John loves to talk about Love, not the love the world throws around as a way to manipulate others to get ahead in their world of compromise and lies, but a love beyond our wildest dreams!  This Love begins by knowing God.  God is Love.  Jesus is the Action of that Love.

John wrote the gospel account about Jesus, our source of God’s Love, and explains God’s Perfect Love:

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”  John 3:16-18, The Message

John is inspired to write for one reason—so all will know and believe in Jesus, Son of God, who opens the door to God’s Love perfected in us and gives us life for eternity.  Yes, that means forever!

John writes his subsequent letters to the church of believers to help us realize that this knowing and believing unleashes God’s power in all who believe!  This power, brought on by believing and grows greater by our faithfulness to God has the ability to bring the world to its knees!  Wait, what?!  Read that again!  How great is our God!  How deep is our faith?  Meditate on the power that lies within us that can urge others to know and believe!  It’s a matter of life or death! 

True God—Real Life!  Now and Forever.

JOHN—GOD AND LOVE

1 John 5, The Message

^1-3 Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-born. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.

The Power That Brings the World to Its Knees

^4-5 Every God-born person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.

^6-8 Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death-killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement.

^9-10 If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son.

^11-12 This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son. So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.

The Reality, Not the Illusion

^13-15 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in his presence, freely asking according to his will, sure that he’s listening. And if we’re confident that he’s listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours.

^16-17 For instance, if we see a Christian believer sinning (clearly I’m not talking about those who make a practice of sin in a way that is “fatal,” leading to eternal death), we ask for God’s help and he gladly gives it, gives life to the sinner whose sin is not fatal. There is such a thing as a fatal sin, and I’m not urging you to pray about that. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal.

^18-21 We know that none of the God-born makes a practice of sin—fatal sin. The God-born are also the God-protected. The Evil One can’t lay a hand on them. We know that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we know that the Son of God came so we could recognize and understand the truth of God—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth itself, in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. This Jesus is both True God and Real Life. Dear children, be on guard against all clever facsimiles.

Lord,

I love you with all my heart, mind and soul.  I loved you as a child sitting in a room of believers growing up.  I love you still, love you greater still.  I may have troubles at times, but my love for you cannot be taken away, nor does it fade.  I cannot not love you!  Now I rediscover the power of your love in us today.  I am grateful all the more for what you are doing in and through us—all because of your love for us.  Wow!In Jesus Name, Amen  I believ