Love is Visible in our Lives I John 3:11-18

 I John 3:11-18   Love is Visible in our Lives  

"It’s not always your business to pay attention to every controversy or news story. We’re not called to always be in this state of anxiety and to be all worked up. If I’m constantly reading my phone or watching YouTube or whatever I’m missing the real world, I’m missing what is actually out there, and I am being that distracted, I’m not focusing on what the actual call of my life is. If you’re all in a frenzy, you can’t shoot straight. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled,” and I take that seriously. If the news is troubling you in this unproductive way, turn it off!"  from the article below I found.

"Just another day in the life of a cowboy priest" by Nathan Beacom , Plough Articles for the week … article I came across on Friday when I sum up the thoughts for the week on the text.

 "Father Bryce was born and bred in Wyoming in a reasonably religious home, but priesthood was not on his radar. He wasn’t too much for school, either, preferring to be outside and working with his hands. This led him to Helena, Montana, after high school, where he worked for his uncle driving a tow truck, repairing trailers. He remembered that first Sunday waking up thinking, “I guess it’s up to me whether I want to go to church or not.” He barely got that thought through his head when his uncle beat on the door and said “let’s go.” From that Sunday on he never stopped going to Mass, even when he was all alone. This proved to be decisive, though the journey forward would not be simple."

---John is repeating what he said in I John 2:7-11 Again he repeats that this is not a new commandment, but a message you have heard from the beginning.  ( He slipped it on 10b from last week too as you may have noted)

How has your journey been to God's way of love and discipline?  A real journey is probably much like working with your hands. We get our hands dirty when we love.  I don't mean in the moral evil sense but in the sense of knowing people like you and I struggle, and if we are honest we go" three steps forward and 1 step back", as Chuck Swindoll said in his book. 

But John speaks to us apostolically, in other words, this is not a suggestion, " we should love one another". 3:11

This is that kind of love that is agape, or sacrificial, not just friends or fleshly love.  This is the kind of love that we do not choose.

---not as Cain  3:12 , not as the world 3:13-14

What was Cain's problem back in Genesis? He was jealous basically that God accepted his brother Abel's sacrifice ( of the flock) and not his ( fruit of the ground) Hebrews 11:4 says that Abel offered his sacrifice by faith.  Abel obeyed God , and Cain was willfully disobedient, Jude 11.

--- not as the world hates. 1 John 3:13 .  The world hates you.  Surprise, surprise, suprise.  You cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God.  

" It is better to walk alone than with a crowd going in the wrong direction" Herman Su

We are born of God, vs. 9, so we cannot hate our brother. v 15 ( present tense) You and I are then like the murderer.  Mt 5:22 Anger, treating others poorly, having a bad outlook on them, calling them a fool, etc......We shall then be guilty..

Do then not love as the world does.  The world hates.  Jn 15:18 , " I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."  The world shows its true spiritual condition by this hatred.

Because we love ( present) the brothers , 3:14 " We have lit crossed over (perfect tense) from death to life . Jn 5:24

---the sign of the reality of Christian faith is love.  Gal 5:6,22; I Cor 13:2,8.13

( in other words getting our own way is not always God's way in our lives. Our way is not God's way. Not my will, but Thine be done we pray as our Lord prayed in the garden before the betrayal and persecution)

2.  What is love?  v. 16 tells us " We know as a fact love by this because He Himself laid down ( not so much laying down as the laying aside of something, His kingly rights...)  Love is self-sacrifice .

   a.  Love in deed.  v 17 paints the picture  --Give to those in need , whoever has this world's possessions, and sees his brother in need.

   b. Love in truth.  not only in word or tongue, but mean what you and I say.

The story of the pastor/priest in MOntana comes back to me in conclusion:"When he first heard the call, Father Bryce put away his boots. We have to be ready to sacrifice, and sacrifice radically, for the sake of a higher good. But sometimes we make the mistake of equating holiness with hurt. Yes, growing has its pains, but holiness should also bring us joy, and it should mean becoming ourselves. “How do I define holiness? Holiness is being fully the man or woman God has created you to be. Holiness looks like asking God what he desires and hearing back ‘I desire what you desire.’ That doesn’t mean anything you happen to want is the right thing; you have to be sure that your desires are in line with the truth. If you do that, then holiness can be driven from within. It’s not God sitting up there just commanding things, but it’s the Spirit moving within the desires of our hearts.”

“We think God’s will for our lives can’t be what we actually want,” Father Bryce says, but just as our desire for something does not necessarily mean it is good, it also doesn’t necessarily mean it is selfish or bad. God wants to work with our desires, our talents, our passions, our interests, to find what is good in them and to elevate them. This, he says, is particular to who we are. That’s why God calls us by our own name. “There already was a Mother Teresa, you have to be your own saint!”"