Title: Abiding in Love
Aurhor: Christopher Harbin
Text: 1 John 3:1-7
Are we trust the love in our relationships? For many people, their biggest hang-up with church has to do with a lifetime of relationship experiences. We tend to look at our secondary relationships from the way our primary relationships developed, molded, and affected us. Back in the 1950s, Eric Erickson posited several stages of psycho-social development beginning in infancy. The very first stage focused on trust versus mistrust. This stage is primarily centered in the first 18 months of life. If a baby learns to trust those around them, trust becomes a pattern for navigating relationships in the long-haul. If their world is one of mistrust and unmet needs, they tend to interact with others out of mistrust. Trust or mistrust becomes their baseline. How can God's love become the baseline for our lives?
John's epistles focus on love. Love is the basic theme he addresses before Jesus' followers half a century after the resurrection. Jerusalem has been destroyed for some time, forcing Jews and followers of Jesus to be dispersed throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Threats against the community have come from many directions. Much as Jewish communities still suffer today from anti-Semitic attacks the world over, so Jews and Christians both suffered the same fate in John's day. For most, there was no distinguishing one from the other, as neither worshiped idols, having none of their own. This led to considering them both atheists and undermining the welfare of society by creating enmity with the gods.
John's counter-argument is presented here in no uncertain terms. This community of Jesus followers is undoubtedly loved by God. In fact, God has given them the authority or right to be called God's children! That is a rather big statement. It recalls the Gospel of John's declaration that all who receive Jesus have been given just such a right. Though the world around them stood against their ...
Aurhor: Christopher Harbin
Text: 1 John 3:1-7
Are we trust the love in our relationships? For many people, their biggest hang-up with church has to do with a lifetime of relationship experiences. We tend to look at our secondary relationships from the way our primary relationships developed, molded, and affected us. Back in the 1950s, Eric Erickson posited several stages of psycho-social development beginning in infancy. The very first stage focused on trust versus mistrust. This stage is primarily centered in the first 18 months of life. If a baby learns to trust those around them, trust becomes a pattern for navigating relationships in the long-haul. If their world is one of mistrust and unmet needs, they tend to interact with others out of mistrust. Trust or mistrust becomes their baseline. How can God's love become the baseline for our lives?
John's epistles focus on love. Love is the basic theme he addresses before Jesus' followers half a century after the resurrection. Jerusalem has been destroyed for some time, forcing Jews and followers of Jesus to be dispersed throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Threats against the community have come from many directions. Much as Jewish communities still suffer today from anti-Semitic attacks the world over, so Jews and Christians both suffered the same fate in John's day. For most, there was no distinguishing one from the other, as neither worshiped idols, having none of their own. This led to considering them both atheists and undermining the welfare of society by creating enmity with the gods.
John's counter-argument is presented here in no uncertain terms. This community of Jesus followers is undoubtedly loved by God. In fact, God has given them the authority or right to be called God's children! That is a rather big statement. It recalls the Gospel of John's declaration that all who receive Jesus have been given just such a right. Though the world around them stood against their ...
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