Silent in the Background

1 John 2 is much longer than 1 John 1 which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, and it contains a wide range of themes and ideas – sin (again), forgiveness (again), light & dark (again), warning of anti-Messiahs, and encouragements to abide in God. It’s well worth reading and meditating on. But as we’re thinking about the love of God, I want to highlight the first half of verse 5 – Whoever obeys Jesus’ (or God’s) word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection (that’s one translation, click the link to see a couple of others). This verse, and actually quite a lot of this chapter, is quite striking and challenging, because it links our actions (obedience to God) with the perfection or completeness of the love of God. How, we wonder, can God’s love depend on what we do? Aren’t we supposed to be saved by faith, through the free gift of God, not by our own works? I think we can say a couple of things. First, ‘love of God’ here probably does not mean God’s lo...

Continuing our thinking about the love of God I was reading Romans 5.5 this week, which says that "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (NRSV) 'God's love' is the translation of ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ (he agape tou theou) which is in the genitive case - 'the love of God'. As it happened, in my beginner NT Greek class last week we were discussing how the genitive case has a wider range of meaning that simple possessive or ownership. (This was new to me, as a very beginner linguist.) My teacher pointed out the genitive can be understood in several ways: the love God has for others the love that another has for God (as in 'I have a great love of books') 'of' can imply authorship, as in 'the gospel of Mark' Translating the phrase above simply as 'God's love' seems to me to give it the first of these meanings. However, perhaps the original text (also?) carries the second...

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...

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness I’m getting to the end of my study of Joseph, which I’ve really enjoyed. There are valuable things we can all learn from this man called by God to care for Jesus. Matthew 1.19 describes Joseph as righteous or upright . The basic meaning of this word is ‘obedient to the law’ which perhaps does not sound very exciting! But righteous and righteousness are key words for Matthew – they appear more than twenty times in this gospel, more than in the other three gospels combined. Most of the occurrences are on the lips of Jesus where he challenges received ideas of what it means to be righteous. Sometimes Jesus refers to ‘the righteous’ meaning those who would be perceived, by others or themselves as righteous. In Matthew 9.13 Jesus was confronted by some who did not approve of the company he was keeping. He replied, “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners”. Elsewhere, Jesus specifically states that he is not abo...

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...

Returning to preach at CCC after my sabbatical (study leave) I pulled my thoughts together around six questions, under the title “You’re Only Human”, borrowed from Kelly Kapic's book . Where have I been? I’ve been reading, thinking and writing about the very human relationship between Joseph and Jesus, and questions like: Who was Joseph, the man? What did it mean for the human boy Jesus to experience having two fathers? How does this relate to the experience of contemporary foster fathers and children in their care? The set word count for my MA dissertation is 18,000 words and I've written about that number, although I've not been working at the strict 200 words per day suggested by someone in my card as I started the sabbatical ("not too hard" they said!) I’ve got more to write, and it needs putting together as a whole, but I’ve done the main work, which was my main aim, and I’m confident that I will finish it in the time allowed. …but what about CCC?! Who are yo...

Do you pray? Have you thought about the way you pray, and how you address God when you pray? Have you listened to the ways other people pray? One Bible passage that I’ve been reflecting on during my recent sabbatical prompts these questions: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. ( Galatians 4:4-7 ) This is one of Paul’s summaries of the gospel – the good news – of what Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection achieved. There is a lot packed into this short passage, but we can note Paul’s emphasis that (because of our adoption as children , and as siblings of Jesus) we relate to God as our Father . One way that we experience and demonstr...