God Is Love: A Study of the Letters of John

Starting on January 7th, the Tuesday Morning Bible Study will begin to read and discuss 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.  All are welcome to join at 9:15am at Winter Park Presbyterian Church!

“God is love” declares the author of 1st John.  That is quite a claim, and yet it is a claim wholly reflected in the life of Jesus.  It is a claim wholly reflected in the event of the incarnation – that God so loved the world that Christ, Emmanuel, became flesh and dwelt among us.  It is a claim reflected in every broken person healed, every hungry person fed, every outcast person invited back in, every person loved in ways real and profound by Jesus.

“God is love” is a challenged echoed as Jesus says in the gospel of John, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35, NRSV).   That new commandment is repeated throughout the letter.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.  (1 John 4:16b, NRSV)

“God is love” calls us into new relationship with each other.  We, who are created and sought by a God who is love, cannot (or at least should not!) respond by hating our sisters and brothers, whoever and wherever they are.

Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 4:20-21, NRSV).

God is love.   Our relationship with our sisters and brothers and our relationship with God are fully and completely intertwined.  We cannot nurture one without nurturing the other.  That is both good news and a real challenge!  How shall we live, then?

In the next weeks, we will read, listen, and pray as we hear the words of the letters of John to the church.  All are welcome!

Grace and Peace!

Emile