1 John 5:9-15-- The Testimony of God

Scripture: 1 John 5:9-15

I once received an anonymous email asking about the Christian value and view of faith. The nonreligious sender, who had clearly been influenced by nonreligious sources, was under the impression that religious people valued thoughtless, "blind" faith--that we celebrated the "unreasonableness" or irrationality of our worldview. It wasn't that he thought that we avoided  science or philosophy out of a fear of being wrong, but that we would be happy for science to contradict our beliefs, since it would mean our faith was somehow stronger.

1 John 5:1-5-- This Is Love For God

Scripture: 1 John 5:1-5

Different types of relationships create different expressions of love. Love between spouses looks different from siblings' bond of love, and both of those are distinct from, say, a grandparent's love for a child.

The million dollar question answered in today's passage is this: what does love look like from a person to God?

1 John 4:7-21-- What Love Is, Part 3

Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21

After a brief interlude on the teachings of Gnosticism, we return to the theme of love. And while that Love-Heresy-Love pattern may be jarring, 1 John is a pretty circular book. (I checked a very official-looking outline, and indeed, in this part of the book the professor has Love-False Teachers-Love, so yeah... Yahtzee!)

1 John 4:1-6-- Refuting Gnosticism

Scripture: 1 John 1:1-6

This blog post is like an intermission from our little "What Love Is" series. To recap what we've learned about love so far:

• The greatest display of love ever, that truly defines love, is Jesus' sacrifice
• The result of that sacrifice is our adoption into God's family
• As in any loving relationship, trust is crucial; our trust stems from who God is and that He's given us the Spirit
  

1 John 3:19-24-- What Love Is, Part 2

Scripture: 1 John 3:19-24

Having grown up in the 90s, when I read the phrase "This is how we know what love is," I can't help but bob my head to the Night at the Roxbury tune, "What is love? Baby, don't hurt me, don't hurt me no more."

1 John 3:1-18-- What Love Is, Part 1

Scripture: 1 John 3:1-18

It would almost be impossible to overstate the importance of love to human life and society. And history. And pretty much every other phrase that starts with "human."

1 John 2-- Those Who Are Trying to Lead You Astray

Scripture: 1 John 2

It's always nice when the writer of an ancient text, like a Bible epistle, states his reason for writing. It takes away some of the interpretive work, work which could cause anxiety since we grew up taking standardized tests that asked, "Which of the following best summarizes the author's reason for writing this?" (For some reason, there was always either 0 or 2 answers that felt right.)

Fortunately, John does this for us in 1 John. The less fortunate thing is, he does it a bunch of times and thus gives us many different reasons.

1 John 1-- That Which We Have Seen

Scripture: 1 John 1 (especially v. 1-4)

We put a lot of trust in eyewitness testimonies. If someone heard about an incredible sale at the mall, I'm a little skeptical; if they hold up New Era Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap and say, "I paid $13 for this," I'm making a beeline to my car.

Hebrews 13-- Be Content

Scripture: Hebrews 13 (specifically, verses 5-6)

I've never had much of a handle on Hebrews 13. After chapters 8-12 carry forward such powerful illustrations and teachings, and then 13 just seems like a grab-bag of whatever else the author had to say. An instruction here, and exhortation there.

Hebrews 12:18-29-- You Have Come to Mount Zion

Scripture: Hebrews 12:19-29

There's a moment early in the series The West Wing that has stuck with me. It's the first day on the job for the President's new body man, Charlie, and he's witnessing the President publicly respond to some sort of crisis. He marvels to one of the staffers, Josh, that he's "never felt like this before." Josh smiles and says, "It never goes away."

Hebrews 12:4-11-- What Children Are Not Disciplined?

Scripture: Hebrews 12:4-11

To review the recent parts of Hebrews: in the face of suffering and hardships, our faith ought to carry us forward as we keep our eyes on eternal truths, just as the Old Testament heroes did and just as Jesus did.

But if you're like me, this isn't easy. In fact, it's super hard. When I'm in the middle of suffering and hardship, I want to keep my eyes on... my suffering and hardship. 

And all the while, amid my pain, complaints, and grumpiness, one question permeates my thoughts and words-- "Why, God? Why?"

Hebrews 12:1-3-- Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-3

Some things are just meant to be taken in a larger context. Sure, The Dark Knight and The Bourne Ultimatum are awesome movies on their own; but you get a lot more when you view (or at least consider) each as part of its respective trilogy. The same could be said for individual episodes of LOST, books in the Narnia series, and for my 2+ faithful readers (thanks, Mom and Dad), maybe even this blog post.

Unfortunately, I think we often fail to respect this principle, and one instance of this is the reading of Hebrews 12:1-3.