Our Moral Responsibility to the Father
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has shared many revelations of spiritual truth with me, and I want to share them with you. In today’’s broadcast we explore the nature of our moral obligation to the heavenly Father.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message
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Our Moral Responsibility to the Father
““Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first great and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew, Chapter 22, Verses 37-40
Brothers and sisters, in our limited understanding, we place all of the responsibility for our well-being and survival on the heavenly Father, but we have no real understanding of our responsibility to him. We hold the childish view that the Father only wants praise from us in response to the blessings he showers on us. This is selfish and fails to acknowledge how we are related to each other. For too long our greatest emphasis has been on getting saved--surviving the mortal life. And all of our efforts in the flesh are directed towards that end, along with the never ceasing request for selfish consideration. To help us gain some insight into just what our moral responsibility is to the Father, let’’s look at the animal kingdom first.
Animals do not have moral natures. They are what and who they are by nature. They do not make decisions as to whether a given choice is right or wrong. Only human beings can recognize right conduct and choose that conduct. Our ability to make moral decisions springs from our ability to reason. Thus having a moral nature, we proceed through life choosing right over wrong. For example, when a male and female decide to mate and produce a child, they have entered into a moral relationship. They have assumed an obligation to each other as well as to the helpless offspring. As they reflect upon this fact of a newly born child brought into the world by their act, reasons tells them that they are indeed responsible for taking care of this helpless child until the child is mature enough to provide for itself.
Despite the fact that they may feel they are held together by romantic and physical feelings, they assume a moral responsibility towards each other. Raising the child requires they assume moral responsibility towards each other. Long after the romantic and physical attractions have faded or even disappeared, the moral obligation still remains. Much of the problems that we have in society surrounding the rearing of children has its origin in the failure of either one or both of the contracting parties to live up to their moral responsibility.
In order for the Father to separate his personal nature from his non-personal nature, he has placed his personal nature in the Son. Now whenever the Father personally expresses himself he must do so through his Son. Therefore, whoever has seen the Son has seen the Father. Having created us with a moral nature, we qualify for his divine presence, for the Father desires to manifest himself to and through us on this level of reality; but he has given us free will concerning the choosing of himself.
The moral nature allows us to discern right from wrong and choose between the two. When we discern that which is right and choose it, then we choose the Father’’s will. We allow the Father to manifest himself through us. When we fail to do so, we block that particular manifestation through us. The Father not only assumes the moral responsibility for us since we are his children, but also goes one step further by loving us. Yes, the Father loves us with an infinite affection. And this love is nonetheless moral. But having created us, in order to allow this love to function, we must allow it by choosing his will over our own. And this is where we assume the moral obligation: The Father depends on us to manifest himself. Without our permission, the Father cannot manifest himself through us on this level. Thus we have a moral responsibility towards the Father
We must recognize this moral responsibility because it’’s the basis upon which we survive the mortal life and continue to live in eternity. We can begin to see right away that our selfish regard towards the Father must give way to an unselfish regard for him. In doing so, we not only are saved but we experience his love for us. The experience of love compels us to praise and worship him and not because of so-called material blessings.
Because we are all the Father’’s children, we are also spiritual brothers and sisters who have moral obligations to each other; we also have the joyous privilege of serving one another. Jesus puts it this way: "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’’s commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Thus, we see that the spiritual privilege of loving one another as Jesus loves us not only obeys the moral mandate that we have toward each other, but transcends it. It fills us with spiritual joy when we perform these acts out of divine love. We recognize that in serving one another, we are indeed serving our heavenly Father.
He says that if we love one another as he loves us, all men will know that we are his disciples. And since Jesus is the personal revelation of the Father, when we love one another as Jesus loves us, we reveal the Father through Jesus to one another. If we honor our moral responsibility to the heavenly Father, then when non-believers thoughtlessly ask where the heavenly Father is, we can reply that he is here through our loving, unselfish acts of service and mercy.
This concludes today's message on understanding our moral responsibility to the heavenly Father. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
Our Moral Responsibility to the Father
