Good morning again. Hope all is well with you all!
Some great commentary and thoughts about yesterday's chapter! Thanks for your dedication to the words and thoughts of John. I am really enjoying his writing! Today's chapter will bring some familiar words to us and some more great thoughts!
There are many things that God could have done to sinful humanity, but God adopted us as children! We are all children of God! If we are children, then we should have a decent relationship with God and with our Brothers and Sisters! "The world" may not know God, so "the world" doesn't know the relationship that we have and that we are children. The world represents the Pagans and Gentiles that do not know God. Our present standing with God is plain and easy to see, yet our future is somewhat cloudy and unseen at this moment (v 2). We have no idea what glory will look like, but we will see it some day! In our destiny, we will be like Christ, pure and holy- that is hope! Our hope is that when we meet Christ- either at our death or at Christ's return- we will be made pure and holy like Christ.
John goes back to sin and attacks it at its root- it is a revolt against God's law (v 4). John defines Christ's mission in basic terms- to get rid of that sin. If we truly live in Christ, then our sins are continuously taken away. A lifestyle of habitual sin though is inconsistent with a Godly life; occasional sin is acceptable and improving in who we are is desired by God. John gets more blunt saying if you continuously sin, you are a child of the devil! How does that sound?! God sent Jesus to get rid of that devil, that evil, those sins in our world. My translation (NRSV) says that Jesus will "destroy the works of the devil" (v 8). Destroy! Are you a child of God or a child of the devil?
The basic message from God has been love each other- since forever (v 11)! John brings up the example of Cain. We are not exactly sure why Cain killed Abel, but for some reason, he became wicked and desired the death of Abel. We can assume both kids were brought up in a Godly home and had a relationship with God, but for some reason, Cain turned away. Like Cain, some people ("the world") may hate you- don't be surprised at that! They may not understand you and your relationship with God and other Brothers and Sisters. The love we have for others is a sign of our relationship with God and then our eternal life (v 14). If we don't love, then we are unable to "be alive." John then uses strong language- "anyone who hates their brother or sister is a murderer" (v 15). What John means is that hate is inconsistent with God and Jesus just like murder is inconsistent with God and Jesus; we cannot hate and be alive in Christ. As Christ laid down his life for us, we should do the same (v 16). Again, this isn't literal, but John is saying that we should be able to do whatever we can for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Loving others is sometimes a sacrifice.
Our love should be manifested in our actions (v 18). It is easy to talk about loving someone, but the real evidence is how we treat that person or how we respond to them. I have seen several examples of people saying they "love" others, but when it comes down to it, their actions do not mimic their words! We should have confidence that our actions and or words are the same; we should be able to stand before God with our hearts exposed and be open to God and the love we have for others. John closes with the reminder- love everyone!
Again, some really great words from John. He is really focused on loving others through action. What a wonderful world if we could all do that!
Have a good day!
Shalom+
Pastor Paul
I had a kind of hard time with this chapter. John talks of us being God's children, but the then speaks of sin again saying if we continue to sin we are children of the devil We are all human and do continue to sin.. there are those "little white lies" and thoughts that go through our minds so in many ways we continue to sin so where does that put us God's children or children of the devil we ask god for forgiveness of our sins and do mean not to sin but there it is again a thought a white lie whatever it's a sin We would all like to be more Christlike and not sin but after all we are human and human nature leads us to sin??? Johns speaks of loving one another then tells of Cain Killing is brother Abel Probably from jealously but we also have jealous moments, not to the extent that we kill someone but Does that jealously make us murderers at heart? SIN it's a hard topic to think about in so many ways. I want to be sin free but it seems that is impossible for me no matter what I pray for or mean to do I do continue to sin.
ReplyDeleteThere was some troublesome reading in this chapter- but the take home lesson I got was that if I continue to follow God and continue to try to improve that I am still a child of God.
DeleteAnother big lesson is love for each other. I think that may be even a better test for us!
Sin is hard to think about- we all do it- yet we don't like to admit it!
Great thoughts Clara
I agree with Clara. Try as we might, even our thoughts are sometimes sins. I think this is a chapter that would good to talk about in person instead of in a blog. There are so many little ins and outs to things. When I read about sins, forgiveness, how we live, it's confusing. Maybe sometimes there are reasons for sins that make them not sins.
ReplyDeleteGood point- some discussions are better in person!
DeleteAdvent is coming! I'd like that to be in person. Will send email soon about time and days.
It is "easy" for us to make our sins "not so bad"!
Good thoughts Cathy!
So now I come to the question - what is John talking about as sin? Is it breaking the original 10 commandments? I'm not sure since John never refers to them. BUT he does refer to the two commandments that Jesus gave - love God with all you heart, all you mind, all your thoughts and to love one another as you love yourself. And since John put the breaking of those commandments as the sin - NOT believing or loving God AND NOT loving your brother - is this the sin that John is referring to? So I am thinking that if John does mean the breaking of those two commandments - which is what he is always referring to - then that makes sense - because just in the last chapter John said that if we do not love our brethren then we are liars. WE do break some of the original 10 commandments and I have asked for forgiveness and really really try not to break them again - I do not break Jesus' first commandment - but the second? - the one about loving others as we love ourselves. That one is really really hard for me! Especially when others are really not nice to me at all!
ReplyDeleteHmmm....good question! And now that I look over it and think about it, I see John not referring to the ten commandments, but the commands from Jesus that you mention. John is definitely pro-new covenant- so the old laws are now "outdated"
DeleteWe all do bad things "sins" or whatever we call them. And yes, I agree- I am not always loving (as you know!)
Good thoughts Donna!
This is a tough chapter. John writes about sin: if you continue to sine, you are a child of the devil. How does one reconcile this with Christ dying on the cross to save us from our sins? I cannot bring the two concepts together. I know I am only human, and I am constantly sinning. If I am not sinning outwardly by disobeying God’s commandments, I am sinning inwardly by unclean thoughts. I hope I am not a child of the devil, because I want to be a child of Christ and God. I must take this as a warning to change my ways, but I really don’t see that happening. I can only pray that I am not judged too harshly when my time on Earth ends.
ReplyDeleteI think that Clara hit the nail on the head in her blog. Donna raised an excellent question regarding what are the commandments that we are breaking. What is Christ’s law? I have to say it is to Love the Lord My God with all my heart, my soul, and my mind. It also says I must love your neighbor as much as I love myself.
This second part can be quite problematic. When I was fighting depression, I hated myself. I either read or was told that if you don’t love yourself, it is impossible to love somebody else. To me, this also includes God. I know that at that time, I hated God. I guess that made me a child of the devil. I no longer hate myself, and I pray that I can love God and Jesus. As I said above, I want to be a Child of Goad and not a child of the devil. It appears that I have some work to do.
The point that John is making (I think) is that if we are children of God and believe that Jesus died for us, then our sins are forgiven; I think God does expect us to try harder and be better tomorrow then we are today. If we don't believe in Christ, then that is where we become children of the devil.
ReplyDeleteI agree- John was talking about the last two commands that Jesus left us... loving is sometimes hard though!
Wow- tough words. And I have heard the same- if you can't love yourself how can yo love others. There are days I struggle with loving me and I know it shows in my interactions with others.
We all have work to do Jack!
Thanks for the honesty.