EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

The book of John is written to different audiences like unbelievers and Gnostic audience that have fell into straying away from the faith.  But, mainly it is important to remember that the book is mainly written to Gnostic believers.  A big aspect John is writing into about Gnosticism is they don’t believe Jesus is God. They just believe he is some guy that has this special knowledge, which that special knowledge is the most admirable attribute Gnostics looked up to.  And actually what’s even more crazier is that a lot of Gnostics didn’t see a need to be saved from their sin, but rather be saved from ignorance, by pursuing this knowledge that Sophia(a god that was lesser that God, and believed to have nothing to do with God) has deposited into certain people. The next thing that is a big problem is if they don’t think Jesus had anything to do with God, and actually they thought he just appeared to be human, then anything to do with Jesus being associated with God was ridiculous.  

Well, this is what John is writing into.  John is writing into this false Gnostic idea that Jesus is not God, and showing them through these next twenty-one chapters how he is indeed God.  He shows them by representing him human-like character, but also his divine attributes of the Father.   You can imagine the ways John brings across amazing truths about Jesus’ character in our lives. What constantly came up in this book for me is how when we don’t think sin is a big thing in our life to be addressed, then it will cause us to think that Jesus is not important at all, which is such a huge thing the original reader we’re dealing with, and in my opinion the biggest truth to be put across here.  This book can be applied to our culture by letting people see just how important sin is, and when we don’t constantly take it to God, it is undermining Jesus in our lives, and it will be a gateway for other false ideas to creep in.  

The Gospel of John was written by the apostle John to show people how Jesus really is the Son of God so that they may believe in him for eternal life. As I was studying this book, rich themes of the gospel – seen in the washing of the disciple’s feet, God’s grace towards us – demonstrated in the forgiveness of Peter, and Jesus’ tender and patient heart towards humanity permeated the whole book. Below, I discuss my thoughts on how Jesus relates to us.

Jesus met Martha as she ran to him after her brother died. In her grieving, she needed a theological answer to be comforted. Jesus gave it to her.

Mary, her sister, did not run to Jesus, but rather Jesus came to her. Jesus did not go into a long explanation of why her brother had to die. Rather, he wept with her. That’s what she needed. She needed to see his compassion and feel him hold her.

Mary Magdalene stood weeping at the tomb when she believed Jesus’ body had been stolen. She needed to see his presence. Jesus appeared to her and showed himself to her – to show her that he really had risen.

Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, did not take the other disciples’ word that Jesus had risen. He had to see the wounds for himself. Jesus appeared to him and let him touch his nail-scarred hands and his speared side so that he may believe. That’s what he needed.

In all these cases, Jesus never belittled. He knew each person’s needs and met them where they were. He created them and knew how each one needed him. Martha needed a theological answer, Mary needed to know and feel his compassion, Mary Magdalene needed his presence, and Thomas needed proof.

Jesus is tender with each one. As his followers, we can trust him that he knows each one of our needs and that it is his pleasure to love us in how we need him to. We are never an inconvenience to him and he will never speak condescendingly to us. Our doubts are not too big. He will hold us while we cry and he will enter into our pain.

In the same way Jesus relates to us, we must also love others in that same way. There is no formula to loving others and each person is unique. We must be tender, sensitive, and aware of others’ needs. We must be patient in loving others because our Lord is so patient with us. No person is beyond his love and as his children, he will continually meet us where we are and love us how we need him to. For those who do not love him, he is patient – and if there is a desire, he will reveal himself in the ways needed in order to believe.

I am so thankful he is patient and tender. He can handle my ridiculous questions, yet he also holds me and weeps with me when I am broken. What an amazing king! This Christmas season I am so thankful he became man so that we could really see the depths of his love for us.

The book of John gives us a great mystery: God loved us even while we were sinners. I wish I could have this explained fully to me. God cannot dwell with sin; therefore, God could not dwell with us, as sinners. However, he loved us, even though he couldn’t dwell with us. Why? I do not know, and I don’t think anyone ever will. But it is because of this love, that Jesus came in the first place and destroyed the Deceiver’s power over us, and enabled us to be perfected through his blood, so that God could dwell with us, as he has always wanted to. This is so amazing to me!

A great example of this is how, when Jesus walked on the earth, he washed his disciples’ feet. Most of us know both the story, and the reason that Jesus did this: to love his disciples and show them that he was humbling himself for them and wanted them to do the same for others. However, during the study of the book of John, I also learned that in the 1^st century culture, the act of washing feet was so abominable, that not even slaves were expected to do this for anyone. The act of washing feet was so demeaning and low, that it was not even something for the lowest of the low to consider doing!

Enter: Jesus. He decides to show that he has become lower than the low; he purposefully, knowing the tradition and culture, becomes lower than a slave, and washes the disciples feet b/c he wants them to see that he loves them so much that he will do whatever it takes to show his love for them. Jesus is not too proud to wash their feet; he wants to serve them and be their God.

Now, this is amazing in itself, but then, also consider that Judas himself was there, sitting in a chair, and having his feet washed by Jesus, who fully knew that Judas was going to betray and hand him over to the religious sect. Therefore, even as Jesus was washing Judas’ feet, Judas was devising a plan to hand Jesus over to be killed. And the very act of love came against the very act of treachery – love itself serving deceit. The question is, why did Jesus love Judas in this moment? This is unexplainable. When Jesus knew the sin in Judas’ heart, he still loved him; and when he knew us, as sinners, who did not believe in him, he still loved us. Even now, when we sin against God, he chooses to love us still. Why?! This is so amazing. This kind of love is incomprehensible, because we have nothing to compare it to on earth.

Therefore, this kind of love that Jesus has for us is far superior and unexplainable to anything we have on earth. And even though I don’t fully understand it, I am so thankful for it! Because of the fact that Jesus loved us as sinners, we can be saved and dwell with him forever, in his continual love. Therefore, even though I do not even understand this love, I receive it with thankfulness and praise. And I can imagine that you will probably feel the same.

           It overwhelms me to think that I have to put what I have learned in John into words because I still fumble to come up with a cohesive, complete understanding myself.  While there were numerous truths and points of application from this book, the one that I could not seem to get past was God’s character shown through the life of Jesus. The theme is that Jesus is God, and the best way to portray who God is, is by the life of his son. It just seemed like every incident of His life recorded in this book reflected a new aspect of God’s character, all shown through his great, incomprehensible love.

First of all Jesus was attacked verbally by the Jews on almost every account in the book, and what does Jesus do, but continue to try and show them the truth.  It wasn’t like the attacks were mere “fighting words” just to agitate Jesus, but they were blatant words of disdain and disgust, for what? For all the wonderful things Jesus did for others. Does that makes sense? Clearly it is a good thing I was not in Jesus’ shoes because my response would not be, “let me find a way to love these people more,” it would be, “let me find a way to tear them down publicly the way they have done to me!”  Then you have to take into consideration Jesus’ disciples and how Jesus had to deal with them and their unawareness.  These are the people that walked alongside Jesus and saw him heal, love and speak words of things to come daily, and what did they do, they continued to not understand him.  I think the funniest example of this to me is that during the Lord’s Supper Jesus frankly says that Judas is going to betray him and the disciples take that as he is going to go out and get the things they need for the festival…what in the world? If I were in Jesus’ shoes at that point I don’t know if it would be more tempting to beat their head on the table or beat my own (…which is why I  am not him, huh? ha.)! 

Then on that same night, Jesus gets down and washes his disciples feet, including Judas’ feet, the one who was about to go out and have him killed.  Besides the fact that Jesus is showing him great mercy and kindness in this act, he is performing a ritual that not even slaves were low enough to do!

In Jesus’ last preaching to his disciples he gives them the greatest honor of all in telling them the full truth about who he is and asks them to be his friends, and no longer his servants.  How many kings, presidents, prime ministers, etc. do we know how that have sincerely asked peasants, poor, obnoxiously ignorant, no-names to be their friends?

As if this isn’t weighty enough to give you a migraine, Jesus says one more thing that send you into utter awe, he tells his children that those who abide in him can ask for anything and it will be given to them (of course this is not in the sense that if you want a Lexus the Lord will grant it, but more of, if you truly know him and know what he wants for you, you can ask for what the Lord would want you to have and it will be given-in my opinion). All I can say is, “I’m sorry didn’t you just live 33 years of PERFECTION, and you are about to die an excruciatingly painful SINNER’s death that you didn’t deserve, and now you are wanting to continue to DO for me while you are in heaven?” WHY??? Who am I Lord that I am deserving of any of your love?

My prayer is that those of you who have read this will really chew on it and suck every bit of nutrient you can out of it! May you be blessed in this time of Jesus’ birth and remember him for ALL he is!

 

 

 

 

Oh, how I don’t even know how to sum up all that has been made known to me abour Revelation through one little blog.  Revelation is written to seven churches, that are experiening a widepsread persecution from Rome, i.e. Babylon.  The book of Revelation, not revelationS, is such a triumphant, easy book to actually understand actually.  Once you understand that it is Apocalyptic literature, and it was normal for letters like this to be written back then, then it is easy to go through this book, and interpret it.  Granted, there are some tough things, but this was not the hardest book for me by far.  The whole message of this book is bascially to show Christians, well everyone actually that Jesus will conquer in the end, and he is coming back to vindicate the people that believe in him, and bring everyone into pure, perfect, blissful, long lasting eternity with him.  How beautiful.

What is bitter tough about the book is the fact that those are the only people that are going to be reigning with Jesus, (those who believe in him for salvation for their lives) It is pretty dang clear that unbelievers will be judged by their works, and believers aren’t judged.  I asked the question in class, “Why do so many people say that God can bring someone into heaven by his mercy if he wants?” My teacher said toss that.  Which brings me back to the point that though this is really tough to swallow, imagine if God was impartial to sinners, and impartial to injustice.  Woah, that would not make my realtionship with him feel safe in his arms.  What if he was a God that gave favor to Sex-trafficers that are making children sleep with them?  Now, yes, with salvation in Jesus there is mercy, and forgiveness, I am not saying that.  But, what I am saying is that over and over again, the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ to gather his followers up, and bring them into infinite with him.  This is still something very tough for me to grasp, but I see over and over again in revelation that in this church age, knowing these truths should inspire us Jesus-followers to head out on a journey of highly, all the time, randomly, unshamefully, passionately, lovingly, peacefully, drastically, dyingly tell people about eternal life with Jesus, and the need to fall away from their life, and fall into him.

            The book of Revelation is an account of John’s vision on the island of Patmos, and it is way more straight forward, and way less spooky, than I ever imagined. With so many different interpretations regarding this book in our society today, I was hesitant and intimidated to enter the text. Previously, I thought this book contained a list of things that will/must take place before Jesus returns. However, in understanding the type of literature it is, my views have changed. By the end of the book, we are still left with the promise of Christ’s return, and the admonition that we do not know when it is. Therefore, we must be compelled all the more to speak truth with others. “Signs” of the end times cannot be used as a crutch to delay spreading the gospel or getting our life right. This book has invoked so much fear among Christians that it is unhealthy. Revelation does nothing but encourage Christians who are suffering and tells them what as Christians they are to expect throughout history until Christ returns (ie.persecution from governments, businesses, and society); studying the word of God should never invoke fear. I’ll get off my soapbox now… here’s what I learned:

            Revelation was written for seven specific churches in the first century who were experiencing severe persecution, and was written in the style of apocalyptic literature so as to encourage them. While it was written to them, it speaks truths applicable to the rest of the church age (ie.until Jesus comes back). Written in cyclical form and holistically symbolic in nature, like many books in this type of literature, it gives snapshots of God’s heart for history. He lays it out clearly – God desires for people to be in relationship with him. Jesus at the end of the book leaves the invitation open for all to come to him and enter his rest. However, the weighty part of this message is that those who are not repentant will one day be judged and damned forever. The warnings throughout John’s vision, which will continue to be manifest throughout the church age, are meant to bring people to such heart repentance – recognition that we have sinned against a holy God. He is willing to use even the evils of society, governments, and persecutions to allow people to see their need for a savior – which is ultimately for their good – and offers to save them from the judgment they deserve.  

            Appropriately, worship is the underlying theme throughout the whole book. In every account of God’s justice or his holiness, certain angelic beings can’t help but fall down and worship him. Every other chapter is a song of the redeemed. It is such beautiful imagery to see the response of these people who are able to clearly see God for who he is. He really is the cosmic king who with one small scroll unravels our history. One day we will be with God! Heaven is a real place and somehow through Adam and Eve’s sin, God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, was able to turn what they messed up into our good and thereby invite more of humanity into his eternal rest to worship him forever. Heaven will be even better than the Garden of Eden where they were able to see and worship God. We will be able to see God in his full glory, and by looking at his bloodstained Son, we will be able understand to a greater depth the love he has for us. This is to be our hope and motivation to endure in the faith. What a glorious plan of redemption!

“We were built to partake in continual fulfillment” (Andrae Braun). On earth, we use other things to temporarily fulfill us, but they are never continual and lasting. Therefore, we grow tired of them and we need new fulfillment every day. Think of all the temporary things we seek to fulfill our needs in life – food and water, people’s love, social time, sleep, exercise, etc.

These are all things that we need, but we have to continually seek them out; they are never constantly there to fulfill us. In the book of Revelation, this temporary fulfillment on earth is contrasted with the beauty of heaven, because in heaven we will never cease to be fulfilled; we will experience continual fulfillment in God forever.

Continual fulfillment is something we cannot even imagine in this world. However, the very fact that we can hope for this continual fulfillment and relationship with God, shows us that heaven is something beyond our imaginations and expectations. In heaven, we will delight in being with God and worshipping him, because all our needs will be met by him.

This theme of worshipping God is mentioned throughout the entire book of Revelation, because John wants his readers to realize that they can hope for this eternal relationship w/God, where they will be continually fulfilled in him, and will always be able to express their enjoyment of him all the time.

Here on earth, long worship services are portrayed as boring, and people sometimes imagine worship in heaven to be the same way. However, I think this is because we do not truly know the worthiness of God, and the fact that in heaven we will be continually satisfied in God, forever. In heaven we will see Jesus face to face. Then we will never want to stop talking about him, enjoying him, and being with him. Our every desire will be to delight in and love him – this is worship. Worship should not be viewed as a boring ceremony, but a love relationship!

In heaven, we will continually be fulfilled and satisfied in God, so the result will be a desire to tell God how in love with him we are. Thus, in heaven, worship will not be boring, but an ongoing and fulfilling relationship with God. We will never grow tired of enjoying and worshipping Him, because our delight and satisfaction in him will be continuous and eternal.

            Of all the books of the Bible, I would have never guessed the book of Revelation to be a book that brought so much peace and rest to my heart!  I know! Contrary to popular belief, or at least what I have always understood about Revelation, the theme of the book is worship.  John’s revelation that he receives from the Lord is a repetition of the series of events including the church age (the time after Christ’s death until Christ’s 2^nd coming) to God’s judgment, to peace and rest in heaven. These events build and build until they come to ultimate resolution in God’s plan being complete and praise and worship given to him. Revelation is not a scary book that is full of outlandish imagery that doesn’t make any sense, but rather it was a book written in a literary form familiar to the people of the time (apocalyptic literature), full of references to Old Testament scripture that the original audience would have been very familiar with.

            So what brought me so much peace from this book? It was the clear understanding of just how wonderful heaven really is going to be and what a precious gift it really is.  I came to this understanding with the help of our lecturer on the book in which he directed our attention to the way John tries to use human imagery to describe heavenly entities.  The huge problem John faces in writing the book is that heaven is so much more perfect than anything humanly imaginable, comparing it to anything on earth still doesn’t suffice.  In other words, if I take all the things in this life that I think are more beautiful and more wonderful than anything I can imagine, heaven is a thousand times better than that.  So with this in mind, I have re-evaluate the emphasis I place on things on earth, especially when I put them above things in heaven.  Nothing on earth will ever compare to the wonder in heaven and if we could just let that sink into our hearts daily, we could live our lives with a lot less stress, anger, and frustration and instead fill it with more peace, rest and anticipation!

I think what I got most out of the book of 3 John is just solid, basic hospitality. Even more what my eyes were open to is that there is no cop-out in the body of Christ to think that if I don’t have have money that I cannot bring anything to the table to support people. I love the relationship between Gaius and John, and his affectionate way of speaking to him. I really saw how much love and support John is giving to Gaius, which in turn will make Gaius be able to better stand up for the gospel by bringing in people more in his home/church. What I see in my life is when I am in church I really do justify that I don’t have any money to give, or I have nothing to bring to the table. I need to find more ways to help people even though I have no money to give pretty much. I think that is the whole point of John’s reasoning of writing this book is for Gaius to see that he is modeling what it is to truly be Jesus to fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, not just by doing it, but he because he becomes co-workers with the truth. And that is where it is at right there. The inspiration for being hospitable is because one becomes co-workers with the proclamation of the gospel. This more confirms to me that when I get older, which I have always wanted to, I want to support people by bringing them into my home. I think that it is such a beautiful way of representing Christ to others, and is a perfect way of proclaiming and walking with the truth of the gospel.

            In studying 2 and 3 John we had an opportunity to do an alternate assignment where after being taught on the books, we were allowed to choose one, study it, and teach it.  I choose to study 3 John and again I was amazed at all the truth that came out from the one chapter and really touched my heart.  The theme of the book is showing hospitality and the way this is used is by the author John addressing Gaius who is an elder in a church to thank him for the hospitality he showed to some friends of John’s that Gaius didn’t know.  It says that Gaius was faithful in truth to them and showed them love.   John then proceeds to talk more about these friends and says that “we” should support such people on their journeys.  So what is this saying? I feel like the author John is calling the believers to support these missionaries, whether with money or providing housing, or whatever their need is, and I feel like this is something that is applicable  to Christians today.  I speak as if I have always been an advocate of this but truthfully I have always been wary of giving money away to such people, especially if I don’t know them.  Through studying this book, however, I really feel like the Lord has opened my eyes to understand why giving to this cause is so important, because it is a matter of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth, just what believers were called to do in Acts.  As children of God our only purpose here on earth is to spread the word, and if we can’t go out and spread it, we should not even hesitate to support someone who is.  What if I don’t have any money? That is another excuse I have been using, because I have been a student now for many years and have not come to the point where I am on my own making my own money, so I’ve always thought I had a cop out-that I need to make sure I have money to help myself now and then when I am on my feet I can help others.  The important thing to remember is, God has all the money in the world and he can be our provider.  Even if we can only give the little bit we have that is enough, like the woman who gave her one small coin as offering and Jesus told his disciples she gave more than anyone else because she gave all she had.  All I am saying is that I want to start letting go of the tight grip I have on my purse strings and be more open to helping others with the resources I have, especially if it means that God’s word will be spread as a result.

The book of 3 John is about showing hospitality to the body of Christ, by receiving other believers into your home and showing them love. This was stressed by John, because the church in Ephesus that he was writing to, was debating on whether or not they should receive traveling missionaries into their homes. The church was unsure because one of their church leaders, Diotrephes, was telling them not to support these traveling Christian missionaries. Therefore, John was writing to correct them of this belief, and to emphasize the idea that showing love to Christian missionaries, by being hospitable to them and loving them, is actually a means of helping them to spread the gospel.

In the church today, we too can show hospitality to the Christian missionaries by allowing them to stay in our homes, providing financial support, being courteous, etc. When we do this, we are essentially aiding in the spread of the gospel, because we are enabling these missionaries to continue preaching the gospel to the world. Therefore, when we show hospitality to fellow Christian missionaries, we are not only loving them, but we are allowing the gospel to be spread.

As I studied 3 John, I realized that, even though hospitality is so important, many Christians today are not hospitable to fellow believers. While we do not mind entertaining people occasionally, it is generally done with the expectation that we will get repaid in return. Therefore, this is not true hospitality, because by nature, hospitality is helping someone in need that may never repay you.

Therefore, we need to learn the importance of the message that John is teaching the Ephesian church, and be hospitable to our fellow Christians, by not expecting to be repaid at all, but just to love them. Because in doing so, we are actually helping the gospel be spread to the world.

           The apostle John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, writes this letter to a church to encourage the them to be hospitable to the Christian missionaries who are traveling around from town to town. In the first century, this involved welcoming the missionaries, who were mostly people they would not have known, into their homes and giving them meals to aid them on their way. They were dependent on the aid of others to continue spreading the gospel – all of whom we are indebted to today for making the gospel known to us.

            In this command and call to be hospitable, I think it is necessary to understand our motivation. It is impossible to muster up genuine, lasting graciousness and hospitality, especially to Christians we don’t know and others, if we don’t understand the hospitality and graciousness the Lord showed to us. The Lord opened his heavenly home and invited us into his family when we were strangers. When we understand this, we are then compelled to love and serve others in this same way. It is out of response to how he has welcomed us that we want to welcome others and show hospitality. Through this, the gospel of God’s hospitality towards outsiders is made visible to non-Christians, workers of the gospel are encouraged, and the gospel is able to continue changing and redeeming hearts.

            Practically, hospitality in the 21^st century is necessary because it is still the means by which the gospel is spread. As Christians, we should be financially supporting and encouraging those that are preaching the gospel. We should open our homes to missionaries or other people that are in the business of spreading the gospel. We should refresh the hearts of those in ministry through words or letters of encouragement, by praying with them, and by providing meals. No matter if you have a home to offer or not, we are all commanded to show hospitality for the sake of the gospel spreading, motivated by the extravagant hospitality God showed us when he invited us into his heavenly home when we ourselves were strangers. 

I title this book this because John writes to the original reader most likely in Ephesus, surprise surprise.  The Ephesians are always getting into false doctrine, and yet again the Ephesians gave come to think a false teaching that is commonly known now as Gnosticism.  This is really important to understand because it teaches that “All Father God” is not involved in us, yet there is a god underneath him named Sophia.  To explain this sect is ridiculous. But mainly Sophia deposited these divine pockets of knowledge, and whoever they were given to are the only ones that were going to be in Pleroma, i.e. Heaven.  Crazy, yeah? Well, what’s even more wild is that they taught that Jesus was one of those people that got this divine knowledge.  That was simply it.  Their view of Jesus wasn’t so they could see their sin, and obtain eternal life through him.  They didn’t even see sin as a problem, rather their whole goal for their life was to be saved from ignorance, which is something I am confused still.  The most important reason I tell you all of this, is because John writes to a church that has no way to know how to decipher between someone who is truly a follower of Jesus, because they don’t discredit Jesus, thus making it confusing for the original reader.  It even gets more confusing when they believed in Dualism as well, which is the fact that their sins does not affect their spirit.  WRONG!  So, John writes to them and gives them these 3 tests…1. Disobedience Test, 2. Doctrine Test, and 3. Love Test. He equips the original reader with these to enable them to see if 1. they are not being obedient to God’s commandments, than they do not know God, 2, If they do not think that Jesus is the only way to heaven through forgiveness of sins, they are wrong, and 3. if they are not showing love to their brother and sister, they are definitely not from God.

I go into all of that, because if you get in the original reader’s shoes, it was probably so difficult for them.  The biggest thing that stuck out to me in this book was the very practical approach gives to the Christian life.  I should be modeling my life after him by laying my life down for one another, realizing the reality of Jesus, and taking my sin seriously.  These are crucial truths to apply to my life.  Going through this book, it comes in such a good time because I have been really seeing how God wants me to love him in the response of Jesus.  That statement was said by me a lot in the past, but just recently I have never taken it to heart so deeply.  What I learned in this book was just how much we need to be representing Christ in our lives, and not justifying our sinful lives, but rather look for more reasons to justify Christ. By first and foremost grasping this love of Christ that first spared me.

            What I really like about the book of 1 John was that it really provoked me to understand God’s heart when he commands his people to love others.  Of course it makes sense that God wouldn’t want us to hate others but I never really gave this idea of loving others much more thought.  As I was studying 1 John though I came across the verse 1 John 4:20 which basically posed the question, how can someone love God who is unseen if they can’t love their brothers and sister who they do see.  So God is training us to love others with the intent that we are then able to love him even more.  I often struggle with the fact that I love my family so dearly and I feel such a close connection to them and I feel guilty because I don’t know if I love God more than that.  While it isn’t good to love my family more than God I think it is good to understand loving those that I do see so much so that I can know how much more I need to love the unseen God.  In his epistle John really emphasizes the theme of abiding in love and uses it to counter the Gnostic influence infiltrating the church at the time and also just to encourage believers to remember the love of the Father over the love of the world.

            As I was studying for this book in Barnes and Noble I began people watching. At one point I saw a grandpa sneak up behind his little 3 yr. old grandson and surprise him.  As the boy turned around with excitement you could see all the love and joy in the grandpa’s eyes.  This just warmed my heart to see such love and joy and I know that is how the father looks at me.  So another thought came to mind, God’s number one command is that we love him and love others and the result of this love is pure joy, joy that cannot be bought or fabricated in any way other than through the Father.  So God wants us to know love in order to experience joy and be blessed as much as possible on earth. Looking back on my life, the times I have experienced pure joy have been such a blessing to me and now I know the way to continue in that joy in the future is to love God more and let that love pour out into the lives of others.

            All God wanted was for us to know his love, to love him back, and to love others. In the book of 1 John, there are Gnostic false teachers, an early belief system that rejected the humanity of Jesus and the goodness of God, that are getting in the way of the Christians acting this out. The apostle John reminds them over and over again that they do know God, that he loves them, and how loving others should naturally result from understanding the true reality of God’s love. In this book, I am just struck again at the deep love of God for us.

            John demonstrates the ultimate example of love in that God sent his only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we may have life through him. How incredible is it that God would become man, so that humanity may not suffer condemnation and eternal death – the condemnation that we brought on ourselves! He gave up everything dear to him, his most precious loved one, so that an ungrateful, undeserving people may have the choice to have a relationship with him. My heart can’t grasp why he wants so desperately to love us and be in a relationship with us! However, I can see that there is nothing more that God could/can do to prove his love for us. He went to the greatest lengths possible to demonstrate that. I’m not a parent, but I don’t know any one that would willingly give up their child to be tortured and killed so that ungrateful people could reap the benefits. But God did.

            It is not then interesting how our first reaction is to blame God when we experience suffering or hardship? Why do we do that? Why do we question the love of God for us when he showed us so clearly and extravagantly his love on the cross? How much more convincing do we need? Jesus’ sacrifice gives us an objective truth that God loves us and has our best interest at heart. So, when things are hard, when we experience the death of loved ones or sickness, we can believe and trust that God loves us. That love is based on his ultimate demonstration of that on the cross. We no longer have to interpret his love for us through the lens of our circumstances – for they do not dictate God’s love! We could never experience any of his blessings or never feel God again and we could be confident that he still loves us. He already proved everything. How amazingly wonderful is our God that he would love us!