I have a close friend who we watched walk through the process of adoption. The process took a while and after a couple of years, they adopted a young boy almost two years old. He was immediately both a joy… and a handful to them.
He was a handful because he was used to behaving according to his former ways that his foster parents had raised him in. His new parents loved him very much but, in many different ways, his behavior needed to change. He had formerly been conditioned to a way of life and his little brain just didn’t think in the ways that his new parents wanted him to act. But now that he was their son, part of their family and living in their household, he was expected to obey his new parents.
His parents worked with him patiently but he was expected to be different now because he was their child. Prior to being adopted, his behavior wasn’t important to his foster parents – but his behavior was very important to his new parents because it said something about them and about their family and about what they believed in regards to the behavior of a Christian child.
Now that we have been adopted, as children of God, it is natural to expect that our behavior would need to change. We’ve been made a new creation and born again into the family of God. We should no longer think like we used to and we should no longer view our behavior and sin the same way.
God instructs us through the Apostle Peter to not be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance – the desires that belong to our sin nature. We have a new Father and we need to find out what is pleasing to Him. If we are His children, our lives should be characterized by obedience to our Father. We must ask ourselves - What does a child of God look like? The simplest answer is that a child of God looks like their Father.
He was a handful because he was used to behaving according to his former ways that his foster parents had raised him in. His new parents loved him very much but, in many different ways, his behavior needed to change. He had formerly been conditioned to a way of life and his little brain just didn’t think in the ways that his new parents wanted him to act. But now that he was their son, part of their family and living in their household, he was expected to obey his new parents.
His parents worked with him patiently but he was expected to be different now because he was their child. Prior to being adopted, his behavior wasn’t important to his foster parents – but his behavior was very important to his new parents because it said something about them and about their family and about what they believed in regards to the behavior of a Christian child.
Now that we have been adopted, as children of God, it is natural to expect that our behavior would need to change. We’ve been made a new creation and born again into the family of God. We should no longer think like we used to and we should no longer view our behavior and sin the same way.
God instructs us through the Apostle Peter to not be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance – the desires that belong to our sin nature. We have a new Father and we need to find out what is pleasing to Him. If we are His children, our lives should be characterized by obedience to our Father. We must ask ourselves - What does a child of God look like? The simplest answer is that a child of God looks like their Father.
In Romans 8:29, the Apostle Paul tells us that the purpose for which God saved us was so that we might be conformed into the image of Christ. With this in mind, the command God gives us to “be holy as I am holy” is seen as a loving command of our Father, who cares for us very deeply and therefore wants what is truly best for us – our obedience to Him.
