1. That of a son to his father.
2. That of a soldier to his officer.
3. That of a servant to his master.
4. That of a subject to his king.

Personally, I think it ought to be similar to all of those at once. It’s like the relationship I would have to my father if he were at once my king, my officer and my master, because God is all of those things at once, and I don’t know how we could separate them.

He is my Father but he is also my Master and my Lord. And this is where our joy resides – in having a Master and being servants of a Lord who, nevertheless, regards us and cares for us with the love of a Father, and who is also the King of all that exists; in being aware that God is a personal being, who has dreamed of me from eternity, who loves me and therefore wants by happiness, and who is omnipotent.

I also believe that it is when we go alternatively from one of these images to another, so that one day we only look at God one way and the next day only in that other way, that we lose our right relationship to him. That is, when we are dirty and come to our King, or we are defeated and come to our Officer, but we forget that at that time he regards us with the love and understanding of a Father. Or when we come, like spoiled children, to the Father who forbids or commands us to do something, forgetting that he is also our Officer. Or when he asks us something or asks us everything, and we start whining, because we forget that we belong to him and that he is the Master and Lord of all that is ours and of ourselves.

I know it’s difficult to grasp all of these images because he transcends all of them. It is difficult to explain how to relate to him because there is no other relationship in the world that will actually be the same. But there is one thing I know we must understand: God is not our comrade or partner, our buddy, our sidekick or accomplice. He and his ways, his power, his authority and his glory, his commands, his essence, his goodness, his tenderness, his justice and his holiness are as far above me as heaven is above the earth. It was he who came to man, it was he who came to me in order to save me, and it was he who established a covenant and a relationship with me. And this covenant is the covenant between omnipotence and impotence, between grace and sin, not a covenant or a relationship between equals.

In order to understand at least a little better the images God uses for explaining his relationship to us, I would like to take a look into each of them individually. We are going to begin with the father-son relationship.

Paul says in Romans 8:14:

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ...When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness...” 

A stanza of Psalm 127 illustrates this kind of relationship:

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. (Psalm 127:4-5)

For the Jewish mentality, sons are a continuation and an extension of their father: in his reputation, which they must protect as much as their own; in his authority, which they must be able to use in representing him; in his character, being themselves just like their father, having his own way of being, of feeling, of acting; in his responsibility, caring for their father’s business (at twelve years old, the young Jesus who was lost in the temple was already aware of this responsibility); and in his mission, by carrying out and completing their father’s work.

A father lives and is perpetuated in his sons. Since we are God’s sons, we say that a Christian is a man who has been chosen by Christ, in order to be like Christ, and incorporated and enabled by Christ in order to complete Christ’s mission in the world, which is the mission that his Father entrusted him with.

This continuation of the Father is not merely biological but of character. We are supposed to be like him. Jesus said to the Jews, in so many words: “You think you are sons of Abraham, but in fact you are sons of Satan” (cf. John 8:39-44). He tells them this because they no longer reflect the faith of their father Abraham; they do not look like him at all.

Let’s now examine the officer-soldier relationship. We read in Ephesians 6:10-11: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” And then he goes on to describe the armor. To Timothy he says: “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).

We are supposed to be Christ’s soldiers, but some of our number are so irresponsible that they haven’t even realized that we are at war, in a war that began in heaven before the creation of the world, but which has been moved to earth. We are involved in that war even if we don’t want, and not wanting to fight will not only not protect  you from anything, but will make your defeat absolutely certain. Only those who fight under Christ’s banner will survive the devil’s attacks.

But our condition as soldiers must also reflect itself in our daily lives. When you are drafted by the army, your life changes radically. You are now subject to certain rules and to an authority. You are under military discipline. Your personal preferences are subordinated to the army’s needs. Sometimes you won’t be able to take a nap or go where you would have liked to go, or do what you would liked to do, but you will do what your officer says and go where you are sent or where your officer needs you. It’s not the right time to say, “Daddy, I’m tired, let me curl up in your arms,” as you used to do when you were a young kid. It’s time to say: “Heavenly Headquarters, give your orders.”

When you are at war, the safest place to be is with your officer in the battlefield, and well armed. Your safety resides in obeying him. If an army does not obey its commander, having been trained very well will be no use. If you desert, your penalty will be court-martial and dishonor.

It may be that all of this sounds too drastic to you. But that’s only because you are not aware that we Christians, by the very fact that we are Christians, are engaged in total war against the forces of evil, and that the commander of those forces does not sleep, but prowls around like a roaring lion. If we are in a war and if we have been recruited by Christ, we must be willing to live as soldiers. This means we will do whatever he commands us to do, and not those things which are of our personal liking.

But it also means that we will always try to act as a body and to remain together with our battalion. A lonely soldier is a dead man, and that is a well-known fact for those of us who once attempted to live our Christianity by ourselves or to engage in combat as snipers.

But a lonely soldier is not just an idiot, he’s a dangerous fellow for those of his own side. He’s the one others will need to go rescuing. He’s the most likely  to be captured. He’s the one who, because he acts outside all orders or plans, can spoil everything. If you are isolated, you are already in danger, and you are a danger for everyone else.

Master-servant relationship

Let’s now refer to the master-servant relationship. In Romans 6:17-23 St. Paul reminds us that we have been freed from slavery to sin, but we have merely shifted masters, since we now belong to Christ. He says in verse 19: “For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.”

In order to fully understand certain things in Scripture, it is often necessary to first understand how things worked in the times when the Bible was written. In the times of Jesus, you were either a slave or a free man. And any person could become a slave at any time, for various reasons – because your country was attacked and defeated and the people were led to slavery, but also for more daily reasons such as not being able to pay a debt, as in the case of that man in the parable who owed ten thousand talents. Thus, a person could be sold with his whole family until the debt was paid for. 

We are well aware that we have a debt to Christ which we cannot pay. We also know that the word “redemption” is merely a commercial term, meaning “ransom”. Thus, Christ redeemed us with his blood, the same way you redeem a pledge at a pawnshop. Christ paid our debt with his blood, he bought our IOU’s – but not in order for us to be absolutely free, but, as Paul says, that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him who died and was raised for us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15). That’s why he is our Lord, our Master.

Nevertheless, a slave or servant would not go around bearing chains all the time, nor would he spend the whole day cutting rocks the way we see it in motion pictures. A servant would often have a position of confidence, and sometimes could be a tutor for a prince, or even a minister of Pharaoh, as in the case of Joseph. I think this is our situation, since God has placed enormous responsibilities in our hands.

A servant’s fortune came from and depended on his owner’s wealth. So you could be very rich and still be a servant. That’s what Paul says about us: “All things are yours... and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:21-22).

But above all these things, and whatever the particular situation or position of a servant could be, all servants had one thing in common: they had to do always and first of all – even above the work commended to them – the will of their master. That’s why I always say that the important thing is not doing much or little, doing big or small things – the important thing is always doing God’s will. If Pharaoh says, “Joseph, go and do this errand for me,” Joseph will not reply, “I’m sorry, Mr. Pharaoh, but I’m very busy working as your Prime Minister.” Joseph must go, because before being the Prime Minister he is Pharaoh’s servant.

Joseph was a great man under Pharaoh. And we are greater than Joseph under the King of the Universe. Jesus goes to the point of saying about us that even the smallest one in his Kingdom is greater than John the Baptist, whom he called the greatest born of a woman. But our greatness comes from being servants of the King in the Kingdom of God.

That is why, like the humblest of his servants, we owe the Lord honor, respect and obedience, and we renounce ourselves and any personal preference in order to do always and above all the will of God.

Subjects of the king

Let us now see what it meant to be subjects of a king. David, who was a king, says in Psalm 99:1-3: