Face To Face

In the first chapter of 1 John, John introduces the idea of walking in the Light. This is basically living in intimate fellowship with God because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). As we move on in 1 John 2, we read more about this intimacy with God and how we can be sure that we have it. John says, "The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." (2:9-11).
If walking in the Light means having intimate fellowship with God, then we are assured of our position in the Light by our response to and treatment of fellow Christians. I have come to realize through Jesus' discussions on the topic of "love your neighbor" that if one was to compile a list of every law in the Bible concerning how to treat other people, that list would be a complete "how-to" on love. In other words, if we truly have agape love for our brothers and sisters in the family of God, we will treat them in exactly the ways that God had commanded the Jews to treat each other in the Old Testament and the ways the Jesus commanded his disciples to treat each other in the New Testament. By responding to others in love, we are ensuring ourselves of our position of intimacy with the Father. The one who refuses to respond to others in love, is lying when he claims to have intimacy with the Father. Anyone who truly has intimacy with the Father will respond in love. We cannot separate the connection of obedience to God's law and intimacy with God. If we refuse to obey God's command to love, we cannot have intimacy with God.
I have come to the conclusion that God created man for the primary purpose of having a relationship with Him. After creating Adam and Eve, God walked shoulder to shoulder with them in the garden and spoke face to face with them until the day they sinned. Since the Fall, God has been working out salvation's plan in order to restore the broken relationship with mankind. Though we cannot walk shoulder to shoulder with God or speak face to face as Adam did, we are invited into an intimate relationship with the God of Creation with the knowledge and hope that we will see Him one day face to face.