We’ve just learned from John that love, true love, sacrificial love is the love of Christ.  He told us that as this love resides in us our hearts are assured before Him.  The perfect love of Christ, dwelling within us, and revealed through us is our purpose.  Nothing else matters.  There are no laws to follow, no rituals to perform, no land to conquer, no government to take over.  The only evidence of Christ in us that matters is love. 

The problem, of course, is that we don’t always and in every possible moment exhibit the love of Christ. 

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What an amazing statement to lead off this passage:

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.”

Love, according to John, is life.  Without love, death.  This is not something we like to believe.  Everything about the world tells us the opposite is true.  Survival, self-preservation is so deeply engrained in each of us that to do anything that opposes that principle seems foolish.  But love requires us to not even consider self-preservation.  Jesus said,

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:13

The spiritual doesn’t look like the physical.  In fact, what may be true in the physical is false in the spiritual.  It is no wonder all nations are deceived (Revelation 18:23).

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Over and over, John tells us these things that we have known from the beginning. Those things are the Word, the commandment, and now, love. These three are one in the same. Jesus Christ is from the beginning, Jesus Christ is the  Word, Jesus Christ is the new law, and Jesus Christ is love. This love of Christ is different than the love that the world knows. The love of Christ is unconditional, the love of the world is transactional.

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A recent news story from the Associated Press left me feeling indignant, at first.  The movie, “The Queen”, had been edited for general audience viewing for airline passengers.  One of the “edits” included bleeping out the word God.  The story describes how a rookie editor, in an effort to follow instructions, got a bit carried away.

At first read, I was appalled.  how could someone find God offensive.  But then again, to a world that values self-reliance, security, politeness, determination and eloquence, God is offensive.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “God helps those that help themselves.”  Many well-meaning Christians believe that phrase is in the Bible.  It’s not.  In fact, scripture teaches the opposite as true, God helps those that cannot help themselves and have faith in Him.

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The world, the world system, is corrupt because of the Fall.  Adam and Eve committed that sin which caused all of creation to fall.  The very foundations of the universe shook when that happenned.  Could it be that the natural laws of biology, physics, chemistry, geology, etc. were changed at that momentous event?  Could it be that the universe before the Fall was different in its structure, order and mode? 

Scripture is full of pictures, types and parables that show us the divine order of all things. 

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The emphasis of this passage is to know liars.  John is showing us what a believer is not in preparation for what a believer is.  But because of what he is about to teach, he has to remind us that we already have the annointing from God, Jesus Christ.  He needs to remind us that we know all things.  How many of us really feel like we know all things?  My guess is no one feels like they know all things, yet we are reminded of our inheritance of this knowledge in scripture:

“Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;” - 1 Corinthians 3:21-22

“As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” - 2 Corinthians 6:10

Now for the hard part.

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John goes back to speaking to the believers as little children.  So this brief passage must provide some very basic teaching to reassure and comfort us.  Many commentators on this refer to some conflict that must have existed in the church that received the letter, but there is no indication that the letter was intended for a particular church, but rather the whole of the Christian church.  As such, the experience John describes is universal to the churches and, therefore, to all believers.  The apostle teaches us of the antichrist, antichristos in Greek.  Anti means instead of or in place of, so antichristos means instead of Christ or in place of Christ.  What or who that affects all believers and all churches is the instead of Christ?  Who or what are these antichrists that there are so many that every believer must deal with them?

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Little children, then fathers, young men, little children, back to fathers, then to young men again, and finally back to little children.  John keeps switching adressees, as if to keep his audience off guard.  Why is he doing this?  I think the answer is in what he tells each.

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What is this old commandment that is yet new?  How can the old and the new be the same?  On its face this assertion by John seems impossible.  What he is telling us is that the Mosaic Law and the freedom from that law reveal the same thing.  How can the Law and freedom from that very same Law show us the same thing?

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How is it that the twelve apostles, and the others that were with them, saw God incarnate, yet the entire priesthood and the majority of the Jewish population did not?  The Jewish people knew that the Messiah was supposed to be with them at the time of Jesus.  Their scholars and rabbis could reasonable estimate the very year Jesus was to walk the earth based on Daniel 9.  Yet when Jesus was standing in front of them, they could not see Messiah.  They saw a prophet, a rabbi, a heretic.  They could not see Messiah.

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Just before Christmas my wife lent some money to a co-worker, a single mom trying to pay for gifts for her children after their bio-dad failed to deliver on his promise to contribute.  Almost immediately after writing the check to her co-worker, she called me to tell me what she had done.  In that conversation, she told me the backstory, how her co-worker wrote her a check to repay the loan after payday (the following Friday), and how she knew the post-dated check would bounce.

A week later, I had a few checks to deposit in our bank account.  The check from her co-worker was included.  As predicted, the check bounced. Our bank provided us the courtesy of charging us a $7 fee to return the check.  My wife was really angry.  As we discussed her feelings, she was angry because she felt taken advantage of, jipped, swindled.  The conclusion of our conversation was that the ultimate source of her feelings was her own ego, selfishness.  The entire episode reminds me of one of the parables Jesus spoke to His disciples:

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A middle-aged Italian couple murdered their neighbors, including a toddler, because they were too noisy.  I’m not kidding.  Your initial reaction is probably something like this, “How could someone do that?  Murder? A toddler? How awful!”  You might even wonder out loud, “I’d never do something like that!”  But, somewhere in the recessess of your mind, perhaps only in your subconcience, you’ve considered doing something just as evil, just as depraved.  Consider the words of Jesus, “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.“  Matthew 5:28

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 A few parents in British Columbia, Canada got bent out of shape when they learned that their children were practicing yoga at school.  You can read more about the whole thing by going to the CBC website.  The main argument these parents have is that yoga is a religion and, therefore, is being promoted above other religions.  I completely agree with that argument.  (See my post on the subject.)  Yoga, as it was intended, is a religion.  However, the critical question should be, is the yoga practice in the schools anything more than just stretching exercises?  Does the yoga practice in the schools incorporate the doctrine of yoga?

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Apparently, a blushing bride-to-be in New Orleans has her wedding scheduled at the same time as New Orleans Saints playoff game.  You can read the article here.  The funny thing is that many of her invited guests have decided to not attend her wedding because they have tickets to the game this Saturday.  The bride-to-be comes off as reasonably understanding - as she should.

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