17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,
CALL – this is to pray to God. Similar language to the Lord’s Prayer which starts with, “Our Father.”
FATHER – God isn’t a lofty distant judge in the sky but rather is near to us as a loving Father. Often, is the case that many of us don’t like the idea of God as a Father because our earthly father wasn’t that great.
But our thinking needs to reverse. We shouldn’t use our earthly dads as a reference for what our Heavenly Father is like. No, our Heavenly Father is the standard that earthly fathers should strive to imitate.
JUDGES – Many don’t like this word but think of your own parents. Did/do they judge you now?
Our parents would judge our actions and then hand out consequences or rewards. They did this because they loved us. Discipline is needed to set boundaries and keep us safe.
The key difference between our earthly parent(s) and God is that God judges “without partiality.” God is perfect so He judges our actions without bias. He doesn’t judge or punish out of anger or pride.
CONDUCT WITH FEAR – This isn’t fear that God is going to strike us down because we already learned that He is a loving Father.
This is fear as holy reverence. Fear that is motivated out of love for God. This love motivates us to live holy lives because we know that this brings God glory and is the best way for us to live.