July 11, 2012 – 1 John 3 – 4

Two main themes in these two chapters.  The overwhelming one is love.  Love is overflowing as not only what God is, but what we are to do, how we are to act, what we are suppose to fill ourselves with.  Love is the answer to everything.  The second theme is the world and what it emulates.  It is the opposite and counter to everything God is.  The opposite of love is fear.  The world fills us with fear.  Fear of financial woes, hurt feelings, diseases, death.  Love conquers all fear and allows us to live fully as God intended.  Whenever you read or hear about fear or what we are to be afraid of, look for the absence of love.  (as I write that I am trying to figure out where my fear of heights is an absence of love, maybe an absence of fully loving, which would including trusting, of God.  Fear stemming from not thinking God loves me enough to take care of me when my fear is irrational.) 

It makes you wonder about how the world teaches us that love should be celebrated even without marriage or with unnatural definitions of marriage when marriage is about a lifetime commitment.  It is like saying the world’s view of love fosters a “fear” of commitment.  The world’s view of love is a lie, which is what the ruler of the world is best at doing. 

3:13 “Do not be amazed, [then,] brothers, if the world hates you”.