“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

“Abba! Father!” What great and comforting words Paul gives us to enable us to grasp the loving relationship the Lord forms with us. Our modern media driven culture teaches us that everybody is a child of God, a member of His family. Yet the Bible tells us something different. It tells us that only those who have faith, who believe that Jesus is God, that He died for their sins, are members of God’s family. God imparts His Holy Spirit into the heart of every believer, so only they are in God’s family. Only those who have the Spirit of God can call Him Father. Only those who call Him Father are members of His family which is called the church.

Therefore when we look at other people in the church we look at them as brothers and sisters because we are related. How are we related? Through the Spirit. Through Jesus. We have the same Father. So is we are truly members of God’s family we must love all those in our family. So as we enter a new year, we must resolve by God’s grace the pray and do good things for everyone in that family. We must get along with them and try hard to like them even if they seem weird or strange or do things that seem odd to us or speak different languages or have different customs. Because God our Father loves them that is good enough reason to love them too.