Title: Sibling Love
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
I don't know about you, but I've met people who are atheists, yet display more love than many who claim to be Christians. I've met Jews who have a pretty good handle on love. I've met Muslims who display a love I find lacking in Christian communities. I've met agnostics, people kicked out of their churches, people excluded from their Christian homes, people who have no religious affiliation at all, among whom I have seen. evidence of the kind of love to which Jesus called us. What do we do with that? Can we honestly claim to know and follow Jesus without doing at least as good a job of loving one another as beloved children, siblings under God?
John tells us that love is from God. That is a huge statement with tremendous implications. If we take him to heart, he is declaring that all love originates in God. His claim is that God is the author of love, that all love comes from and is built in God's initiative. That would mean that the love I encounter in the life of someone far away from my religious tradition comes from God, just as the same person's very life originates in God. All love is divine love, it is of holy origin.
Now, we are talking about agape, here. That is John's consistent term used throughout this epistle to refer to love. Many have claimed that agape is sacrificial love, and it can indeed be used as such. The term, however, is so much more generic than that. It is the love between husband and wife, it is the term behind the beloved John uses to reference the believers he addresses. It is God's love for us. It is our love for God. It is our love for one another. The uses of agape are just as broad as we would use the term love in English. Sacrificial love is not excepted, but neither is it highlighted in John's use of the term. "Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God," in an all-inclusive expression.
The opening verses in today's passage are a poem, ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
I don't know about you, but I've met people who are atheists, yet display more love than many who claim to be Christians. I've met Jews who have a pretty good handle on love. I've met Muslims who display a love I find lacking in Christian communities. I've met agnostics, people kicked out of their churches, people excluded from their Christian homes, people who have no religious affiliation at all, among whom I have seen. evidence of the kind of love to which Jesus called us. What do we do with that? Can we honestly claim to know and follow Jesus without doing at least as good a job of loving one another as beloved children, siblings under God?
John tells us that love is from God. That is a huge statement with tremendous implications. If we take him to heart, he is declaring that all love originates in God. His claim is that God is the author of love, that all love comes from and is built in God's initiative. That would mean that the love I encounter in the life of someone far away from my religious tradition comes from God, just as the same person's very life originates in God. All love is divine love, it is of holy origin.
Now, we are talking about agape, here. That is John's consistent term used throughout this epistle to refer to love. Many have claimed that agape is sacrificial love, and it can indeed be used as such. The term, however, is so much more generic than that. It is the love between husband and wife, it is the term behind the beloved John uses to reference the believers he addresses. It is God's love for us. It is our love for God. It is our love for one another. The uses of agape are just as broad as we would use the term love in English. Sacrificial love is not excepted, but neither is it highlighted in John's use of the term. "Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God," in an all-inclusive expression.
The opening verses in today's passage are a poem, ...
There are 10697 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
