Today’s lectionary readings include
this passage from First John:
“Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his
commandments. Whoever says, ‘I have come to know him’, but does not obey his
commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but
whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached
perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, ‘I abide
in him’, ought to walk just as he walked.”
Faith.
Works. Grace. Forgiveness.
We tend to complicate so many things.
Perhaps we are trying to think up excuses for the way we want to
live. In Jesus’ time, the commandments
had grown from 10 to over 300. If you
read the whole 300+ you’ll quickly see that there was a very clear effort to
use new commandments to excuse behavior that had become commonplace. We all want to believe that we are doing the
right thing even if it means that we have to “reinterpret” the common sense of
the commandments.
Jesus tried to simplify things. He said that all of the commandments can be
summarized in two simple ones: love God
and love one another. On the one hand
they are pretty clear. On the other,
they leave a lot of wiggle room for people who want to justify behavior that is
clearly not loving.
Love of God is rooted in
gratitude. If we demonstrate our
gratitude to God for the blessings that we have, the blessings that He has
authored through creation, we’ll be on the right path to loving God. Sounds too simple? Not really.
When you get up every morning reflect on the ways in which God touched
your life yesterday. Thank Him, and pray
that the Spirit will continue to lead you down those paths that you know – yes, you do know – will bring you still
closer to God.
Loving one another is also not simple,
but it is the way that we reflect Christ’s love for us. We know the difference between loving one
another and not. We can make up all the
rationalizations that we want for not loving someone, but despite our best
verbal efforts we KNOW when we are not loving one another. Christ knows that we are no where near being
perfect, but we do know when we are
making love the focus and framework of our life. Will we stumble and fall. Of course we will, but Christ wants us to
keep living our lives within that framework that is defined by love for God and
love for one another.
John begins his chapter with these
words:
“I am writing these things to you so that you may not
sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours
only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
When we walk the path that
Christ has laid out before us, if we stumble and fall we have his
forgiveness. He is our advocate before
God. If you know Christ, if Christ is in
you as Paul insists, then you will show His presence abiding in you by walking
“just as He walked.” Otherwise, as John
says: “Whoever says, ‘I have come to know
him’, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar.”
It really isn’t all that complicated,
but it is very serious!
Let’s pray: Lord God, we give You thanks for all that we
have, for all that we have has come to us from You. Strengthen us by the Holy Spirit that we walk
on the path marked clearly by the life of Your Son. Forgive us as we stumble. Light our way that we may leave the darkness
behind and live our lives always in Your presence and in Your care. Through Jesus Christ our only source of
redemption and forgiveness. Amen.
Today’s lectionary readings are Daniel
2:1-16; 1 John 2:1-11; John 17:12-19; Psalm 5, 6, 10 & 11.
Peace.
Pastor Jim
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