The Perspective of the Light ...

Friday, June 3, 2016. In the first letter of John he talks about living in the light. The letter is an amazing piece of text, deep and encouraging, but also challenging. He is addressing central points of Christian faith … Let us read first:

Love and Hatred …

7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (1 John 2, 7-12)

The points which John raises are quite important. They touch typical human behavior. We tend to think we are right. We tend to think we are on a good path. And we tend to ignore or hate people who come into our way, in whatever way that might be.

He touches a key nerve of every human - the relationship to our human brothers and sisters. Here, brother might refer to brothers in faith, to the community, to the people of Israel or even to the whole human race. I think that John talks specifically about Christians, but that we can well understand him talking about every human on the planet, since they are all our human brothers and sisters.

A Perspective of Love …

The perspective of faith is love and mercy. It is also clear insight into our human nature. But insight without love and mercy will become hatred and fury. We need God's mercy. We need to understand it, and to let it become our driving force. God's mercy and love want to become the way we live, the way we treat others.

It is a matter of clarity to see: when we do not love, when mercy is not driving our heart and our mind, we live in darkness. We live disconnected from the Lord. We live without the Holy Spirit speaking to us. Love includes truth, but it is more than truth, a flame of the Lord.

I love this last sentence of the above passage. John puts his fingers into the wound, but he also come with the medicine right away. We are forgiven! The power of the cross is our medicine when it come to the darkness in our own heart. We are allowed to see the darkness in us. We are even called to see it, to let it become light in his power and in his mercy! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts