Father In The Mirror

"For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers..."
1 Corinthians 4:15

In a world lacking fathers and husbands, what does it mean to be one?  Let's look at what the Word of God says...

Eph: 5:22-25
"Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her."

Col: 3:19
"Husbands love your wives and do not be bitter towards them."

What does it mean to love our wives?  Are we willing to do what Christ did, and die on a cross for them?  That's the kind of love Christ demonstrated for His church. 

Now, we won't have to die on a cross for our families, but are we willing lay down our lives sacrificially for them on a daily basis?                          

What is true Christ-like love? 

1 Cor. 13:4:7
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not arrogant; does not behave rudely, does not seek it's own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." 

If you want to love like Christ we need this kind of love.  You can substiute "God" for the word "love" in that scripture, and you can see how He loves us.  Subsititute your name, and see how you should love your family.

How do we go about loving as Christ loves?  I don't know about you, but it seems pretty difficult and near impossible to actually do 1 Cor. 13.  So, how do we do it.  I believe God took me to the book of James for the answer. 

James 1: 22-25
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, decieving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does."

The Bible is our mirror.  We have to keep our face in the mirror daily to reflect God's love to our families.  If you don't keep your face in the mirror of God's word you will be a forgetful hearer immediately.  Have you ever had an amazing quiet time with God and 2 hours later, or 10 minutes later be cussing your neighbor, the person driving down the street, in a fight with your wife, thinking evil thoughts.  You were a forgetful hearer.  I was a forgetful hearer.  How do we truly love as Christ loved by staying in the mirror of God...the Word!!!

Have you ever put two mirrors facing each other?  They reflect each other, and it seems the reflection never ends.  2 Corinthinas 3:18 states, "But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the LORD." 

When we truly have our face in the mirror of God, we reflect the Spirit of God.  We become the mirror of God because we are reflecting to mirror image of God to those around us.  Let me say that again, we become the mirror of God.  We are reflecting Him; we are becoming Christ-like.  We are reflecting what we are beholding.  We are the second mirror looking into the word of God.

How do we love our families as Christ loved the church?  We reflect His image to our families, because we have been in His word because we have seen Him for who He really is.