“The litmus test”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, May 21, 2024
1 John 4: 7-21(Forward, p. 23) CEV p. 1288
As many of you will know, I’m quite a fan of ‘who-dunnits’, murder mysteries and the like, and especially appreciate those sleuths who use keen observation skills and precise forensic testing to ferret out important clues. That is why Sherlock Holmes, with his newly devised test for the presence of blood on a stained garment, or Sister Boniface’s lab tests, litmus and other chemical tests to isolate what chemicals are present in a specimen, rate high on my approval rating. Often these various tests turn out to be crucial, instrumental, to the solving of the case.
The apostle John suggests a different kind of test, a kind of litmus test you might say, to determine whether we really love God or not. It is whether we love each other. This test will demonstrate several things about us:
It shows that we have been given new life (verse 7).
It shows that we truly do know God (verse 8).
It demonstrates that God lives in us, and that His love is truly in our
hearts (verse 12).
Not only are these things true of those who love others, but our loving others also has certain by-products, certain consequences:
If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God,
and He will stay one with us (verse 16).
We won’t be worried or fearful about the day of judgment, namely,
because we are no longer concerned about the prospect of
punishment (verse 18).
The bottom line is this: we love—God and others--because He, God, loved us first. And so we are merely reflecting that love, and reciprocating in kind. We are showing forth our gratitude and praise for the love we have known from God. And here John states an important principle: how can we say that we love God, whom we cannot see, if we cannot love those whom we can see? If we can indeed love that person standing in front of us it will prove whether we truly do love God or not (verse 20).
And what is all this talk about love about? It is loving as an act of the will, as a decision, as opposed to something stemming from the emotions. It is an act of deciding to will and want the best for that other person, and then acting in the best of our ability to make that happen. And we do that because we have experienced in God, in Christ Jesus, that same unselfish, self-giving, self-sacrificing, no strings attached love, and having experienced it firsthand, we want to reciprocate. It is a tough order, but, thankfully, God makes it possible. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (verse 20).
“Though I was raised in the church, like many young people, I took some time during my teenage years to figure out what I believed. Many of my friends were hostile toward more conservative expressions of Christianity, and I felt caught in the middle because I valued the Christian tradition that I’d inherited. One day, I decided to open my Bible and read it for myself, turning to 1 John. If I’d been exposed to this letter before, the words had not made an impression, but they did that day.
“In reading 1 John, I found a summation of my faith at a time when I struggled to articulate it: that loving God and loving people were intertwined and that we know the love of God through Jesus. I love God best by striving to love God’s creation, even those who make it difficult to love them.”
Moving Forward: “What scripture passages articulate your faith? Share them with us at #ForwardDaybyDay.”