God’s Image Study • Commandment 5: Father and Mother
Our examination of Father and Mother concerns life, teaching, nourishment, and the responsibility of those who receive.
This brings us to the Holy Spirit. Receiving life from God begins a relationship in which the truth received must continue to guide our walk.
Pentecost: The Gift Received
At Pentecost, those gathered are filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter explains that the exalted Jesus received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father and poured out what the people were witnessing.
The account preserves the Father, the Son, the gift, and its recipients. Those who receive the message subsequently devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, prayer, and care for one another. Read Acts 2:1–4, 32–42.
Within our study, we connect this receiving with coming alive by the Spirit. Romans 8 develops the relationship between the indwelling Spirit, life, and being led as God’s children. Read Romans 8:9–14.
Receiving and continuing belong together.
Truth That Guides the Living
Jesus identifies himself as the way, the truth, and the life, directing those who come through him to the Father.
In the same chapter, he connects love with keeping his commandments and describes the Spirit of truth dwelling with and in his disciples. He also speaks of the Father and himself making their dwelling with the one who loves him and keeps his word. Read John 14:6–7, 15–23.
Life, truth, love, and obedience are connected within the relationship Jesus describes. What has been received is to shape how the recipient lives.
God’s Dwelling Is Holy
Paul tells the Corinthians that they are God’s sanctuary and that God’s Spirit dwells in them. He warns that God will destroy anyone who destroys that sanctuary, because it is holy.
He addresses a community troubled by jealousy, division, and allegiance to human leaders. The responsibility concerns how they treat the dwelling they together constitute. Read 1 Corinthians 3:3–17.
This gives weight to keeping holy: what belongs to God must not be treated as ours to corrupt.
Hebrews Preserves the Sequence
Hebrews 6 describes people who have been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift and God’s good word, and become partakers of the Holy Spirit. It then describes their falling away.
For those described, the passage states that it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, connecting this with crucifying the Son of God again and exposing him to shame. Read Hebrews 6:4–6.
Our study connects this warning with turning against the Spirit through whom life was received. The impossibility of renewal must retain its seriousness.
The chapter follows with ground receiving rain and producing either useful growth or thorns. It then encourages continuing love, diligence, faith, and patience. Receiving carries responsibility for what follows. Read Hebrews 6:7–12.
Returning to Honor
These connections deepen our examination of honoring Father and Mother through the life and instruction conveyed.
Honor includes receiving truth, allowing it to correct us, and continuing faithfully in it. The Born Again Study remains part of this foundation: life received from God calls for a walk that respects the holiness of His dwelling.
Threads to Follow
Receiving those sent: Follow the relationship between the bearer of instruction and its source.
Correction and fruit: Examine how faithful teaching nourishes the life received.
Honor and love: Bring recognition, care, and obedience together.
The books were opened…
🌿 By Maria Emilia
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