God calls us to a relationship with Him! All scripture quotes are from the Berean Standard Bible used with permission (free usage). Other quotes from Gotquestions.org and Oswald Chambers.
How is relationship different from religion? Relationship in this context refers to an intimate, experiential knowledge of a Person. This “knowledge” comes from daily relating, obeying, and following God in accordance with His Word. This relationship begins when we accept God’s grace and He removes our condemnation (Romans 8:1). Got questions explains a relationship with God as:
Those who have a personal relationship with God include God in their daily lives. They pray to Him, read His word, and meditate on verses in an effort to get to know Him even better.
https://www.gotquestions.org/personal-relationship-with-God.html
Key Points to Consider
1. Relationship is experiential (we experience God in a personal manner) and grows in knowledge! We become more like Christ as we follow Him!
2. Holy Spirit is vital to this process as His Fruit works into our lives! Galatians 5:22-23
3. God’s love reaches to us to redeem and transform us! Consider the main theme of 1 John chapter 4: God’s love creates a new life in Christ.
4. Living in God’s love means that we love others as God has loved us!
God’s Amazing Love for Us!
1 John 4: 7-10: God’s Love to us through Jesus the Christ for us
7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God loves us so that we can live through Him! Notice that John doesn’t provide a list of rules or talk about being a “better person.” The focus is on Christ and His love and grace!
God’s love perfects us
1 John 4:11-14: God’s love perfects us through our relationship with Him!
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
The term perfect comes from the Greek word teleiai adjective form of telos. This Greek word conveys the meaning of mature, complete, full grown. Consider the concept of unfolding a telescope! Remember the old style pirate telescope, wherein you extent the scope to bring the object into focus. The root tel implies reaching the end.
https://biblehub.com/greek/5046.htm
Holy Spirit plays this role in our lives as He works His fruit into our character and personal nature.
Abide in Him: Relationship
1 John 4:15-21
15If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.
18There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. 19We love because He first loved us .20If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
John describes this relationship with God as being a confession that agrees fully homologeó. Interestingly, this word has the root homo which means same and lego meaning to “speak to a conclusion.” Simply, we agree and speak to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God and the anointed Christ. This process of confession, speaking truth, and abiding in love/God’s love agape gives us evidence of God’s presence in our lives. We therefore have assurance that we’re Christ’s prior to the Day of Judgement.
To love and abide with Christ means that we love Him, love as He loves, and that we love others. This is the greatest proof that we’re in relationship with God: that we love Him and others! James reminds us that we must love in action and not just words.
Devotion to Christ
Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person— our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause.
Our Lord never proclaimed a cause— He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself.
To be a disciple is to be a devoted bondservant motivated by love for the Lord Jesus.
Chambers, July 2
In Chambers’ devotional, he warns us about being more devoted to doctrine(s) or ideas than to Christ! This is the trap of religion. Religion becomes more about rules, ideas, and cultural notions that a relationship. Religion produces harsh people who judge, criticize, and exclude others for various reasons. It’s not hard to recognize a religious person–they typically reveal their nature frequently!
Are you devoted to Christ or to a particular denomination or system of theology? Your life and how you relate to others makes this devotion evident. The purpose of this writing is to encourage all to seek relationship and devotion to Christ! May His grace and truth transform you and overflow through your life!
Words of Grace & Hope 