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After you've read David's thoughts, share yours! Send a reply email to David!!
DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
A.
INTRODUCTION...
Test?!! My actual title is The Absolute Essentials of the Christian Faith, too long to fit on the subject line. But test? Sort of. My list of "absolute essentials" is a test of how serious someone is as a Christian. Circumstances once led me to ask the following: if someone tells me they're a Christian what do I have a right to expect or assume about that person? Any standard of behavior, belief, or attitude? I initially chose this lofty title tongue-in-cheek as if I had the right to pick the absolute essentials. But it is both serious and provocative. What do you mean when you say you are a Christian? And what would you expect of someone who is a Christian?
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C. SUMMARY ...You are my "virtual" Bible Study, you exist on the internet. In my "physical" Bible Study we lumped together verses from 1 John Chapters 3, 4, and 5. These are not John's Gospel but his letters to the overall churches of his day. In these chapters John lays out a theology of love, a great circle of love that begins with God and ends with God. In 1 John 3:1 he says "how great is the love which God has LAVISHED upon us". The proof of that lavish love is God's gift of Jesus to us. Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross is an example to us of how much we should love others. Our love, in deed as well as word, is proof of God's presence in us. Why? How? Because GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:16). Whenever we love we enter into God. Whenever we enter into God we love. We cannot separate love from God, of God from love. SO... God loves, therefore we love God by loving others just as lavishly.
D.
KEY POINTS:
1. WIMPY, WIMPY, WIMPY. Christians who emphasize "love" have been dismissed as liberal, wishy-washy, Kum ba yah wimps without the guts to stand up against evil. Really? You think love is easy? Loving like Jesus is easy? We call soldiers and police heroic for putting their life on the line for others. They make the ultimate sacrifice. Jesus paid for his life of love by making the ultimate sacrifice. Is that wimpy? Standing for love is by its nature standing against evil. Jesus' love put him face to face against the demons of his day, pompous politicians, and arrogant religious leaders addicted to power, and individuals tormented by demons.
2. ACTION, not words. St. James wrote, "Faith without works is dead". John writes, in effect, loving words without loving acts is dead (1 John 3:17-18). Put together, our faith in a loving God needs to motivate us to love in action. I'm writing on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Christianity and churches of his day had been filled with all the nice words of the Bible. But when Christians mistreated or ignored other people because of their color those nice words rang hollow. St. John was looking for a church that would live its love in ways that are obvious, practical, and helpful. How does your Christian love manifest itself? How can you make your Christian love more apparent on a daily basis?
3. PERIOD. "God is love" (1 John 4:16) is as close to a drop-dead, end of discussion, nothing more to say period as you can get. The word "is" is part of to be, it is telling the nature, the essence, the being of something. If God IS Love, that is the essence, the "absolute essential" of God. If that is God's essence, and we claim to be God's children, God's followers, God's worshippers, then how essential must love be for us? There is a popular Christian folk hymn, "They'll Know we are Christians by our Love" which is based on a compliment that others paid to the first Christians - they were known for their love in action. It jump started Christians in the first days after Pentecost. It became the mark of a Christian life. It is the empowering force behind all Christ-like efforts, from mission to evangelism. Done with love people appreciate the fullness of Christian faith. Done without love we drive people away. God is love. Period.
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