also learn to act like them. It’s the same for us as God’s children.  We have our heavenly Father’s loving nature inside, and we can learn to act lovingly like Him.  You can be just like your Dad!

The Bible shows that true love comes from God, that He has put his loving nature in us.  He gave us His Word so we would know how to show forth His love–to be like Him.

Nature and Nurture

Scientists and psychologists like to talk about “nature and nurture.” They discuss the role that genetics (nature) has to play on a person’s behavior compared to the effect of their upbringing (nurture). As God’s kids, we get the best of both! With His gift of spirit inside, we are born again of incorruptible seed (I Peter 1:23); that’s our nature. And we are brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

The Book of Romans explains where true love comes from.

Romans 5:5:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost [the gift of holy spirit] which is given unto us.

We have God’s loving nature.  God gave us His love with the gift of holy spirit when we got born again. The Greek word translated “shed abroad” in this verse means to pour forth. God poured out His love to us spiritually. And where did He pour it? Into our hearts! Our heavenly Father is love. And so are we when we dwell in Him.

I John 4:16:
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

We have God’s love shed abroad into our hearts, dwelling in us with the gift of holy spirit. And when we decide to dwell in the love of God, we are dwelling in our heavenly Father just as He dwells in us. Jesus Christ made known the Father. He had God’s spirit upon him and believed the Scriptures—he had God’s loving nature and lived with loving, godly actions. When people saw him walk, they could see his heavenly Father!

John 14:9:
…he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

Being born again and living in this time of God’s grace, we have great truths to show us how to live God’s love.  The epistles written to the Church—Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians—are full of examples and exhortations on how to do this. We can learn to “walk like our Father” in the same way that little children imitate their parents.

Ephesians 5:1:
Be ye therefore followers [imitators] of God, as dear [well-loved] children.

I remember when our son, Elijah, was a couple of days old. As I held him I couldn’t help but smile. Then he smiled back! He imitated his father. God has loved us into loving. When we made Jesus Christ lord and believed that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9,10), we were filled with God’s love. Now we can love Him back and be like Him. Jesus Christ showed us how to do that.

Walking in Love and Service

Ephesians 5:2:
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

Christ gave himself in service. His life was a sweet-smelling sacrifice because he always walked with the love of God. Today, with Christ in us, we can be living sacrifices.

Romans 12:1,2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable [logical] service.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Our logical way to live with God’s love in our hearts is to serve in love. We are not fashioned by the world, but are transformed as we renew our minds to His Word. We prove—by putting His love into practice—God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will.  We let our good works shine forth to glorify our heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:16:
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

It is God’s love that energizes us and gives us the ability to really serve one another.

Galatians 5:6,13:
…but faith which worketh [is energized] by love. 
…by love serve one another.

Next time in “Our Father’s To Do List” we’ll see some practical ways to lovingly serve from Romans 12.  Until then, let others see your Dad by your walk and talk.  Like our big brother, Jesus Christ, we too can say, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father”!