Book of 1 John

Life Project 1st John

Candice Roberts

 

I was first introduced to 1st John in the 80's. There is a song I

used to sing in church that went something like this:

"Beloved, let us love one another

For love is of God and everyone that loveth

Is born of God, and knoweth God

He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love Beloved, let

us love one another

First John 4:7 and 8."

It has a really catchy tune, in the vein of Kumbaya, and is taken

right out of scripture. And yes, we did sing the location of the

verse. The version is King James of course which explains all the

"eths". But this catchy song summarized my knowledge of 1st

John. And to be honest, it is a pretty good summary.

John talks a lot, and i mean A LOT about love. John basically tells

us that in order to know God and to live in him means we must

obey, and to obey is to display Christlike love. As Gary Barge

says in his commentary on the letters of John,"Love becomes a

genuine value only when it is tested, only when we must reach

beyond ourselves and love someone we do not wish to love. This

is the caliber of love John had in mind."

Now can I just tell you that it is easy to be congenial to the

unloveable. Easy to be friendly, pleasant, sociable, kind even. But

it is another thing entirely to love someone. I know what it means

to love. I love my kids. And it is work, as cute as they are. Loving

my children requires sacrifice, giving of myself, making myself

vulnerable. It requires middle of the night, wake me from a dead

sleep comforting of a scared child. It requires listening to endless

tales of injustice and responding with empathy. It requires choir

concerts in hot crowded rooms, award ceremonies in the middle

of my day, carpools, tears wiped, boo boos kissed, spelling words

practiced. Love is full time. Sometimes love hurts. Most of the

time love is inconvenient. All of the time love costs, but they are

my children so I am willing to pay the price.

But am I willing to love the unloveable? I better be. John is

reminiscent of Jesus is that he calls us to love others as

ourselves. Our Lord himself said this was the second greatest

commandment just behind loving God. So I don't see as a have a

really big choice. If I want to please God I must love others, love

my neighbor as myself, love my enemy. Uggghhhh!! Did anyone

else just realize how unlovely they were? I don't want to love my

enemy!! I don't want to love most people. I want to love who I

want to love. But that is not a Christlike kind of love. (Again we

are talking love here, not exchanging pleasantries.)

So how do I do this thing called love that is so foreign to who I

am?? It's a simple solution. Galatians 5 "the fruit of the Spirit is

love....." it is God who produces the fruit of love in us. We are not

capable of the type of love we have been called to; which does

not excuse us from any responsibility. Good fruit can only grow in

a particular type of soil. We are responsible for our soil. Are we

keeping it soft by spending time with our Lord? Are we pulling up

the weeds of sin as quickly as they grow? Are we watering the soil

with the Word and time spent in prayer? If so, then the Spirit will

cultivate fruit in our lives. And one of those fruits will be love.

Before long we will all be loving each other, arm in arm, swaying

in the breeze, and singing Kumbaya. I can't wait!!