1 John 3:4-7

“No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” vs. 6

On the surface John seems to be talking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand he writes, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” and yet a few paragraphs later he tells us, “no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” What gives? How shall we understand these apparent contradictions? The answer, of course, is that both statements are true! This is another example of a paradox. Those early pastors and preachers who proclaimed a gospel of grace figured out in a hurry the message of “grace alone” would be abused and misunderstood by sinners. Such folks mistakenly believed that a message of love and forgiveness was a prescription for doing as they pleased. Fortunately leaders like Paul and John didn’t abandon grace and return to the law. They simply pointed out the truth. Sin is incompatible with the righteousness of God! So, as John puts it, anyone who sins doesn’t have a clue about who God is! Grace is intended to change us, and not make us content with being sinners! The words of absolution that we hear in our rituals of confession and forgiveness have power! We can actually become the persons God intends us to be! We sinners are actually made righteous! 

Thought for the Way: What signs of righteousness am I seeing in my life?

1 John 3:1-3

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” vs. 2

Much to our chagrin many of us have discovered that as we grow older, we begin to resemble our parents. In fact, it’s not unusual for a person who has known our father or mother, and who then meets us, to immediately comment on the similarity in facial features or even mannerisms. Whether we like it or not, our genes are constantly at work to make the old proverb come true, “an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” John probably was aware of this truth, and used it to offer a word of hope to his readers. He tells them that as God’s children we don’t know exactly how life will play out. But he does believe that ultimately we will grow into the image and likeness of God. In other words, we will become what we have been created to be. Since we have God’s DNA embedded in our souls from birth, we will still have that DNA when we breathe our last breath. It’s inevitable, and that truth should be a great consolation as we live out our earthly lives. Even if we’re at the awkward stage of our spiritual growth, kind of gawky and unremarkable, one day we will be like God. That’s something to look forward to!

Thought for the Day: What physical characteristics did my genes give me?

Psalm 4

“You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound. I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.” vss. 7-8

The psalmist was content. Even though the people around him were yearning for a glimpse of light and some sign of good, he had all that his heart could desire. The Lord had put gladness in his heart and he was even able to sleep through the night in peace. The woes of the world couldn’t touch his serenity! The hours of darkness really are a good test for our peace of mind. There is so much going on in the world and people seem to delight in ramping up the anxiety level. Bad economic news is a constant, and there are always stories of violence and injustice. A glance at the evening news can produce hours of tossing and turning, and only minutes of fitful sleep. The psalmist points in another direction and thanks God for the gladness in his heart. That same thing can happen for us. It isn’t that we need to turn off our phones and tvs in the evening, but it’s essential that we realize that there’s more to life than what is reported by the fearmongers. We have a God who is, and who always will be, and God’s love is what makes our pillows soft and our beds so sweet. How good it is to close our eyes at night with prayers of thanksgiving on our lips!

Thought for the Day: What keeps me up at night?

Acts 3:16-19

“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.” vss. 17-18

By the time Luke wrote his gospel and the book of Acts, the community of believers had figured things out. Initially the disciples had been puzzled by the crucifixion of Jesus. Since they had believed him to be the messiah, they didn’t understand why he had to suffer. Nothing in their readings of scripture had indicated that this might happen. But then they took a second look at the prophets and saw in them a multitude of verses that referred to the coming of a Suffering Servant. With that there was a turn around in their understanding. In fact Peter says here that everything that had happened–the arrest, torture, and death of Jesus–all these things had been a part of God’s plan. For that reason Peter decides to give his audience in the temple a break. Yes, they had killed Jesus, but they had acted in ignorance, and everything had worked out as God intended. It’s an interesting perspective, and one that is familiar to many of us. It’s just the way humans think. We know from experience that the awful things that happened to us–the divorces, the rejections, the illnesses–sometimes those things were for the greater good. We would never have known such joy had we not had such tough times. And we praise God for all that has happened!

Thought for the Day: How have the sins of others turned out for my benefit?

Acts 3:12-16

“When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?’” vs. 12

Many believers have a mixed attitude toward miracles. We will gladly pray for healing whenever asked, but then when healings actually occur we are reluctant to call them miraculous. That wasn’t the case among the apostles in Jerusalem during the early years of the church. Luke records many miracles in his account of the Acts of the Apostles, but he always notes that the disciples did not take credit for these wonders but always claimed that they had been done by the power of God. In this instance Peter, who by this time had become the leader of the apostles, had gone with John to the temple for prayers. Some of those at the regular prayers had become Christians, but not many. Peter takes advantage of a crippled man’s healing to remind the unbelieving bystanders in the temple that all the power of their God had been focused in Jesus, the man whose death they had caused, and it was that power that had enabled the man to walk. The apostles expected to see signs and wonders like this in the life of the community–it’s what happened with the Risen Christ. It wasn’t an embarrassment to them. They used them as opportunities to testify. Sometimes we wonder why it’s an embarrassment to us!

Thought for the Day: Why do some discount stories of healings?

John 20:26-31

“Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’” vss. 28-29

It’s kind of neat the way John finishes his carefully crafted gospel. The man who the world has come to know as “Doubting Thomas” gets to make the first recorded confession of faith in the Risen Christ. Sometimes it’s the most unlikely disciples who turn out to be the very best witnesses. We’ve seen it happen again and again. Honest truth seekers at first turn away from faith, but when their convictions change, they become paragons of faithfulness and blessings to many. Thomas did get a special break, but John uses his story to encourage future believers. John wrote his gospel for those who weren’t in the upper room when Jesus came. He wanted everyone to know the story of the Christ, especially those who had never seen, yet who would one day come to believe. And that includes all of us! John believed that there were blessings that accompanied confessions of faith, and that as more and more people came to believe, those blessings would abound. Was he right? Well, based on what has happened in the last 2000 years we would most certainly have to agree. There are blessings connected with faith in the Risen Christ, and our lives have been enriched by the gospel writer’s great gift to the world!

Thought for the Day: How has John’s gospel enriched my faith?

John 20:19-25

“So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’” vs. 25

Thomas missed out. He wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus appeared and breathed his spirit on them. And rather than accepting their testimony, he added tension by adamantly refusing to believe them. Since he hadn’t experienced the presence of Jesus, he wasn’t going to believe in the resurrection. The gospel writer, John, in using this story of the missing Thomas, made Thomas a kind of model for millions of future disciples. Because who among us hasn’t had significant doubts about things that we read in scripture? And in particular large numbers have had difficulty with the very truth that Thomas balked at! If we’re honest we have to admit that it’s really hard to believe in the resurrected Jesus, and that’s a pretty key element of the gospel story. And one of the main reasons for our doubt is that we haven’t had the same experiences of Jesus that others have had. So when others say that they’ve felt the presence of the Risen Jesus, our first reaction is to dismiss their witness. We might not express our doubt as strongly as Thomas did, but the feeling is there. So it’s natural to give thanks for this story–the community of faith even has room for doubters!

Thought for the Day: When do I have doubts about resurrection?

1 John 1:8-2:2

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” vss. 8-9

For some these words are so familiar that we’re almost surprised to see them pop up in a portion of mostly unfamiliar scripture. For congregations that use a weekly service of confession and absolution to begin worship, these verses invite us into a silent time of personal confession that for most is not nearly long enough. They are a precise description of how we can deal with the sin that stalks us every day of our lives. Their author did not tell his readers to stop sinning! Instead he told them to stop fooling themselves. They are sinners, through and through, and there is nothing they can do to avoid sinning. But rather than scolding about imperfect ways of thinking and doing, John offers a simple formula for peace and reconciliation. There’s only one thing to do! If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive all of our sins. We will be cleansed from all of our unrighteousness. And what is amazing about this promise is that it actually works! When confession is honest and sincere, it will be followed immediately by a deep sense of relief and peace. These aren’t just words! With confession we are enlightened and set free from all the demons of our personal dark places. 

Thought for the Day: How do I feel when I sincerely confess?

1 John 1:5-7

“If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;” vs. 6

Evidently there were some folks in the communities John was writing to who believed that our behavior as disciples of Jesus really didn’t make that much difference. They reasoned that perfection, walking in the light, was too high a standard and that people shouldn’t beat themselves up if they wandered from the Way of Jesus or were content with lower moral values. That’s not an unusual ethical stance. The old saying, “everyone is doing it” is regularly heard among us and is used to excuse every kind of aberrant behavior. It’s just not true that everything goes in the community of the faithful. No matter how acceptable our dark behaviors may be in our culture they will ultimately destroy our fellowship. This isn’t to say that we will always be perfect. Of course we will sin and miss the mark as we live and work in the world. If we could be perfect there would never be any need for forgiveness! But embracing our sin and walking in the darkness just doesn’t work. Most importantly, it damages our relationship with God, the One whose essence is Light, and whose Son is the Light of the world. Our basic call is to be children of the Light and to glorify God by enlightening the world. 

Thought for the Day: What’s it like to walk in darkness?

1 John 1:1-4

“We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—” vs. 1

The three letters of John come from the same period as the gospel of John and were likely sent to believers living in Asia Minor, the area we know as Turkey. Unlike other epistles in the New Testament, this writer never quotes from the Hebrew scriptures. Any authority he has comes through experiences with those who actually knew Jesus. Even though he is likely living in the last decade of the first century he claims a direct connection to the Christ. He’s writing to warn congregations about teachers who are distorting the true faith and encouraging believers to embrace false teachings. He has a pastoral concern for his readers and knows that there is no benefit in division or separation. He pleads with them to return to the true Christ, the one who was in the beginning with God, and who became incarnate in the person of Jesus. This kind of slippage, already apparent in the early church, has continued to plague the Church throughout its history. Always there have been false teachers sniffing people out in congregations, and trying to convince believers that they have new knowledge, teachings that supersede the teachings of Jesus. Against them we are called to remember that it’s the old, old story that contains the essence of truth.

Thought for the Day: How can we discern false teachings?