Lectionary Reflection — 29 April 2018, Fifth Sunday of Easter
7-10 My beloved friends, let’s continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love — so you can’t know God if you don’t love. This is how God showed love for us: God sent the Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we’re talking about — not that we once upon a time loved God, but that God loved us and sent the Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and God’s love becomes complete in us — perfect love!
13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in God, and God in us: we’ve been given life from God’s life, from God’s very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day — our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life — fear of death, fear of judgment — is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love — love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. God loved us first.
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating one’s brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, such a person is a liar. If someone won’t love the person that can be seen, how can someone love the God that can’t be seen? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
Other readings:
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What do we think of when we think of love?
Do we think of moonlit nights and walks on the beach holding hands with one’s significant other? Do we think of newborn babes? Do we think of puppies nursing from their mommies? Do we think of a field of wildflowers next to the mountains and a beautiful stream?
What do we think of when we think of love?
Do we think of holding hands with our significant others when their time gets small? Do we think about our dear fur-babies as they close their eyes as we gently release them into their next adventure in the Otherworld?
I’m sure we could all list other images and stories when we think of love. But I can just bet if we were asked this question outside of this context not very many of us — or any one of us — would have said, “God.” Why is that?
John has clearly stated that, “God is love.” Not, “One of God’s attributes is love.” But that God’s very essence — the “thing” that makes God god is “love.”
Now, certainly, there are other things that the Bible says God is:
And the list goes on and on and on.
There’s a difference, however, between attribute and essence. The word attribute means, “a quality or feature regarded as a characteristic or inherent part of someone or something.” In other words, an attribute is only one part of many that makes up a person or thing.
The word essence, on the other hand, means, “the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, that determines its character.” In other words, whereas an attribute is only one part of a thing, essence is the thing itself; the deepest part of a thing from which all other things — attributes — flow.
Think of it like a faceted diamond. Attributes are like the facets of the diamond. There are several different facets and they all emphasise different aspects of the diamond. The essence of the diamond is, well, the diamond!
It’s the same with God. While the Bible states that God is “holy” (Leviticus 11.44; 1 Peter 1.16) and “jealous” (Exodus 20.5; Joshua 24.19), these should be perceived as attributes and not be confused with God’s essence.
No. Saint John tells us that, “God is love.” That’s God’s essence. Every attribute or action or statement from God flows out of God’s love. Think of God’s attributes as the fruits that grow out of the soil (essence) of love.
It’s Love, the very essence of God, that we all can participate in. In fact, Saint John stated, “everyone who loves is born from God and knows God” (verse 7; CEB2). Please note that. John wrote, “Everyone who loves is born from God and knows God.”
Everyone.
Even the pagan?
Everyone.
Even the Muslim?
Everyone.
Even Republicans?
Everyone.
Even Social Democrats?
Everyone.
Even <fill in the blank>?
Yes. Even them. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Sometimes, when we read that last bit, we always add, “yeah, but…” However, John doesn’t give us any “outs.” He wrote everyone and I think that’s just who he meant.
But, there is a caveat to John’s statement here. He’s not talking about any type of “love.” He has a specific type in mind. He says, “This is the kind of love we’re talking about — not that we once upon a time loved God, but that God loved us and sent the Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.” In other words, just as we saw last week, the “love” John’s referring to is self-sacrificial love. It’s that type of love that comes from God. And everyone who loves in that way is “born of God and knows God.” Even everyone listed above.
And it’s that type of love — self-sacrificial love — that we should extend to all others, human and non-human alike. As John wrote, “Loving God includes loving people.” One can’t say one loves God while hating people who look differently from oneself. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
One can’t say one loves God while rejecting other people who have a different sexual preference than oneself. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
One can’t say one loves God while despising other people who have a different religious tradition from oneself. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
One can’t say one loves God while rejecting refugees from entering their country. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
One can’t say one loves God while constantly being at war with other nations. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
One can’t say one loves God while destroying God’s good creation. That’s not self-sacrificial love.
Let’s be clear and not kid ourselves: John said that people who don’t love self-sacrificially “don’t know the first thing about God,” nor do they know God (verse 8).
It’s only through self-sacrificial love that others will know that we’re followers of The Way of Jesus. Because that’s the very essence of God. And it’s that essence that all of us must long for and strive for. For in that essence is the very Life of the Age.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
2. Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
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