I hope that much of what you have been reading the past two weeks is now popping up in your thoughts and daily life. The more we study the more we see what we are studying come to life around us. Case in point; when you are looking for that new Hummer, you never noticed how many Hummers were on the street. I have talked with several people about our study on loving and they have commented about situations, other teachings, actual signs, or comments have appeared on loving. My daughter was pumping gas a week ago and the station had a sign that rolled words across it. The sign was not selling or doing gas related promotional things, it was telling us to love each other. How cool is that? Makes you want to run out and buy one of those little gadgets and put it in the rear window of your car.
1 John, written by the apostle John around 85-96 AD, gives us insight into our relationship with God. He first gives us a personal witness about who God is based on personal experience. He opens with discussing our relationship with God and His relationship with us. He tells us he is writing these things "so that we can fully share in their joy". In our study of 1 John we should feel joy from what we learn and how we grow in these teachings.
He recounts what he heard from Jesus, that God is pure and there is no darkness in Him and encourages us to live in the light and not give darkness any place in our lives. If we all live in such a way, we share in a very special bond, a fellowship. We are taught that if we do sin Jesus is there and will cleanse us of our sins. John explains that he is writing to us to encourage us not to sin, but he realizes we all do. He talks of Jesus as our advocate who will plead our case before the Father. John goes on to teach that Jesus, because of His great sacrifice pays the price for our sins and the sins of the whole world.
If we know God, the only way to really know anyone is to have a relationship with them, then we will want to please Him. We will want to please Him by doing what He asks, like by abiding by His commandments and instructions. The teaching continues that if we love Him, we will strive to live a life that is in line with His principles.
Sometimes we cringe at the word "commandments". It carries a strong and almost fear inducing tone. If we look at the commandments and His teachings, they really are not as scary as we might make them. They are teaching to be as good a person as we can, to live an honorable life and to live well among other people. They are teaching us about God and how we should relate to Him. We are being taught to love God and how we can show that love. What can be so bad about that? Take a look at chapter 2 verse 5, "But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love Him. That is how we know we are living in him".
1 John begins with John showing us how much God loves us by doing so much to help us. He knows we are going to make mistakes, but Jesus will take our case as our advocate or defense attorney, if you will. Not only will He speak on our defense, he will take what ever sentence is given for our offense and clear our record. Wow!
God has expressed His love for us in an unbelievable way. In response to that, we love Him and want to move forward by living better and more in line with His teachings.
In our study so far, we have been shown God's amazing love for us and are tuning in to the idea that if we want to show our love for Him, we want to live as taught and life as Jesus lived.
The introduction to 1,2 and 3 John in The Message (a common english version of the Bible), states, "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 cannot be separated".
How about some of your comments and insights so far ?