12/6/13

12/6/13

I am fascinated by the Apostle John. He is the disciple that was closer to the Lord Jesus than any other. And he really got what Jesus ministry was all about. Love is a very central theme to these later writings. Here is a guy that is constantly under persecution, yet he is always preaching and writing about Love. Perhaps this is why Jesus gave the responsibility of taking care of His mother to John. John knew how to love the best. I really liked a point that Steve made yesterday, about the similarity between the Gospel of John and all these other books. I agree with that so much. However, the example that he gave was not the similarity that stood out to me the most. I am smitten with the first chapter of the Gospel of John, and when I read the first chapter of 1 John the other day, it was eye opening how much they mirror each other.
This is the example:
"We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us." (1 John 1:1, 2 NLT)
I love how John points out the eternal person of Jesus. Jesus was not created on Christmas. Jesus already was. He was right there with the Father when humans were created. He saw God speak the stars into being. He was there when God caused water to cover the face of the planet, and allowed Noah and his family to survive it. I have a feeling that John saw that his hearers needed a reminder of what he had written before. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word WAS God. We don't always understand the first time we are told something. We all can use a reminder. Today's reminder in 2 John is that Christ came to earth in human form. In a "real body" as John put it so well in vs. 7. And I think he wanted to remind us to love one another as he said in vs. 5-6.

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