I realized that I don't have the password to the andGandme blog that you made, Shalom. Err...yea. :)
Anyway, I know going a chapter a day may seem slow, but I want to dig deep into each passage...whatever that means. hehe. I kinda hope nobody reads this. -_- But I'm doing this because I love you. Asked Joe how to go about doing this: Put it in context, find out what it means to you personally, and apply...am I right, FRIEND? (:
Reading the introduction in my bible on the background of 1 John, the Christian faith seems to be only 50-60 years old when John wrote this. A generation had grown up in Christian homes and a subculture was already developing. People knew all the Christian "lingo", using phrases like, "knowing God," "walk in the light," "born of God"....etc....yet they seemed to have adapted new and distorted meanings. The book of 1 John is John's response to all of this. "He was fighting vigorously against whatever might corrupt the faith that had inspired him for so many years," says my student bible.
so..........sound familiar? Yes'm. Especially for those of us who grew up in Christian homes all our lives. I see it in myself as well as the youth my church. I go to a big church with like...200(? uhh i may be overestimating. but w/e) youth kids, and as I get to know them better, I love them and see them as so precious. It seems that at Bible study and church meetings, they know what is expected of them, and they know all the right things to say. Yet, outside of church....its "random" and "awkward" to talk about anything related to God. I definitely went through this phase and just recently broke out of it. Why do some of us have two different identities? As if our Christian identity is reserved for just church....and it has no business in any other part of our lives? Shoot, I find it so strange that even AMONGST church friends, it's awkward to talk about God. Isn't that weird? Yes, it is.
Okay, into the passage....v.1-2 ".....we have heard....we have seen....The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us." John HEARD and SAW Christ...he's not just telling us a passed-down story. He experienced him first hand. And I love how he describes Christ. Not just a man, but THE life...the ETERNAL life. He was always with the Father from the beginning. Christ was always there...and through Him everything was created. I think that's pretty cool.
v.5-10 talk about "Walking in the light". Okay, so from v.5-7, John describes God as "light" and that "in Him there is no darkness at all". If our identity is in Christ, we must walk in the light. In fact, if we are chosen by God, and we call Jesus, Lord, then it comes as a package. inevitably. hehe. Get it? We don't really have a choice. I'm not sure exactly what he means by walking in the light, but he does proceed to say that "we will have fellowship with one another....and the blood of Jesus...purifies us all from sin". Can you relate to that? You always say how you want to go to a Christian school, right? Because you don't know many Christians at your school? It's because you know the joy of just being in the company of friends who believe and share that same love for God. That does not mean that because they love God, they are all spotless little angels and it feels like we've died and gone to heaven. But, the fact that we are ALL sinners, yet it is by Christ's blood alone that we can rejoice TOGETHER as one, is almost like a glimpse of heaven. The closest thing to heaven on earth. Without Christ, how could we possibly experience this kind of fellowship?
We have to understand the magnitude of our sin. v.8 "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". Yes, we always hear at retreats...the usual altar call, or the sinner's prayer (is that what its called?), "repent of your sins, ask for forgiveness"....but it has to be a daily thing. Not a one time thing. It's true that once we accept Christ, "he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness," but we have to remember that confessing our sinfulness is a continual thing. Every single day we have to know that we NEED Christ because we are dirtier than we could ever fathom. I wish I could come up with cool analogies. but...I can't. sorry. hehehe.
Anyway, let's pray continually that God will show us just how broken, how sinful we are, so that we could lift Christ higher---understanding that his death came at such a high price....and to realize that we were the ones that crucified him.
We need to love one another, despite our differences, because we are aaaallllll purified in Christ. All of our worth was made by Him and Him alone. None of us are perfect. Pray for each other and learn to love selflessly as Christ loved us.
Sharome<3
