---

Then - if ye fulfil my commands in separating yourselves from the unclean thing, then I "will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." The thought to which we now direct attention is that a merely abstract relationship is of very little value apart from the fulfilment of those duties which are involved in the relationship. It is a very little thing for a man to stand in the abstract relation of a citizen to this great country. It is a very great thing for a man to fulfil, nobly and cheerfully, the duties of citizenship. It is a very little thing to stand in the mere relation of a husband, a father, and a master. It is a great thing indeed that we are earnestly striving to meet the responsibilities and fulfil the duties that belong to those relationships. So the name of a "son of God" will save and bless no man apart from the spirit of a son manifested and proved in an obedient, humble, devoted, and faithful life. Only the obedient sons can have the comforting sense of the Divine fatherhood.

I. THIS WAS TRUE OF CHRIST, THE FIRSTBORN SON. God said of him and to him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom," evidently meaning, in whose obedience, "I am well pleased." Each of the relations in which men stand to each other has some one thing which is its essential characteristic. The essential of kingship is the spirit of judgment. Of fatherhood, is loving authority. Of motherhood, is self-denying affection and service. Of sonship, is obedience. Whatever other expressions childhood may find, all are worthless if there be no obedience. I have no right to the name of a son, save as I obey. I show, I prove, my sonship in this - that I obey. We take, then, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and seek it for the signs of what we know to be the very essence of sonship, and we receive surprising impressions of the completeness of his obedience. Jesus when a boy gained and settled the principle of life: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Painting and poetry gain truest insight of his spirit when they represent him dutifully working at the carpenter's bench. When weary at the well of Sychar, he was beyond the interest of earthly food; "his meat and his drink were to do the will of his Father." And when the sorrows of an awful conflict and agony were gathering thickly over him, he could utter the perfect devotion of a Son, saying, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Watching that life of cheerful, hearty, loving Obedience, who of us is not prepared to say - We know now what it is to be a son or a daughter of the Lord Almighty? Let us not, however, fail to observe that the obedience of his sonship was not a mere series of acts; it was that series of acts instinct with the cherished spirit of obedience, done in the freeness of the will, under the impulse of holy affections and resolves. A life full of obedient acts will no more make a real sonship than a wealth of apples, tied on, will make a fruitful tree. They must be the genuine utterances of the soul's life of obedience.

II. THIS IS TRUE OF US, THE YOUNGER SONS. "Now are we the sons of God." "Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." What is the value of a right without fitness; of a title without preparation to fulfil its claims; of the name of a son without the spirit and obedience of the son? "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ" - that is, the sonlike spirit of Christ - "he is none of his." "If ye be sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." How, then, are we proving our sonship? Are we breaking free from the old worldly bondages? Are we separating ourselves from all unclean things? Are we perfecting holiness in the fear of God? Can God meet our daily practical obediences of his will by saying, "I will be a Father unto you"? - R.T.

---

---

KJV: And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

WEB: I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."