The aim, goal, pursuit, final destination and prize of the upward call of faith in Christ is:

to be with God.

Love is the way. ¹

Love is being consumed with God. ²

Love is doing the things that please God: obedience that flows from a heart given by Him and burning for Him. ³

Loving obedience is abiding. Abiding is being with God. ⁴

Love is how I experience God. ⁵

Love is how I be with God. ⁶

God is love, therefore Love is the ends and the means -the “Alpha and Omega” as Revelation 22:13 puts it.

This is the whole aim, to be with God. ⁷

He is the true riches. ⁸

This is why I believe Jesus says in John 4:34,

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me”

And, now I begin to grasp John 14:28 when Jesus says,

“If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.”

I also see why Jesus was so forceful with Peter when, out of seemingly sincere concern for Jesus, Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from the path God purposed for Him to suffer. Jesus replies to Peter, “Get behind me Satan, you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” – Mark 8:33

Peter, though well meaning was still worldly and was unwittingly tempting Jesus into the comfort of the world rather than the companionship of obedience to God through taking up His cross -an implement of preparatory difficulty, suffering and death. But, above all, Jesus wanted and choose to be with the Father.

This same spirit of the rebuke of Peter is found in 1 Timothy 6:5,

“Those who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.”

We are to avoid those who make faith about being “blessed” with health, wealth and “leveling up” in this life, who would coax us into the comfort of the world and away from the companionship of obedience to God with Christ by taking up our cross.

Shortly after Jesus’s rebuke of Peter in Mark 8:33, in verse 8:36 Jesus continues, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Profit.

The end result.

What does the Apostle and sanctified Peter say in 1 Peter 1:9 that the whole conclusion and the end result of our faith is?

Does he say it’s houses, cars, money, clothes or popularity?

No.

What does he say?

“receiving the end of your faith –the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:9

And what is our salvation?

Not what, but who –Jesus Christ, God with us, who makes The Way, and who Shepherds us into fellowship with God. ⁹

The aim of Christianity is singular: to be with God.

Being with God is everything Jesus is and everything Jesus does.

So, every day and every moment of every day, the goal, pursuit, destination, aim, prize and ultimate desire is

to be with God.

Love, with God’s heart for the world, is the way. ¹⁰

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” …now through you.

Let’s set out to give Jesus through the same loving obedience that we observed in Him. In doing so we are more able to be with God.

¹ 1 Corinthians 12:31 – 13:10
² Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:29-31, Psalms 69:9, John 2:17
³ Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 8:29
⁴ John 15:4-10, 1 John 2:5, 1 John 4:12
⁵ 1 John 4:13
⁶ John 15:10, 1 John 4:12
⁷ John 10:10
⁸ Genesis 15:1, Psalms 62:4-8, 84:10
⁹ John 10:7-18
¹⁰ John 3:16-17

#perfectourlove