Today is FIRST John instead of just John. I hope this doesn't through to many of you off. Chapter 1 was a short chapter but it was fascinating if you look beyond the words into the history of the text. This was a historical first hand account that the Son of God, Christ, lived and died on our behalf and was in fact real. All of the prophecies were coming true in His name and on top of the fact that he lived, died, and was raised from the dead, they confirmed that Christ was in fact the light from heaven they had been awaiting on.
This was encouraging to the reader because the Messiah had finally came. With Him came redemtion and the darkness could no longer be feared. John instructs us that we must be living with the truth in our hearts of the grace through Christ. We are still a fallen people but we have now been redeemed and we should show the world this new found saving grace.
I pray that my heart is one that overflows with the love and grace that John was reminding us of. He was God made man and he did walk among us. It is an honor to know him and I should live each day with that mentality.
Tomorrow is 1 John 2.
God Bless,
Nick
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This is a small chapter and a very quick read; however, I still needed to read it two or three times.
ReplyDeleteWhile attending Trinity Christian to earn my BA in Business we were required to take two "religion" classes. One was Biblical Perspectives where, in 5 weeks, we were to learn about the Bible (Old and New Testament). The second class was Christian Worldview, which was actually more of 5 weeks of Philosophy trying to cover all major groups of philosophy (Plato, Agustine, Sartre). One issue that kept coming up was "duality." The aspect of the class was that with God there could be no duality, as there is only God.
I find it interesting that in 1 John we see the duality of the world Light/Dark - Truth/Lie - Life/Death. This is something that I struggle with everyday. I tend to slide down the same slope with was Sin created? I wonder if God did not create the "duality" or Sin why did he create the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?
I do see that in this chapter the author, while describing the duality, shows that we should always face, walk, or work towards the Light. We must stay away from the Darkness because in the Dark there is no God. It also lends to the cognitive thought that within the Light is everlast life, and hope for the future.
Trying not to get into a game of symantics I wonder who was with John when he was writing this chapter 1 John 1:4 "And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled." Who is the "we?"
As my walk with Jesus grows everyday I pray that I continue to move from darkness to light. I pray that we as a Church continue to move from darkness to light, and that we truly are the light in the storm for those who are still lost.