Just because the nations see God's judgment doesn't mean
they will see the truth. He will
"set my glory among the nations."
His glory is His people and they will be among the nations as a byword,
what happens when you deal treacherously with Him, fail to keep covenant or
keep it legalistically, only in the sense that you do these things and He is
then bound to do certain things in response.
His action comes first, ours is response to His gracious goodness, not
the other way round. What the nations
will see is that it isn't safe to take His Name in vain. This is not a permanent situation, however,
His covenant with His people is eternal, they are His glory. He will restore them and the nations will
then see the rest of the story. They will
know that holiness is no small matter but they will also see His mercy on His
people.
Jesus prays not only for His disciples but for those who
will believe their testimony. They will
not be the final and only ones who know and believe the truth. He is praying for us. This alternative community of people who
believe is to express not only the holiness of the Trinity but also the
unity. His prayer is that we may be one
as He and the Father are one. We take
that prayer too lightly, we don't often contemplate the unity of the Trinity
and the depth of that unity. That unity
is based in nature, all persons of the Trinity have the same nature, they are
"of one being", that is, whatever one is so are the others. We, as Christians, are to have that same
organic unity in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That nature of God is given to us to bind us to Him and to one another
in love just as the Trinity shares nature and love.
Paul loved the Philippian church as one which stood with him
and provided for him when none others were doing the same. He is not pleading for money for his own
contentment, he has learned to be content in any circumstance he says, but this
is for their own fruitfulness. They need
to extend themselves so that they might experience this true love and unity. They are with him in his hour of need by
providing for him, growing in love. We are
called to be exiles but the true humanity, the true expression of the image of
God in the world and to the world and we do that in love and solidarity and
unity with one another whether together or separated by great distances. Sometimes we do that by praying for one another
and other times we do that by tangibly loving.
We are His glory now in the world, dispersed among the nations, we are
the light of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment