Philia love is spontaneous and easy. You don’t usually have to work at it. It occurs instinctively between people who have a natural bond between them.

C.S. Lewis makes the point that this is why people who are friends rarely talk about their friendship as such.

Lovers say much of their love for each other. Friends do not. They are friends, they like being friends and they continue to be friends. It is simply a spontaneous, easy thing that occurs between them.

This aspect of friendship is the natural part of marriage. Husband and wife are good mates, not only in the biological sense but in the sense of being friends, as well.

It is worth dwelling on the point of having special friends, for some people feel there is something wrong with this–that by doing this we are playing favourites. But the reality is that we cannot feel equal affection for everyone.

My wife would be very dismayed if I felt the same level of affection for every other woman I meet as I do for her!

There is a way I can love everyone equally, but this is not it!

Jesus said, ‘You are My friends… Love one another (John 15:9-17).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

When our son Luke was three years old, he was a restless sleeper. One night he wandered into our bedroom in the small hours and grumpily I sent him back to his room.

Minutes later, he was back again. This time I spanked him and carried him back to bed. He hung over my shoulder weeping and clung to me tightly, his arms around my neck.

A few minutes later, I was almost asleep when I was conscious of a presence in the room. I opened my eyes and there right in front of me was a little boy standing at the bedside, his teeth and eyes gleaming in the dark and a cheeky smile on his face. ‘I love you, Daddy,’ he said.

He went to sleep in our bed that night! What was he really saying? Not so much ‘I love you’ as, ‘I need you.’

The most powerful form of need love was known by the Greeks as philia. Philia is warm and spontaneous, and refers to the love of friends or family–an affectionate, warm, spontaneous love.

Philia is expressed by kindness, friendship and loyalty. At the same time, however, it also expresses a deep sense of need. It is affectionate love.

The term brotherly love (philadelphia) derives from it. Such love is mandatory (Hebrews 13:1).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Children are a heritage from the Lord… (Psalm 127:3-5).

Our modern antiseptic society sometimes has a rather dismissive attitude towards children, who are too often seen as an expensive, inconvenient complication to a relationship. The result? When too many children are an inconvenience, it is but a short step to having no children at all. Hence, the Australian birth rate has decreased dramatically, and we see an escalating and horrific abortion rate.

‘Why the alarm?’ someone asks, ‘After all, a foetus is not a real person anyway.’ Something similar was said about the Jewish people in Nazi Germany over fifty years ago and the world still gasps in horror today at the ramifications of that.

On one occasion, Australian playwright and author Olga Masters told how people sometimes said to her, ‘What a pity you had such a big family to raise–think of the novels, short stories and poems you never had time to write.’ Her reply was beautiful. ‘I would look at my seven children,’ she said, ‘and say, “These are my poems; these are my short stories.”‘

It is a great honour to be entrusted with the life and upbringing of a child. There are times of frustration, of difficulty, even of despair. But the rewards are well worth it.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

The ultimate solution to the problem of fear is love. The New Testament writer who has a great deal to say about love is John, sometimes known as the ‘John the Beloved’. Among other things he says–

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18).

If pride and fear are keeping us from fellowship, then we should seek more of God’s love. When we love people, it is very hard to keep separate from them. Love always tries to bring people together–as every lover knows.

The God who made us in his image is the God whose name is Love. There can be no question about the fact that we best reflect that image when we love one another.

To live in the image of God is to live in love. Conversely, the less we love, the more darkened and obscure the reflection. Jesus said–

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).

Can anything else be more important than that?

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

To live in God’s image means to live in unity and harmony with one another. When we become new creations in Christ, our ability to love is enhanced, for the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

God said, ‘Let us make man in our image…’ This is a clear indication of the community that exists in the Godhead. There is one God, yet he exists in three Persons.

The nature of God is unique. He is one Person in Three–or if you like, Three in One. In the Godhead we have a divine mystery–a unity in plurality and a plurality in unity. How can you define the indefinable? Which is, no doubt, why the Bible itself never attempts to do so.

But no-one can honestly read the Scriptures without seeing the fact of the Trinity, plain and clear. So here in Genesis we are told that when God wanted to create living beings in his image, he made two of them, both male and female.

Why not one or the other? The answer is that one was not enough. Only in community can we rightly convey the concept of God’s plural personality. It is in our relationships with each other that we most truly reflect God’s image on the earth.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

Faith may be strengthened–

By praise (2 Chronicles 20:21-22; Psalm 34:1-3). Praise and thanksgiving are critical to increasing faith. They help us to focus on God and his Person and power, rather than on our own weakness and inadequacy.

To dwell on the glory of our eternal God is to lift our faith in great possibilities.

By love (Galatians 5:6). The more we love people the more we can trust God to help them.

Faith works by love. It was love that motivated Jesus to heal the sick (Matthew 14:14). Without love there seems little reason to get involved.

By fellowship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Through fellowship we stir each other up. As iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), we can be sources of “irritation” to one another for the benefit of all–a positive action that sharpens us for service.

We also encourage each other. When we meet together we can do in a small way what the Holy Spirit does by encouraging and strengthening one another.

As we share our prayer, praise, worship, testimony and also our tears and our needs, we stir each other up to love and good deeds–and also to greater faith. Isolation is not a Christian ideal: ours is a faith that flourishes on fellowship.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

…Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

The struggle to discover the will of God for our lives may be resolved by simply focusing on abiding in Christ.

If we abide in him we are assured of answered prayer (John 15:7).

We died and were raised with Christ (aorist tense signifying completed action) and our lives have been hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3). The word ‘hidden’ is a translation of the Greek verb krupto, which means to hide or conceal. From it we derive the English word ‘crypt’.

To be hidden in Christ is to dwell in the secret place of union and communion with him, where there is sweet fellowship and closeness of heart (Song of Songs 2:14).

It is also a place of safety and protection from the enemy (Psalm 91:1-16).

As long as we are hidden in Christ, we are found in God’s purpose and will. The secret lies in continually setting our hearts, affections and minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1-3). The use of the Greek present tense here implies continuity of action.

As we consistently seek Christ, we automatically find ourselves seeking out God’s purpose.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

We all have unrealised potential. The level of potential differs from person to person. We only have to look at the realm of the arts or of music to see this.

No matter how hard we try, some of us will never be painters or singers or musicians–we just don’t have potential in those areas. And that is no crime. There is no wrong in being a musician and not an artist. Or a singer and not a writer. Or neither. Or both. However, if we don’t fulfil the potential we do have, that is a different matter.

Australian artist Pro Hart was once discussing his painting style with me. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘You just put the brush here like this and do this, and there you go. You could paint like this if you tried.’

I laughed. I knew that I could never paint like Pro Hart in a thousand years. But I can write. So I must do what I can do and others must do what they can do. So must we all, whatever it is.

The important thing is to believe we can accomplish what the Lord has given us the skills to accomplish.

We cannot be more than we are but we should not be less than we can be.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

It’s okay to be you.  Maybe you have heard this before. But it’s true. You are the only one of you there is. It is foolish to try to be someone else.

This is not to say we shouldn’t learn from others. Often we can take skills and talents we see in others and adapt them to ourselves. This is advisable.

Nevertheless, each of us has distinctive qualities no one else has, and we should develop them.

I remember hearing an interview with Judith Durham, former lead singer with the Australian singing group the Seekers. I was impressed with her response to the question, ‘To what do you attribute the success of the Seekers?’

Her answer was clear and direct. ‘To succeed in anything, you have to find one distinctive quality that no-one else has and major on that. This is what we did. We found a sound that was different from anyone else’s and developed it.’

The Christian life is not a competition with others, but to be everything we can for God–this means using every talent he has given.

Whatever skill or ability we have, we are obliged to use it, otherwise the world will be the poorer for its absence. No matter who we are, we have something significant to offer.

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does (James 1:5-7).

Here is a clear promise that those who ask in faith for wisdom will be rewarded. But it must be in faith. If we hesitate or vacillate, we will be disappointed.

Experience suggests that when the Lord does grant wisdom, he grants it in small doses. It is a rare thing for anyone to be wise all the time.

Yet is there any reason why wisdom should not characterise the life of the believer? Even though there may be times when we act unwisely, should not wisdom generally be present? God does not intend us to live in continual defeat and disgrace: quite the opposite.

If we ask for wisdom, we receive it. Progressively, perhaps, but it is still given.

We should aim for a life-style which reflects it.

So wise people are those who live lives of purity, peace, submission, consideration, mercy, sincerity and goodness. Such wisdom is, as the Proverb writer puts it, worth more than rubies (Proverbs 8:11).

To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.