1 John 3:11-24
Ok, so I had such a good response after I posted my thoughts on the first half of 1 John I thought I'd finish out the chapter by giving you my thoughts on the second half! This one is slightly edited unlike the first one but not much...
Thursday 24th November: - 9.31am
Love on another. Sounds a simple enough command to me, I've known it from the start of my life, yes, its just what we should do as humans, nothing special here. Wrong.
It seems pretty obvious that we shouldn't murder people, its one of the ten commandments and its completely evil but what's interesting here is why Cain killed Abel. He murdered him "Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." (v12), entirely out of his own jealousy and selfish anger. Cain must have loved Abel (we see nothing to suggest this wasn't just an ordinary family), they were brothers but the overpowering sense of his own jealousy was greater than his love for his brother, so much so that he killed him. There is a deeper question here of what in our heart is our strongest feeling and desire, if it is NOT love who knows where it could lead. We need to hold love closest to our hearts.
That examination of my heart makes the statement "Whoever does not love abides in death." (v14) even more powerful and real. Where this first commandment of love for God is not central in my heart I abide in death and am capable of the worst things, my darkest thought life would testify to that. Verse 15 is suddenly far more significant and scary than it would be with the "Oh, its Ok, I'm not a murderer." skate over response.
We really don't think of love in all it's glory, we don't understand love in all it's glory and we won't this side of heaven, but, like John 3:16, 1 John 3:16 gives us a glimpse of it. We know love is that Christ died for us and that ought to be our reference, do we love enough to lay down our life? My life? That's what John says shows our love. Errrr...
The heart and mind crushing truth of love through the death of Jesus, that's love, but do I truly grasp that love? We need to love with open arms, love with our goods and worldly wealth (like giving and sharing of it with poor brothers) (v17) and also in deed and truth (v18), not just our words, but our actions, our life.
By our love for God we are not condemned, even when my heart condemns me I know that God forgives me, all those things that darken my past, where I condemn myself God releases me because He knows it all and releases me, I am only bonded by myself and I have freedom to let that go. We know in that new freedom we receive the power of God and He only sees our life through the blood of Jesus, clean and perfect. Our heart does not condemn us and we receive of God when we come to His feet. Not only because WE keep His commandments but when we don't Jesus does and heals us by HIS sacrifice and righteousness (v21-22). He steps in for us and cleans our condemned heart, whether our heart condemns us or not, He gives us the way out. Hallelujah!
Verse 24 is the perfect summation of how I can know this "Whoever keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit He gave us." The Holy Spirit working, moulding, reflecting, leading, guiding from within us and the blood of Jesus that removes our condemnation despite our ongoing failings. The grace of the Father, how amazing, how much love must pour from our heart because of this? A lot. It's so easy to look at this and think "Yeah, love other people, I do that" but do we? Do we really? I KNOW I struggle to, but either way the question of whether we love enough in light of this is different. I know I don't.
Thursday 24th November: - 9.31am
Love on another. Sounds a simple enough command to me, I've known it from the start of my life, yes, its just what we should do as humans, nothing special here. Wrong.
It seems pretty obvious that we shouldn't murder people, its one of the ten commandments and its completely evil but what's interesting here is why Cain killed Abel. He murdered him "Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." (v12), entirely out of his own jealousy and selfish anger. Cain must have loved Abel (we see nothing to suggest this wasn't just an ordinary family), they were brothers but the overpowering sense of his own jealousy was greater than his love for his brother, so much so that he killed him. There is a deeper question here of what in our heart is our strongest feeling and desire, if it is NOT love who knows where it could lead. We need to hold love closest to our hearts.
That examination of my heart makes the statement "Whoever does not love abides in death." (v14) even more powerful and real. Where this first commandment of love for God is not central in my heart I abide in death and am capable of the worst things, my darkest thought life would testify to that. Verse 15 is suddenly far more significant and scary than it would be with the "Oh, its Ok, I'm not a murderer." skate over response.
We really don't think of love in all it's glory, we don't understand love in all it's glory and we won't this side of heaven, but, like John 3:16, 1 John 3:16 gives us a glimpse of it. We know love is that Christ died for us and that ought to be our reference, do we love enough to lay down our life? My life? That's what John says shows our love. Errrr...
The heart and mind crushing truth of love through the death of Jesus, that's love, but do I truly grasp that love? We need to love with open arms, love with our goods and worldly wealth (like giving and sharing of it with poor brothers) (v17) and also in deed and truth (v18), not just our words, but our actions, our life.
By our love for God we are not condemned, even when my heart condemns me I know that God forgives me, all those things that darken my past, where I condemn myself God releases me because He knows it all and releases me, I am only bonded by myself and I have freedom to let that go. We know in that new freedom we receive the power of God and He only sees our life through the blood of Jesus, clean and perfect. Our heart does not condemn us and we receive of God when we come to His feet. Not only because WE keep His commandments but when we don't Jesus does and heals us by HIS sacrifice and righteousness (v21-22). He steps in for us and cleans our condemned heart, whether our heart condemns us or not, He gives us the way out. Hallelujah!
Verse 24 is the perfect summation of how I can know this "Whoever keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit He gave us." The Holy Spirit working, moulding, reflecting, leading, guiding from within us and the blood of Jesus that removes our condemnation despite our ongoing failings. The grace of the Father, how amazing, how much love must pour from our heart because of this? A lot. It's so easy to look at this and think "Yeah, love other people, I do that" but do we? Do we really? I KNOW I struggle to, but either way the question of whether we love enough in light of this is different. I know I don't.
posted by andyd @ 9:01 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home