Thursday, August 20, 2009
Love
I have been troubled by 1 John. There are some thirty uses of the word "love" in 1 John and it isn't a very big book. I love John's Gospel account, but 1 John needs to be looked at alongside the Gospel account and what he pounds again and again is how central love is to the Gospel and to the life of the Christian. It is often said that the Scriptures are a mirror we hold up to ourselves, and when I look at my reflection in 1 John I find it is not a pretty picture. I am far too often far less loving than I should be. So I have decided to study and meditate on 1 John for a time and I am going to inflict my musings on to you, my long suffering readers. I hope you find this study edifying, challenging and encouraging and where I miss a point or am perhaps in error, please let me know. I am breaking my study up kind of arbitrarily by the breaks in the ESV and the first post on love by a person who is all too often sorely lacking in love wil show up tomorrow morning.
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4 comments:
We are incapable of loving as we ought. We will not to. We will to put ourselves first, ahead of our neighbors and our enemies, so much of the time.
Every once in awhile we might pull it off, but then we have to wonder about our motives.
I don't know about you, but I have never met a pure motive yet, outside of our Lord.
Arthur,
I look forward to what you find in I John. I agree that it is a tough and convicting little book. The simplicity of the language makes it impossible to wiggle out of. I John is a good litmus test for all of us to see if we are walking according to what we say we believe.
We've been going through 1 John at church, verse by verse. And every week I find myself tensing up saying, "Ouch, I suck at that." But then I find myself saying, "Oh, but God is full of grace and mercy, and I AM His, therefore He WILL continue to grow and sanctify me. Cool!"
Something like that.
Anyway, I like 1 John. Not because it's a fun read, but because I need to hear it.
April,
I think "I suck at that" pretty much sums me up as well.
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