Doing the Will of God

Matthew 12:46-50 is not about knowing the will of God but doing it. It bluntly says that doing the will of the Father shows that you are related Jesus the Son. God's family does what God wants.

Jesus was speaking to the crowds and His mother and brothers wanted to speak to Him. Jesus answered the person who told him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers ?” It seems kind of odd or even harsh for Jesus to respond with this question. He was not undermining or rejecting His family, but putting things in proper perspective, making a big point about the nature of the spiritual family of God in the world, characterized, as he was, by doing the will of God.

With a dramatic wave of the hand towards his disciples He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers!" Jesus loved his mother and brothers, but they were not to interfere in his Messianic work. The real spiritual family of Jesus included all who follow him. How hard for Mary to go back to Nazareth and leave Jesus with the excited crowds with needs so great He was not even stopping to eat. Then Jesus said, "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

This leads us to ask some crucial questions.

1. What is "the will of the Father"?
The Bible speaks of the will of God in more than one way. There are two words translated will, and each has different usages. The first is boule, a rational, conscious desire. A plan based on careful deliberation. Indicates a predetermined, unchanging plan, Acts 2:23 Jesus was delivered up according to the predetermined plan, boulevard, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, and was crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Boule refers to the resolute plan of God that no human can stop. It is God's unalterable will. The other word is thelema, which can refer to what is agreeable, desired, intended, chosen, or commanded. The meaning of thelema is determined by the context in which it appears.

The will of the Father is what God does and desires. It has 2 primary aspects. It is hidden and revealed. Some things are hidden until God chooses to reveal it in His time, and some are revealed clearly, and it is what He wants us to do. What God does is the ultimate, hidden, unchangeable reason some things happen and what God desires is the perfect, revealed basis for everything we do that pleases God. God's hidden will points to God determining to have happen what He wants to have happen in exactly the timeframe He orders it. All the stuff God does that we don't know until it happens. Things God sovereignly decides will happen and nothing can prevent from happening. When we speak of His revealed will we mean it is what God desires but knows that some will not do. Stuff He wants us to participate in. We have a will and we act, choose and respond. Still there is a God who is sovereign, whose will is greater than ours. His will restricts ours. My will cannot restrict His. When He wills a thing sovereignly, although hidden to me, it will come to pass and become evident. He is sovereign, we are accountable to Him. But when the Bible speaks of the will of God it is not always His unbreakable will that is being referred to.

2. What does it mean to "do" His will?
Doing God's will means to do what you know God wants or desires. To act in accord with what you know pleases Him. Many people go around seeking the will of God for their life as if it is only this mysterious unknown secret that only God knows. Many Christians are fixated only on trying to figure out His secret, hidden will and as a result they forget about His revealed will. Doing the will of God has to do with what He has already made clear. God's objective Word must rule in our hearts, not our subjective feelings or assumptions.

3. What has God specifically revealed in His Word that He wants us to do? The will of God is for all He has chosen to...

Be Saved. Saving relationship to Jesus comes by believing in Him and receiving the free gift of eternal life. Acts 4:12.

Be Strong. Sound. Solid in the faith. Growing in Christlikeness, becoming like Jesus, transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Be Serving. Ps. 100:2 serve the Lord with gladness. Sometimes it's hardest to do with those you are related to by blood, as well as God's family, those you are related to by the blood of Christ. Interacting in a godly way with the family of God. Speaking the truth in love. Confessing. Forgiving. Coooperating. Being like-minded. Intent on one purpose...glorifying God.

Be Sent. Not on our agenda but on the mission of Christ. See Matthew 10.

Be Secure. Certainty, assurance, security, forever. Eternal security. John 10:27-29. Glorification...Eternal blessedness in Christ, being with Christ, entering into the joy of the Father.

The response of all who believe needs to be to TRUST the sovereign, hidden aspect of God's will and OBEY the revealed will as found in His Word. Trust God's sovereign orchestrating and obey His specific directing. All who are related to Jesus by faith do the will of God, empowered and enabled by God, so that He would get maximum glory. While we tend to focus most on His hidden will, it is His revealed will that He is most concerned about us following. He has given us marching orders and wants us to be dialed in, leaving the hidden things to Him, revealed when He chooses.

Soli Deo Gloria