Day 82: 1st John 3:11 - 5. Love One Another, part 2
John's letter ends with these words: Keep yourselves from idols.
It's an intriguing way to end. He hasn't said anything at all about idols in the letter, until this last sentence. And there are those that say that John leaves the most important thing until last.
What do you think?
In the meantime, John continues to talk about love. "Love one another, for love is of God. Everyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." The letter writer makes the case that those who do not love their brother or sister (who they can see) cannot possibly love God, who they cannot see. In fact, we love God BY loving our brothers and sisters.
The letter writer also talks about testing spirits to see if they are from God. The test is simple: do the prophets confess that Jesus has come in the flesh or not? If so, they are from God. If not, they are not.
The other thing I notice, reading this letter again and again, is that the letter constantly refers to those reading as "little children." What do you think of this?
I struggle with those last words of 1st John, where he says that those who have been born of God do not sin. I'd like to sit down with John and Luther, and have a little talk (Luther: who always called us "simul justus et peccatur" -- at the same time justified and a sinner).
I'll tell you a secret: the letter of 1st John was the first book of the Bible I translated from Greek. It is about the easiest Greek in the New Testament. But easy and simple are not the same thing, and there is nothing simple about 1st John.
It's an intriguing way to end. He hasn't said anything at all about idols in the letter, until this last sentence. And there are those that say that John leaves the most important thing until last.
What do you think?
In the meantime, John continues to talk about love. "Love one another, for love is of God. Everyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." The letter writer makes the case that those who do not love their brother or sister (who they can see) cannot possibly love God, who they cannot see. In fact, we love God BY loving our brothers and sisters.
The letter writer also talks about testing spirits to see if they are from God. The test is simple: do the prophets confess that Jesus has come in the flesh or not? If so, they are from God. If not, they are not.
The other thing I notice, reading this letter again and again, is that the letter constantly refers to those reading as "little children." What do you think of this?
I struggle with those last words of 1st John, where he says that those who have been born of God do not sin. I'd like to sit down with John and Luther, and have a little talk (Luther: who always called us "simul justus et peccatur" -- at the same time justified and a sinner).
I'll tell you a secret: the letter of 1st John was the first book of the Bible I translated from Greek. It is about the easiest Greek in the New Testament. But easy and simple are not the same thing, and there is nothing simple about 1st John.
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