Accepting God's Perfect Love Through Obedience

The first mention of God’s love (along with light, the main theme of 1 John) came in today’s reading. We follow this short letter better when we realize that it’s structured differently than much of what we’re used to. “It isn’t the type that moves from A to B to C to D in strict order. It’s A with a bit of B; then A and B with a bit of C; then A, B and C with a bit of D; and so on.” * So as we track his thought through the letter, we’ll see how John built to his affirmation of love being indispensable to genuine Christian living.

• Like any good pastor, the writer of 1 John had to deal realistically with the ever-present effects of flawed humanity. He needed to establish that love was not just an airy, dreamily detached quality, but a practical reality that shaped the way Christians behaved. That’s why he prefaced the mention of God’s love with the warning that someone who did not live as God wished couldn’t credibly say “I know him.” How has accepting God’s love changed the way you live for the better?
• “We might wonder what a Christian writer is doing referring to the commandments, and to the duty to keep them. Haven’t we just been told that we are forgiven?… For John, as for Paul, and above all as for Jesus, the commandments are all summed up in one word: Love. The Life of God’s New Age is revealed as the Love of God’s New Age. All other commandments–the detail of what to do and not to do–are the outflowing of this love.” ** How does Jesus’ loving model reshape your picture of God’s commandments?