John’s letters are among the most
beloved of all the letters
of the Bible. And in case you didn’t catch what I did there, John’s letters
have a lot to do with love.
In his first letter, John says
that loving others means that we love the Father and know him. Those who love
their brothers “abides in the light,” but “he who hates his brother is in
darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the
darkness has blinded his eyes.” John’s message here is clear: love your
brothers in the church and elsewhere.
In John’s second letter, he is
addressing an elect lady and her children. He emphasizes to her that they keep
the commandment they had from the beginning: “that we love one another.”
In John’s third letter, he writes
to Gaius a brother in Christ and a dear friend. He thanks him for donating to
missionaries and for strangers. He warns against loving oneself and giving in
to pride, however, and gives Diotrephes as an example of this. He gives Demetrius
as a man with good testimony, and they should know this.
John’s version of love is
different than our own. He insists that we love each other as brothers in
Christ. The modern version of love is varied and can mean very different
things. However, John’s version of love is specific. We are to love each other
as brothers. We are not to hate each other, or we lose sight of God Himself.
Well, that’s it for this edition
of Villager News—I mean, that’s it for this blog. If you have any comments, put
them below.
Thanks for saying a bit about context... but I was hoping you would pull together the various passages where John talks about love and pull together some conclusions.
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