This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. – 1 John 3:16

Today's Scripture Reading (July 7, 2024): 1 John 3

Some people who have nothing better to do than to argue about the Bible, which probably includes me, have argued that two different Johns wrote the Gospel of John and 1 John. The idea is that the Gospel of John is written by the disciple Jesus loved, John the Apostle or Disciple, but the letters we have as 1, 2, and 3 John were written by a different John, one we like to call John the Evangelist.

I am not sure that any of it matters, but if I look at the central theme of John and the main theme of the letters of John, I am not convinced of these two different Johns. Deep down, I must admit that I think the Gospel of John, the Letters of John, and even the apocalyptic Revelation of John were all written by the same hand. So, John 3:16, maybe the most famous verse in the Bible and a verse that many people have at least heard and a lot have memorized, says this; "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16). God loved the world because God saw value in the world; he recognized the value in us, the value he placed in you and me. And let's be honest; there are days when we don't see that value in ourselves. And there are even days when you likely don't see value in me, although some of you might never admit it, at least not to my face. Because God saw value in you and God saw value in me, he sent his Son to die in our place. He took the burden of our sin on himself, sin that we had committed and should have had to carry, all so that we could live. Listen to what happens when we combine the familiar John 3:16 with 1 John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16).

What God started in us is brought to completion as we become more like him. We become "Jesus with skin on" to the people we meet. He sacrificed himself for the good of the world, not so that we can be arrogant, hard to get along with, judgmental, and bitter; he sacrificed his life so that we can be saved and will sacrifice ourselves so that others can be saved. And I get that we don't like that. We don't want there to be this expectation of sacrifice on our lives. But as Jesus begins to make us holy, we are changed, and sacrifice becomes part of the expected plan.

But our reality is that it was never ours anyway. Everything I have belongs to God; at best, what I have passes through my hands. My life bears his image. Oh, I make money, but it doesn't stay with me. I use this money to pay the food bill, the mortgage, and the utilities. I give some of it to the church and support other charities. The money I make passes through me. And the things that I buy slowly degrade. My house is slowly turning to dust. My computer continually needs to be replaced. I remember my first computer; it was a Commodore 128 (the 128 stands for the amount of RAM it had – 128 kb.) My second machine was an IBM desktop. I remember sitting in the shop ordering the computer. The one the salesman was trying to sell me had a 25 Mb hard drive, but I insisted I needed a 40 Mb hard drive. The salesman thought I was crazy, but I don't use anything that that machine could run today.

Oh, I have a few old things. The guitar I play, which is named Baby, is a 1965 limited edition Fender. There were 100 made, and to my knowledge, only three are left in working condition, including one owned by Bob Dylan. My mid-life crisis car is a 1984 Ford Mustang Convertible with a 5.0-liter engine, but all of these things are beginning to show their age. Nothing I have really belongs to me; it just passes through my hands.

Even my life. I was talking with a good friend this week about retirement. And the line that people my age often say is something like "I am not going to retire" or "I can't afford to retire." But the reality is that I am less sure of that now than I was five years ago. I am not quite as energetic as I used to be. I am not ready for retirement yet, but I can sense retirement in the future. Who knows how I will feel in another five or ten years?

Life passes through me because it was never mine. It has always been his. The reality is that this life I have been asked to lay down for my brothers and sisters was never mine in the first place. It has always been his. We have always been his, which is just the logical extension of John 3:16.

Jesus told his disciples this;

The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:24-28).

Or maybe do not fear sacrificing what you cannot keep, to keep what you cannot lose.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 John 4