Reflections on love from 1 John
May 4, 2014 | Anita Retzlaff
On human love…
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Whatever it is that we have made of religion, however it is that we have imagined God and whomever we have allowed Jesus to be in our lives, the little letter of 1 John - 5 short chapters - spells out the bottom line. God decides to embrace all of humanity with love. That’s it! God takes the initiative to love us whether we think we deserve it or not. God operates from a positive, encouraging perspective! And if anyone of us decides that we are not worthy of this love we are, in effect, turning our backs on God. The very nature and being of God is love! This is the message of 1 John. If we wish to dispute it we might as well just admit the truth: we prefer our own agenda over God’s agenda. We make ourselves more important than God and our opinions more important than God’s. We join much of society in diminishing the power of love to make our world the place that God intends.
God’s love in Jesus is the post-Easter joy for us! As we read in the first verses of 1 John this morning the author of this book and the community that comes together after resurrection is fired up and filled with excitement. “From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands…we saw it happen…The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us….this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ… we want you to enjoy this too! Your joy will double our joy!”
“I am not worthy!” I don’t think so! We do not dare say that in the presence of this testimony given for us. God has decided that humanity is, that we are, the object of God’s love. God chooses us. Accepting God’s invitation to be a part of a loving equation is what it means to live in “the light.” That is what Easter is all about! We still have the cross in front of us today, draped with white, the sign and symbol of light, reminding us that all of this – Ash Wednesday, the season of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday - this has all been about God’s love for us. Love is stronger than death and light has power over the darkness.
We are challenged to live like we believe this. Further on in chapter 1, in verses that we have not read today, it states: “If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another….” (1:6-7)
Do you catch the implication? If we deny our worthiness in the sight of God, not only do we cut ourselves off from God but from loving relationships with each other. We stumble in the dark. The writer of 1 John continues to draw further implications. We can’t separate a relationship with God from doing what is right because doing what is right – otherwise known as righteousness and justice - is about loving each other. Think about the dire situations around the world right now – Syria, Ukraine, South Sudan, Uganda, the atrocities that took place in Rwanda, 1000 missing aboriginal women in Canada and on the list goes. Which of these horrible human-made tragedies could not have been avoided had people chosen to love and respect each other? When we catch ourselves admitting that “this is hardly the way things work in our world” we are admitting that the way of love is simply ignored by most people. The solution sounds simple; live life with love instead of hate.
Love and hate are ways of living in this world; they are not solely emotions. Love is an expansive, generous view of life. Hate is a diminishing, stingy and negative way to live. One way is light; the other way is darkness. One way is God and the other way is that which has little room for God. We read in chapter 2: “Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark.” (2:9) Here we have a challenge. The brother and sister referred to are those who belong to the early Christian community. We in the church must begin here too, in our congregation, to view each other with an expansive and generous view; with love. In the closeness of community, which we often refer to using the image of “family”, it is really easy for brothers and sisters to fall out of relationship with each other. If you look at family dynamics it seems to me that often the touchiest of relationships exist between siblings, sisters and brothers, more so than between the generations: children, parents and grandparents. We might want to discuss that some time; I am not a therapist. Whatever the case may be, referring to each other as brothers and sisters in the congregation reminds us of our commitment to loving those with whom we might most readily disagree and tend to dismiss.
Love is the way we move forward. It is the guide and interpreter for our time; for new times. It is the joy that the early post-Easter community latched onto and shared with anyone who would listen. Love is the way we interact with each other and it is the message that we share with the world even when the main themes of global interaction seem to revolve around exclusion and territoriality. Easter light is as important today as it ever has been.
1 John 3:1-3
1 John 4: 7-12
On God’s love
Because God’s love for all creation is the solid centre of the universe, we are encouraged and empowered to love beyond ourselves. Working for peace and making a difference wherever we are is the natural outcome of God’s love. Loving others is not what we do to gain access to God but rather what happens as a result of our experience of God’s loving us.
We will choose to counter much of what society around us maintains: that love doesn’t get you anywhere and doesn’t get you the stuff you want. We will choose to counter much of what the church has maintained: that religion is a system of merits and rewards and there is only hellfire and damnation awaiting most of creation. These are not the images of Easter light and love. We can let these go.
Instead we will centre our lives around the miracle of love freely given and shared. We need not be afraid. Many of us have heard the quotation from 1 John about “perfect love casting out fear.” What this means, I think is that we do not give in to the anxieties of our society. The encouragement that we are given in 1 John can be our strength. The many times the community is referred to as “dear” and “beloved” is an indication of the value that the writer holds for the people of the Christian community. Love and regard of this calibre is sure to change the people upon whom it is bestowed.
God’s intention for us is that we love; love life, love God, love ourselves and love each other. Why is it then, that we spend so much time and energy guarding our image, competing for acceptance, criticizing our brothers and sisters? Why does it take us so long to discover that we don’t have to be critical, self-protective or so afraid? We have been given what we need simply in God loving us. Again, the solution seems so straightforward and yet it is so elusive. We are fearful for the future, we worry about the success of our children and we do maintain a system of earned merit and carefully cultivated reward.
Yet our scripture reminds us that when we have lots and lots of love to share there isn’t a lot of room for fear. “Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” (4:18) So, we live in the promises of God that we will become less fearful and more able to love; less filled with hatred and more open to care. Mature love is open-handed and open-hearted. Mature love gives us confidence in the face of an uncertain future and a world filled with hostilities. Mature love is God’s intent for all of us. As we live into a mature love we live a life of completion. From chapter 4:17: “God is love. When we take up residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us.” What encouragement for us who seek to be faithful! May the joy of Easter bring light to our lives.
