1 John 1
John begins with a statement concerning his testimony: he has seen the Word of life with his own eyes and he has heard Jesus’ words personally. This is important to the readers of the letter who are probably already among those who never had that opportunity. God came down to earth in the form of His son, Jesus Christ; it is a powerful thing that John is testifying to here. I like the way John says that he writes this to ‘make his joy complete’. It is as if he can’t help sharing what he knows about Jesus, and he delights in the knowledge that he can bless their lives too. He urges us to walk in the light as He is in the light. What is it about light here? To me it says something about living open lives, lives of which we are not ashamed, lives which reflect Jesus’ character. Also, in light all good things grow; in darkness that process stops. It reminds me of Blue Planet where it explains how all the life near the surface of the sea is there because of the sunlight. Further down other living things manage to scrape an existence by feeding second hand on what bits of plant matter fall down from the sunlit regions. I don’t want to be someone that is just barely managing to stay alive from little morsels of light; I want to bear fruit, lots of fruit. John ends this first chapter with one of the most succinct summaries of the gospel message: we only have to confess our sins to enter into God’s forgiveness. I want to try to be someone that is very willing to admit when I have done wrong; sometimes this can be hard, but God needs this first step from us to begin to put things right.
1 John 3
John begins with a statement I wholeheartedly agree with – expressing how greatly God must love us to call us H...
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...ater baptism), and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. John then begins to consider the implications of being a child of God. For one thing we now have the gift of eternal life. Another powerful weapon we now have is prayer – John reminds us that God listens to His children! We can be confident to ask and receive of Him knowing that, when our hearts are His, what we want is what He wants. We are also told to pray for those who sin, meaning to pray on behalf of them – that God would touch them with His life. John ends with a warning though, not to let our guard down. The world is under the control of the evil one and therefore there are things that can and will definitely attempt to corrupt our relationship with God. We should be wary of anything that seems to be distancing us from God, for that means we are setting up an idol in His place.
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of God because of the miracles he performs and finally describes Jesus' death and resurrection.
...escribes two different aspects of God’s Love. The first is that God’s love can be very commanding, resulting in a sovereign relationship between man and God. The second being that God’s love is everything, all around and forever present. There is nothing that was not made by God, and without his love nothing would continue to exist. Julian implies that it is humanity’s duty to observe these “sixteen showings” and to make it their goal to work towards that oneness with God. Once man is able to obtain this ultimate unity with God, he will be able to understand the true passion of God.
John focuses on the profound meaning of the life of Jesus, whom he saw as the
He heard the singing of the congregation. Elisha said, “Rise up, rise up, Brother Johnny, and talk about the Lord’s deliverance” John has been saved and exaltedly claimed, “Lord, I have been introduced to the Father, and the Son, and I ain’t no stranger now!” John’s quest to be closer to God was phenomenal. I too have had a rocky relationship with my father and like John has had to fight the demons caused by that relationship and atone for them.
Nichols, John. The. The Very Fundamentals of Christian Faith. Core 9 Lecture - "The. Shen Auditorium, Rensselaer, Germany.
It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for "God is Charity" (1 John 4:8)
Seeing as how we are all God’s children, made in His image, it is important to understand the necessity to love and respect one another while glorifying Him in the process.
In John’s society it is common knowledge that many things are forbidden, including travelling east, going to the Dead Places unless in search of metal, touching the metal without being a priest or the son of the priest, and crossing the great river and looking upon the Place of the Gods. As a young boy John accompanies his father to a Dead Place and holds a piece of metal. He does not die and, as common knowledge states, was found to be his father’s son and a future priest. From that point on John is taught chants and spells, how to stop a wound from bleeding, how to read and write in the old way, and many secrets. This is the beginning of his passion for knowledge.
He carries with Him the transcendence that comes only with God Himself. Therefore, His work on our behalf makes our salvation sure. Jesus, the God-man, has atoned for our sins. We can place our confidence in Him because of His divine nature” (7). This is the ultimate application of the gospel of John. John is a book that Christians need to read and gather as much information out of it as possible to share with others who do not believe in or have not heard of Jesus. The applications written in this book are for all to hear and for all to reap the benefits of. Jesus is the only one who can save humanity from the sin that we have brought upon ourselves in which the consequence is death. Jesus died on the cross so that we would not have to pay for our sins. God sacrificed His one and only son so that we may live eternally with Him in Heaven. According to the lesson on John, the Holy Spirit empowers Christians to provide the gospel message to others and share the love of Christ (Lesson 7.23.3). We are to allow the Holy Spirit to guide our actions so that the Lord might save as many as
"what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3)
...Today as a Christ follower, we will never be satisfied if our life is not bearing lasting fruit because we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were “grafted “into the Vine. Let’s examine the “fruit” of our lives. Is it the kind of fruit that reveals the character of Christ? Let’s not settle for fruitless Christianity. God will do the work of making us fruitful – we must only abide, surrendering our lives to His mission of making disciples of all nations through us. The whole notion of mission is to stretch out to work the work of evangelism not through hierarchy, sovereignty, rather through humbleness, hospitality, affection love for the others. That is what Jesus who portrayed as the one who we do not deserve to untie His sandals straps in the first Chapter of John, later become feet washer, intimate with humanity leaving His equality with God.
...ing my fellow human beings with love I am in turn helping myself with love.
“First, there is the call to be a Christian. Second, for each individual there is a specific call—a defining purpose or mission, a reason for being. Every individual is called of God to respond through service in the world. Third, there is the call that we face each day in response to the multiple demands on our lives—our immediate duties and responsibilities” (Smith, ...
Day 1: Do good and be a light to others There are many things, points, and ideas actually shared by our pastoral priest, but to sum it up, he meant that if we really want to avert ourselves from sinning, then we must DO GOOD! Be good to yourself, your family, friends, special someone, neighbor, community, strangers, to everyone! John, the son of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, was the one chosen by God to prepare the people and the earth to welcome our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the source of light, life, and everything but John reflects this light to prepare the souls of everyone to clean themselves spiritually to wholly and heartily accept God the Son as personal Savior.
The empathy that Jesus held for mankind was never so well summarized in the bible as in John 11:35. Christ’s emotions were narrated very rarely in the Gospel. For the large part of his ministry Christ spent his time teaching instead of expressing his emotions. Christians have for years come to one of three conclusions about why Jesus wept. The first was that Christ (being human) was in fact emotionally disturbed by his friend’s death. Second that Christ mourned with his friends to comfort them. Or that Christ, was disturbed by his friends lack of faith in him. The first conclusion dethrones what philosophers (namely Augustine and Plato) for years have believed about death. The second conclusion portrays Christ as sympathetic, but slow to react to his friends death. Whereas every other time Christ encountered death he was quick to take action. The third concludes that Christ chose to weep over his friends lack of faith. There is a reason that the writers of the gospels chose to mention this event. Understanding this event helps in understanding who Jesus Christ was.