Tuesday,
April 20, 2021
This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth—because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love. How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded. I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. 2 John 1-6
The much beloved apostle, John, writes to the chosen
lady, a code word for the church he pastored while in Ephesus. He tells the believers there to love
one another.
That one word, “love” could mean a lot of things. In popular culture of the 21st
century the word evokes images of a far-different meaning than that to which
John referred. When writing these
devotionals I hunt for an image to use as a title base, something which conveys
some of the thought central to the Scripture.
For today I typed in the word “love” and, within 3/10ths of a
second I had 482 pages of images from which to choose. Each page had around 100 images. Do the math…if I looked at them all to make a
selection it could have been a week from next Friday before I even wrote word
#1 on the page. Even more problematic is
that most of the images would have been rated PG…at best! (My choice of search filter for my computer
won’t even show me the more lurid ones).
The point here is that our current popular culture’s idea of
love centers around romanticism, a far cry from what John urged for his
congregation.
But even when you make that distinction…not romantic love,
but God’s love…there is a disconnect about what the apostle means (thus having
40,000 pictures from which to choose).
So, let’s be clear; John doesn’t mean we should lust, like
uncontrollable animals. He is not
referring to sappy flowers-and-balloons, tear-jerking feelings. And he is certainly not into Hallmark-movie
sighs of everything will be just fine and dandy. John is full-on describing the way God dies
for us…laying-down His life, spilling His blood, so that we can live forgiven
and joyful. When the apostle says we should
love one another he’s pointing to the command to be
obedient to God’s command to live in truth with each other, humbly accepting
each other as part of the same family.
He’s calling us to a lifestyle of unconditionally doing what is best for
each other, even if it hurts, is inconvenient, or costly.
Most of us respond…but who can live like that? The short answer is: Jesus!
When John says “love one another” he’s saying “be like the
one you chose to follow”.
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: Vanni, via Wikimedia Commons Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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