1 John 1-5
From the introduction: "The two most difficult things to get straight in life are love and God. More often than not, the mess people make of their lives can be traced to failure or stupidity or meanness in one of these areas. The basic and biblical conviction is that the two subjects are intricately related. If we want to deal with God the right way, we have to learn to love the right way. If we want to love the right way, we have to deal with God the right way. God and love can't be separated.
"John's three letters give great guidance. Jesus is the focus and provides the full and true understanding of God, the mature working out of love. There are always people around who don't want to be pinned down to the God Jesus reveals, to the love Jesus reveals. They want to make up their own idea of God, own style of love. John's community was disrupted by these kinds of people. He's working to regain the original and organic unity of God and love that comes to focus and becomes available to us in Jesus Christ." The intro is worth the price of admission...
"The infinite Life of God took shape before us...We want you to experience it, to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy! God is light, pure light, and there's not a trace of darkness in him." We ought to be living what we claim.
The community who received this letter was lying, hating, refusing to love, and deceiving themselves. Their problems weren't rare; nor are they rare for faith communities. People who gather in Jesus' name don't always get along with each other. We ought to be optimistic...about the Spirit of God and about the sinners who make up the church. Don't join us if you expect to be part of a happy, harmonious gathering of put together people. If you stay...long enough, you might witness a miracle--the transformation from a bickering, berating, bullying community into the body of Christ.
God would rather we name and claim our sinfulness than lie about it. We are freed when we tell the truth.
"I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin...when you sin, Jesus can help--he's solved that problem for the whole world."
If you know God the right way, you'll keep his commandments. Keep God's word. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Oldest commandment in the book. Can't hate anyone if you believe in God. Have to love and not block the light from others. We can understand ourselves in community only when we understand ourselves as beings created in the image of God who is love and demonstrates his love toward us in sacrificial ways. A task of this community is to maintain a lifelong cultivation of love in all the messiness of the larger family of God and its various individual families.
Your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name. Don't forget that. Ever. Don't love the world's ways, the world's goods...don't let the world squeeze out your love for God. Do what God wants.
Antichrist is coming--they're all over the place. The truth doesn't breed lies. Antichrist: denying the Father, denying the Son. Christ's anointing is imbedded deep within you--don't let it go and don't forget it! Live deeply in what you were taught. Live deeply in Christ.
We are children of God--that's love! The world doesn't get it. When we see Christ revealed, we'll be like him. No one who lives deeply in life makes a practice of sin. It's the person who acts right who is right. It's not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. The one who won't practice righteous ways isn't from God, nor is the one who won't love brother or sister. A simple test.
Sin: a refused relationship with God that spills over into a wrong relationship with others. If I say sin is no big deal for me, I'm also saying relationships are no big deal, as sin is a de-relational act. Love is no big deal if sin isn't.
We should love each other. Christ sacrificed his love for us, so we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. Don't make God's love disappear. Don't just talk about it; practice real love. God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
Don't believe everything you hear; carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world. The Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. Can't know God if you don't love.
The love we experience in community is based upon our experience of God's forgiveness. Can't be done for us through education or government or business. Only through love can this kind of community be formed...only through Christ. Forgiveness, motivated by love, is in the center of Jesus Christ. Sin that's confessed and forgiven frees us to develop relationship of love not only with God but with one another.
If we love one another, God's love dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us--perfect love.
Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. God is love. Let love have free reign. There's no fear in love. Fear of death, fear of judgment...happens in those not yet fully formed in love.
Our love is always a response to God's loving us first. All love.
Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
When we keep God's commandments and they are no longer troublesome, we can be certain we love God.
Faith is a conquering power that brings the world to its knees. Spirit. Baptism. Crucifixion. God gave us eternal life; the life is in Christ. Any questions?
Believe in God's Son beyond a shadow of a doubt. Know that you have eternal life.
Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles of God and true life. Watch out for idolatry. Idols introduced in the very last line. An idol is god with all the God taken out of it. God depersonalized, derelationalized, a god we can manipulate for our selfish ends, enlist for our pet causes, fantasize about without having to give or receive love from God or anyone else. Idolatry in the present religious world is more subtle and seductive than it was in the world of the first century.
Don't read Revelation. Read first John again. And again. And again. Especially if you haven't read anything else.
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