Love and Faith

READING THE GENERAL EPISTLES, PART XVI

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1 John 4:7-5:21

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My dear people,

let us love one another

since love comes from God

and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Anyone who fails to love can never have known God,

because God is love.

–1 John 4:7-8, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

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When one reads 1 John 4:7-5:21 in textual, cultural, and historical context, the text speaks for itself in a clear voice.  Think, O reader, of a Johannine community, a branch of a small and marginal yet growing Jewish sect to which Gentiles also belonged.  Think, O reader, about a Johannine community troubled by false teachers who refuted the Incarnation, therefore the foundation of Christianity.  Think, O reader, of a Johannine community that schism has rent asunder.  Then the meaning and power of 1 John 4:7-5:21 ought to become obvious.

 

Regarding sin in First John, I refer you, O reader, to the first post about this epistle in this series.

 

I can speak and write only for myself.  I leave you, O reader, to speak and write for yourself.  I read 1 John 4:7-8, apply it to myself, and recognize how spiritually lacking I am.  Loving some people is easy.  Yet I really others to “get theirs”–and not for the sake of justice.  I fall short of the divine standard.  I persist in faith, however; I take that sin to God.  I am insufficiently in Christ.  I pray to grow deeper in Christ.

Moral perfectionism is an impossible and cruel standard.  It is cruel because it is impossible.  Yet one can–and must–strive to improve, to mature spiritually.  If I did not mature spiritually with experiences and the passage of time, I would be in a terrible predicament.

Thank you, O reader, for joining me, on the journey through First John.  I invite you to remain on the trail for my final stop–Second John and Third John.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 4, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR

THE FEAST OF AGNETA CHANG, MARYKNOLL SISTER AND MARTYR IN KOREA, 1950

THE FEAST OF ERNEST WILLIAM OLSON, SWEDISH-AMERICAN LUTHERAN POET, EDITOR, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF H. H. ROWLEY, ENGLISH BAPTIST MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR

THE FEAST OF JOHN CLARKE, ENGLISH BAPTIST MINISTER AND CHAMPION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN NEW ENGLAND

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