Pastor Chris’ Corona Quarantine Epistles to the Flock of AIC Ngong Road, in Dispersion and Isolation. 92nd. Edition.
Dear Fellow Sojourners,
Some Bible scholars have called 1 John the epistle of love, others, the epistle of assurance. Both themes are revisited, intertwined, in today’s passage (1 John 17-19).
Love and the Future (v. 17). The outcome of obedience is the perfection (completeness) of love. This occurs, possibly, in two ways. First, the purpose for which God loved us and sent his son as Saviour, was so that we would be rescued from our sinful ways. This is achieved when we are obedient. Secondly, obedience results in love for others. In this way, we become conduits of God’s love to others. The love of God, therefore, pervades our surroundings and spreads further, completing in its wake, God’s purpose for the world – the communication of his love. All this has a critical bearing on the future. Having represented Christ effectively, through love and obedience, we look forward to the day of judgment with confidence. Why? Because we expect the Lord to say to us on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21).
Love and Fear (v. 18). Where love has been perfected, fear has been banished. In perfect love is also perfect trust. That trust enables us to rest without fear, in the promises of God. We talked about the relationship between righteous living and assurance, before (3:24). Those who wade in the mud of impurity and sin will ever be doubtful. Their sin mutes the testimony of the Holy Spirit that assures us of sonship in God (Romans 8:16). So they live in fear. What a life! The solution to their problem is not another “deliverance service, and laying on of hands” – and I am not disparaging such practices, it is simple; obedience. You will live in the fear of uncertainty until you present “your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13).
Love and Faith (v. 19). I often hear people say, I love Jesus as my personal savior. It is an interesting way to communicate faith in Jesus, but it is also a statement of the fact that faith and love are intricately woven together. It all goes back to the fact that the genesis of our faith in God’s love for us. Because he loved us, we learned to love him back through obedience and to love others as he loved us.
Our love for him is reciprocation, but it is the one thing that says that we have understood what God did for us at Calvary.
Your Loving Pastor Chris.