Entry One Hundred Seventy-Nine: The Apostle of Love

This entry covers three days of reading and hits topics such as TRANSFORMATION, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE, GNOSTICISM, CONFESSION, FEELING FORGIVEN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, OBEDIENCE, LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER, NOT FEELING CONDEMNED, CONFIDENCE,  and WALKING IN THE TRUTH.

• How I love studying about the lives of the apostles in the gospels, and then looking at how they turned out in later years – it gives me such hope! No matter how much I have sinned, blown it, goofed up, or annoyed people, I am still a work in progress and I can change just like they did. As we have gone through the New Testament together, we have read about how Paul went from being a Persecutor to a Proclaimer, how John Mark went from being Afraid to a Friend, how James the brother of Jesus went from being a Bitter Brother (John 7) to a Loyal Leader, and we rejoiced when we saw the evidence that Peter had actually been listening after all! However, my favourite transformation is John, who went from bring a “Son of Thunder” to being “The Apostle of Love”.

• “These are the twelve he appointed…James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder)…” Mark 3:16-17

• “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.” Luke 9:51-56

• How did a rough, uneducated fisherman become the New Testament writer who used the phrase “love one another” more than any other? Well, that’s what happens when you hang out with Jesus! Hopefully, as we spend time with this apostle, reading the letters he wrote toward the end of his long and well-spent life, we will undergo a similar transformation!

• The first letter of John was addressing the biggest danger facing the church in the first century – not persecution, but the enemy of false teaching. Dr. F. LaGard Smith’s narration explains that the Gnostic philosophy taught that all “matter” or “flesh” was inherently evil. This led to two dangerous conclusions: (1) since the physical body was already evil, then rampant immorality was fine (sounds like today’s widespread message of tolerance!), and (2) since all flesh was evil, there was no way that deity ever became a man! The whole of the Christian faith was under siege! And who better to argue against this heresy than the last remaining apostle? Who better than someone who had been with Jesus IN THE FLESH, had eaten with him and spent three years with him on a daily basis? With that background in mind, let us proceed…

• Chapter One
• You may want to reread Genesis 1 and John 1 to see how similarly John started this letter. And certainly you can see the point, after hearing about Gnosticism, of John’s beginning with the assertion that he saw Jesus, heard him, touched him, etc. He wanted everyone to know that GOD HAD DWELT AMONG US!

• Note the word “fellowship” appears four times. What is the basis for this fellowship? Walking in the light, as opposed to singing hymns on Sunday and then sinning your guts out all week cause your flesh is inherently evil!

• New Testament Greek scholars will point out that the tense of the word “purifies” implies that it is an ongoing verb, meaning that Jesus’ blood purifies us from sins we have done yesterday, today and forever! Now that’s grace! That’s God’s part. Our part is to walk in the light. Does that mean perfection? Well, John was ready for that question, cause he straightaway says that if we claim to be without sin, we are liars. Part of walking in the light is to not keep secrets – openness and confession are a crucial part of the Christian walk. Wonder why churches are full of Christians whose joy has been sapped by the world? Some of it might be due to lots of unconfessed sin! There is great joy in living a life of freedom from guilt and continual purity. (Remember what Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, Life Together, about confession – if we are not willing to confess to another sinful human, what makes us think we are ready to confess to a perfect and holy God? Make a commitment to confess your sins to others at least once a month and work up to once a week if possible. See if you don’t feel lighter than air!

• By the way, when I wrote the entry on Philippians, I mentioned about a time in my first year of University that I had gone to class and copied Phil 4:4-9 over and over until I had it memorized. Well, when I got back to my room, I still felt lousy.

• You see, the night before, after I had finished my studying, I had gone over to the apartment of two graduate students that I was close to at church. Both of them were active in the campus ministry I was in (this was in the heyday of campus ministry – our Wednesday night class had hundreds in attendance!) and I looked up to them as older brothers in the Lord. Now I was stupid to go to their place late at night by myself – there is a reason for guidelines, people! But I love fellowship, and I was “Miss Innocent” and never dreamed how crafty Satan could be. Sure enough, one of the brothers was not in town, to my surprise, so I was there alone, with a guy, and it was after midnight. He sat down by me on the couch, and I thought we would sing duets (the three of us often sang together). Eventually he started doing more than singing, and I became confused. On the one hand, I thought it was wrong – I certainly hadn’t done anything like that since before my baptism the year before. On the other hand, I was flattered – that this older, more mature and spiritual brother liked Me! As things heated up, my guilt overcame me, and I put a stop to it and went back to my dorm room, around 3am. I felt so terrible!

• So, fast forward back to the part where I came in from class – still unable to forgive myself. I prayed for help, and then I took my bible out and opened it to I John 1, and started writing out I John 1:5-10 over and over. When I had it completely memorized and when I felt like I believed it, I took a nap and when I woke up, I felt so much better! That evening I went to midweek, apologized to the brother (who was a jerk and acted like nothing bad had happened!) confessed it to another person, and enjoyed the service! Forgiveness from sin and fellowship with Jesus and his body feels good – God knows what he is talking about!

• Enough lurid details – back to the text…

• Chapter Two
• You have to respect John the Apostle – he was very likely over 70 when he wrote this, and yet he hadn’t given up faith in people: I write this to you so that you will not sin. Of course he knew that everyone sinned – but one can still try! In all my years as a disciple of Jesus, I can only think of one day when I got to the end of the day and couldn’t think of one sin – and that was in August 1989! (I am assuming I sinned that day but just didn’t notice it…) My point? We need grace! If we were perfect, we wouldn’t need the blood of Christ!
• And the whole gospel story can be summed in “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
• Wow, doesn’t that just make you have goose bumps?
• The next part slaps us into shape, however, with a stiff challenge – we better obey his commands if we are gonna claim that we love him, because whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

• As I have noted all through the bible, we are always challenged to balance “grace” and “truth”.  The apostle seems to have gotten a pretty good grasp!

• And related to all this darkness or light, truth and grace and obedience stuff is the idea that we have to LOVE ONE ANOTHER! John repeats this like a mantra throughout his letter.

• After a bit of poetry, the Apostle of Love came down hard on worldliness. There is no ambiguity here – DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD! The three categories of carnality listed here are:
• The cravings of sinful man
• The lust of his eyes
• The boasting of what he has and does

• John may have been writing almost 2000 years ago, but this is certainly pertinent in our world! Sinful cravings attract almost all disciples at one time or another, whether it is for something from our past, like cigarettes or illicit sex, or something more innocuous like food. The media of the 21^st Century sees to it that there is no shortage of things to lust after, and boasting has never been more rampant!

• Well, John warns us fearlessly – get rid of it!

• Not only did he fight against the Gnostics’ embracing of all things pleasurable, he also spoke out against the false teaching that Jesus wasn’t the Son of God, and begged his audience to continue in their true faith!

• Chapter Three
• Back to his favourite topic – the Love of God! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” And our goal is to become like this loving Father – amen! As we do, we will sin less and less, because we love him. It is so motivating.
• Another warning against being duped by false teachers who don’t live righteously…
• Instead, we should seek righteousness and love one another! We will be hated by the world, but we should never hate each other.
• Jesus Christ is the example of true love, cause he lay down his life. We must lay down our lives for each other, and love with action and truth, not just in word.
• What this makes me think of is how people at church want the church to be a place of love, but the question we must all ask ourselves is “Do we want to lay down our lives and love others with actions and truth?” If we all live like this, it would be heaven on earth!

• The next bit is so comforting – “This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts…” Again, this is so much more motivating than someone shouting condemnation at us!

• John didn’t want people to feel condemned (he had come a long way from the incident at the Samaritan village!), and he goes out of his way to help his readers remember that. At the same time, he preached an unchanging standard – belief in Jesus, love for one another, and obedience. When we are walking that way, we can have confidence before God!

• Chapter Four
• Once more, John nailed the Gnostics – he let his readers know that every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus (was) not from God, calling them “the antichrist” and “false prophets”! He also gave them hope of overcoming, with the encouraging promise: because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

• Later, he revisited his favourite them of love for one another.
• 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

• I learned a song in my campus ministry days taken directly from these verses. If you want to learn it, go to You Tube, and in the “search” box, type “Maranatha Kids Beloved Let Us Love One Another”. It’s a great way to memorize the verse!
• John followed by letting us know that we didn’t learn to love by ourselves – God taught us! In fact, his love is the REAL LOVE! Remember, God IS love! If someone had to use one word to describe me, I doubt it would be LOVE. Depending on what time of day they were asked, some might say, “impatient”, “hungry”, or “stubborn”! Hopefully they might say “kind”, “forgiving” or even “loving.” But no one would say “love”. God is so awesome!
• And why did John feel the need to go on and on about it? so that we would LOVE ONE ANOTHER! (are you getting it yet?) We have life because someone loved us. Therefore, we “ought to love one another”. That’s how people SEE GOD!
• Ever wonder why you feel so good after helping the poor? It’s because you are doing something completely unselfish – there is no way they can help you back. You feel good inside because you are being like God. Deny yourself, love another person – it is the best cure for the blues!

• Because of all this love, we can have confidence. John wanted to make sure his readers understood that: And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
• And after reminding us again that “God is love”, he told us that we can have confidence in God on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

• Wow! This stuff is so amazing! I liked I John as a young Christian, but it was so deep I often didn’t get it. When I read it as an old, pilgrimage-weary disciple, (not that I feel weary actually but you know what I mean), I am astounded at how wonderful this book is and how full it is of helpful and meaningful truths! God doesn’t want us to fear him and do things because we have to – yes he wants us to obey and respect him, but he really wants us to get LOVE! And when we have THAT, we won’t FEAR him but we will feel CONFIDENT! Amen! Meditate on that for a while!

• The relentless apostle reminded his readers again that 19We love because he first loved us. And then comes one of the most practical/convicting verses in the book:
• 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

• So, what do you do? Right now, stop and think if there is ANYONE you can’t stand being around, and ANYONE you haven’t forgiven, and start praying to be able to forgive them. Now if you have been abused, in any way, I am not saying that you need to want to spend time with an abuser, but you have to find forgiveness. And if there is a church member that you can’t stand, you better figure out how to fix that. Talk to someone you trust who is spiritual, and sort it out. God is love!

• Chapter Five
• In his typical way, making it sound so simple, John asserted This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

• Yes I know it is a bit repetitive, but the elderly elder was doing his best to make sure that people understood the most important things before he died. He wanted to “stamp out false teaching” and prove once and for all that the Gnostic doctrine was wrong and that Jesus, who came with water, blood and the spirit, was REALLY flesh and blood.

• The concluding remarks of the Apostle of Love were written to give his readers confidence of their salvation and in asking from their Father.

• Now maybe he had a sudden regret and remembered something that he had NOT talked about all through the letter, but for some reason the last few lines are about a new topic (he was a fisherman, remember!).

• The stuff about “a sin that doesn’t lead to death vs sin that leads to death” has confused people and I can’t say that I understand it myself. However, I have always assumed that it is talking about how some sins are just sins that you do accidentally that you don’t even realize but you don’t get “caught up” in them or addicted to or mastered by them. However, I truly have no idea! You’ll have to dig through scholars for this one…
• The good news, of course, is that if we are children of God, we belong to the true God and his true Son, Jesus Christ, and in him is eternal life!
• So since we are in fellowship with this true God of love, we must keep ourselves from idols!

• By the way, I guess you noticed how John kept addressing everyone as “dear children” – one more way that his love for everyone was obvious…

• The next letter by John was written to a specific person, a woman from one of the churches he had led, presumably. He was apparently close to her and her children. He was writing of truth, and to protect them from false teaching. He reminded them of the most important commands – obedience and love for one another.
• And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

• It may be that one of her children had been led astray and was following Gnosticism. He must have loved their family deeply and felt moved to write a personal letter of warning.  We can certainly see the danger of false teachers and the need to stick to the truth from this passionate but brief letter.

• As a young Christian, I used to sign off many of my letters of encouragement with verse 12:I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

• This third little letter also begins with John calling himself “the elder”. This time he was writing to a personal friend named Gaius. Love and truth are present in the first line, two things about which John always seemed to feel passionate.

• His greeting is quoted by many of us as we get older - Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. We all need as many prayers for our health as we can get!

• But more important than our physical health is our spiritual health – and John was ALWAYS concerned about that – he wanted to make sure that the Christians he had known were still walking in the truth! In fact, the apostle asserted that nothing brought him greater joy!

• John praised Gaius for his faithful service and love, and encouraged him to continue in his hospitality. The sad story was that there was a selfish egotistical leader named Diotrephes who was so competitive that he wouldn’t even talk to a former Apostle! Beware of leaders who have the reputation that he had – “loves to be first”. Diotrephes was even putting people out of the church who didn’t follow in line behind him…sad…

• John’s prescription for that was to expose him when he was able, but in the meantime, he challenged Gaius to not be taken in as well. What kind of leaders should you follow? Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

• If you are in a position of leadership, make sure you are leader who loves the truth and stays righteous. If you help out with leadership in your church, keep this in front of you as the standard.

• Once again, the Apostle of Love ended with a sweet sign off and I will sign off as well: I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.