The first article I wrote was about the wonders of being a child of God and the many benefits that it gives us. This time I want to talk about our responsibilities. 

 

We all have responsibilities. Our first responsibility is to our family. To love and care for our wife or husband, our children, our parents. Then for our communities with all our social responsibilities, then for our country the land of our birth. But most importantly we have our responsibility to God. It is He who has given us life, has created the earth on which we live, given us our families. It is He who paid the price for our sins. 

As in a human family you do not expect your children to steal from you, lie to you, hurt you, so God does not expect us to do this to Him or to one another. But we do. God is holy. He has given us laws that reflect that holiness. Think of the ten commandments – do not lie, do not steal, do not kill, do not covet (want what others have and you do not), do not commit adultery, honour your father and your mother, do not blaspheme, do not have any idols, worship the Lord your God and no other. All these are for our benefit. He knows that cheating, gossip, slander, hate, unfaithfulness, all lead to misery for ourselves and for those we hurt.

God is our heavenly Father and as any father He wants what is best for His children. As you expect your children to obey you and listen to you until they know the difference between right and wrong so God expects us to obey Him and listen to Him. There is a right way of living and there is a wrong way. You would not expect your friends to steal from you, what sort of friendship is that!! There has to be trust and respect. So God expects us to trust and respect Him.  And you know why? Because He wants to respect us! Because He wants us to have life in abundance.  

God is love. He loves the people of this world so much, but He hates sin so much, that He came down to earth to die on a cross. Because sin is so awful God had to pay that price to set us free from its grip. You have heard the phrase Father, son and Holy Spirit. God in his own wonderful way knew that we would not be able to live the life that he wants us to live in loving Him and in loving one another, so He sent His Holy Spirit to live within us to help us to do it! Isn’t He great!