Monday, September 5, 2022

Monday, September 5, 2022


Psalms 15; 16

Zephaniah 3:11-20

1 John 4:1-12


Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.


We can imagine John as a gem smith working on his jewel called “God's love”. He is adding facets so that when the light passes through we will get a better idea of all the different parts that go into what would otherwise be the pithy statement “God is love”. This morning he is polishing the edge called “truth”.


One of the biggest attacks on church doctrine during John's time was the accusation that Jesus of Nazareth was not really God in the flesh. There is a fancy name for the cult-philosophy that grew out of this belief back then, but we must be on our guard, because there are still people today who claim to follow Jesus as long as Jesus was just a human. To deny the premise that Jesus is literally God and was, during His time on earth, also fully human, is to be in the spirit of the antichrist.


John is making a big claim, but he is not doing so just to score points against his opposition. The whole premise of Christianity relies on Jesus being the eternal God and coming to earth for a time in human flesh. It is the only way we can say “God is love”: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” An atoning sacrifice requires a body; a sacrifice good enough to cover the sins of the world requires God.


John takes the logical conclusion one step further: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” Dear Christian: our God came and bore our sins so that we could be with God forever in perfect love. This precious name is Jesus. If you want to know what do next, it is very simple: begin to love God back; and share God's love with one another.



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