"1The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
"2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. " (3 John 2: 1-2)
Most people now the Third Epistle of John for the promise provided to us in the second verse.
When I read over the first two verses of this lovey letter, I noticed that John the elder refers to Gaius not once but twice as "agapetos" or "beloved".
The mark of an elder in the Body of Christ includes their frequent reference to every member that he or she is "loved by God."
In the church today, the emphasis is too great on our love for God, rather than His love for us.
Because believers do not know how much God loves them -- loves them presently, incessantly, and eternally -- they have a hard time walking in faith, and they struggle to serve others.
We understand how much God loves us when we gain a growing understanding of all that Jesus Christ did for us at the Cross:
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)
In the second chapter of John's first epistle, the writer states the fullness of Jesus as our propitiation, or mercy seat:
"1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 1-2)
Even when we sin, Jesus is our Advocate, our High Priest at the right Hand of God the Father, ministering on our behalf. When Jesus died on the Cross, though, He did not just die for the sins of those who believe on Him, but for all the sins of the whole world:
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5: 8)
However, God's love for us does not stop at a mere recognition that Jesus died for our sins. Paul prayed the following for the Ephesian Christians, and by extension all of us who believe on Jesus:
"16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3: 16-19)
Peter invites us to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3: 18), and Paul demonstrates how this love of God took us from dead to living by His faith in us:
"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2: 20-21)
Jesus loved us, and He gave Himself for everyone of us.
This alone should captivate us forever, such a great love:
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4: 11)
Yet this love does not stop with His death and propitiation for our sins:
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4: 16)
God's very nature is love, this never-ending, self-sacrificing which takes us from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places in Christ.
In fact, we receive the spirit of adoption (Romans 8: 15), and in Christ we become sons of God, too:
"1Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John 3:1-3)
This love has done more than just remove our sins, and grant us justification in the eyes of God, but now we are in Christ:
"17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)
A more precise translation offers the following:
"This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus." (NIV)
This perfected love, one based on a greater understanding of all that we are, have, and do in Christ, casts out every fear in our lives (1 John 4: 18)
This is what an elder in the Body of Christ is all about -- reminding us and teaching us more and more about how much God loves us, how beloved we are in Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment