Silent in the Background

We recently began a new series on Sundays exploring the love of God. I encouraged our church to read the book of 1 John, which is a very short book near the end of the Bible.  It’s a lovely book (actually a letter) with a lot to say about God’s love, as well as how that is demonstrated in Jesus to take away what would separate us from God (sin). To encourage you, here are some quick thoughts about 1 John 1 . Reading this chapter (which is only ten verses long), I have been caught by the very opening. Look at the verbs in the first three verses – declare, heard, seen (with our own eyes), touched, testify. The writer is talking about something very real, something experienced with our physical senses, something which can be seen, heard and touched. This is the writer’s experience of God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which he is declaring in order to have fellowship with his hearers and readers. The letter goes on to speak of joy, love and sin, all of which we m...

Last week I started from a verse in Galatians 4 reflecting on our relationship with God. On Sunday I made a link with what Paul wrote later in Galatians 5 about our relationships with each other. There, Paul quotes from the Old Testament: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” So, here’s a question: How many times is this Old Testament verse quoted in the New Testament? Perhaps most memorably, it prompts the question which leads to one of Jesus’ most famous parables. In Luke 10 , Jesus approves a lawyer’s summary of God’s law which includes loving your neighbour. The lawyer, ‘wanting to justify himself’, asks, “And who is my neighbour?” In response Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, challenging his hearers (and readers) to broaden their understanding of who are our neighbours. Jesus speaks of loving your neighbour when discussing the law with the rich young man in Matthew 19 and when tested by the...