Leave the Father and Embrace the Son

To know God as Father is truth, and there is not shame in accepting this.

Yet that is not God's best for us.

In his First Epistle, John outlines three stages of spiritual growth for us "little children":

"12I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

To clarify the original, "little children:" speaks of "Teknion", which is the term for all of God's children, and thus we should never assume that "forgiveness of sins" is an elemental teaching. On the contrary, we are called to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18), and His grace and Himself is inseparable from what He did for us at the Cross.

"13I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. 14I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." (1 John 2: 13-14)

"I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father."  -- In this verse, "little children" refers to "paidia", or "infant, child in training."

We should never despise the day of small things (Zechariah 4: 10), but since we are invited to grow in grace, we move beyond childhood into yound manhood, in which we learn that Jesus has conquered every evil in our lives, and because His Word is in us, we are strong.

To be a father, to be an elder, is to know "Him who is from the beginning".

This "Him" is "Himself" -- Jesus Christ:

"1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1: 1)

and

"27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." (John 15: 27)

When we consider this powerful truth, then this verse in Genesis makes even more sense:

"24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2: 24)

We are called to leave our understanding of God as Father, and grow in understanding of Jesus, who is fully God, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13: 8), and through whom we live (1 John 4: 9) and can do all things (Philippians 4: 13)